News from Berlin

News from Berlin – Will wars end if we manage to understand “the other”? Can art help avoid armed conflicts? This was namely the French banker Albert Kahn’s (1860-1940) attempt before the First World War who along with his colleagues travelled to remote continents: visited the Balkans, travelled through Turkey, reached the Pyramids, wandered into the Mongolian lowlands as well as Indian cities and countryside in order to take pictures of local cultures and show them to the European audience. By doing this he wished to trigger understanding in the European elite for yet unknown, foreign cultures, showing humanism in times of insecurity. Throughout 22 years, between 1909 and 1931 he collected 72.000 color photographs and 183.000 meters of film. Now a part of the collection is open for the Berlin audience at the Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall.

One might find his effort somewhat naive but as a committed pacifist and promoter of philanthropy, the French banker created a large-scale project in which he even gave scholarships to talented photographers to travel overseas and bring home images of far-away cultures and to demonstrate the everyday life of local populations. Through this he wanted to garner the attention of influential French personalities who frequently visited his film and photo salon to re-consider investing in a possible war. His goal was to create the broadest ethnological photo- and film project of its time under the name, “The archives of the planet”. In the original archive there are over hundred hours of film material and more than 72.000 color images from all over the world. He used the most modern technology of his time invented by the Lumière brothers that allowed the photos to be seen in almost real colors.

In the Kahn archives visitors can become familiar with life scenes of “the other” from so many spots of the globe, such as a Mongolian man sitting on his horse, bread merchants in Sarajevo - Bosnia or a Moroccan marksman - that was taken in 1913, which reflect incredible similarity to today’s photo technology. The book “The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn: Colour Photographs of a Lost Age” includes his project covering Western Europe, the Americas, the Balkans, the Far East, Indochina, the Middle East and Africa.

“The Archives of the Planet” was, however not his only re-conciliatory project. He likewise created the “Gardens of the World” on his French domain. The various garden styles including English, French and Japanese designs were to promote global peace and to demonstrate the co-existence of different traditions. Until the 1920s it was a popular meeting point of the European elite but after the economic crisis it was turned into a public park.

The 1929 Great Depression left millions unemployed along with destroying Kahn’s peace project. Becoming bankrupt also meant the end of his collection. Even though his peace mission unfortunately failed, today’s audience can still learn its lesson. Until today, his collection remained relatively unknown to the broader audience but this can now change as part of the Kahn collection can be visited within the exhibition “Die Welt um 1914” (“The World around 1914) at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin.

Kata Szabo

News from Berlin – Berlin Global