Foil embossed linen flexback, clothbound,
21 x 25,5 cm, 148 pages,
2 foldouts,51 colour images, 53 archival illustrations,
Texts by Holger Fröhlich, Julia Lauter & Jan Engelke (English/German)
Second Edition
Edition of 350 copies
New edition with updated covers
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During and shortly after the end of the Second World War, thousands of so
called “Behelfsheime” (makeshift shelters) were built in and around the
destroyed cities of Germany. Many of them were built in the midst of allotment
gardens, as these areas had largely been spared from the bombing of the
Allies. Constructed of debris or simplest building materials, most of these
houses have undergone a continuous structural and spatial upgrade.The first
inhabitants and their descendants were provided with a lifelong right to stay,
but the time of these shelters is slowly coming to an end, as this form of living
is no longer tolerated: Space in Germany's big cities is becoming scarce. After
the death of the inhabitants, the houses are demolished or reconstructed to the
size of an allotment garden cabin.
The photo work deals with the inside and outside of the last remaining
Behelfsheime. It documents a type of house and its materiality that makes
postwar history visible, and it is the last possible documentation of a
provisional solution – which has survived to this day.