Edited with text by Martin Dammann. Text by Martin Prinzhorn.
A window into Nazi Germany’s culture of cross-dressing soldiers
In the course of his researches into war photography and the impact of images on how history is written, the German artist and collector Martin Dammann came across numerous amateur photographs of German soldiers dressed up as women. Dammann’s discoveries are now presented for the first time in Soldier Studies: Cross-Dressing in the Wehrmacht, with pictures that provide surprising insights into the everyday lives and desires of German soldiers in World War II—from playful scenes of young recruits clowning around, to improvised disguises among close friends at the front, to carefully prepared performances in Allied POW camps. Essays by Martin Dammann and the renowned sociologist and author Harald Welzer classify the photographs into various categories.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Soldier Studies.'
Featured image is reproduced from Soldier Studies: Cross-Dressing in the Wehrmacht,Hatje Cantz's strange and haunting new collection of vernacular photographs of German Nazi soldiers dressed as women. "Even if the majority of soldiers were heterosexual, we can see evidence of homo- and transsexual orientation with unusual clarity," Martin Dammann writes. "This is remarkable, given that, if there is one genuine taboo in German photo albums of World War II (in contrast to, say, American ones), then it is the explicit representation of sexuality. This is even more striking if one considers that in the Third Reich homosexuality could lead to imprisonment in a concentration camp. Above all, it is surprising how openly these men express their desires: even in photos which show a larger group of men watching a performer whom one might assume to have a homo- or transsexual orientation, it does not appear that the heterosexual men are keeping their distance. Without exception, all these men seem to be completely abandoned to the moment and to their own desires, in a unique state of bliss that makes itself evident in all the photos, no matter how different the situations in which they came about." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 7.25 x 10 in. / 128 pgs / 118 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $62 ISBN: 9783775744836 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 2/19/2019 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited with text by Martin Dammann. Text by Martin Prinzhorn.
A window into Nazi Germany’s culture of cross-dressing soldiers
In the course of his researches into war photography and the impact of images on how history is written, the German artist and collector Martin Dammann came across numerous amateur photographs of German soldiers dressed up as women. Dammann’s discoveries are now presented for the first time in Soldier Studies: Cross-Dressing in the Wehrmacht, with pictures that provide surprising insights into the everyday lives and desires of German soldiers in World War II—from playful scenes of young recruits clowning around, to improvised disguises among close friends at the front, to carefully prepared performances in Allied POW camps. Essays by Martin Dammann and the renowned sociologist and author Harald Welzer classify the photographs into various categories.
