OSTKREUZ – Agency of Photographers : Reframing East German Identity, Memory, and the Politics of Display

In the wake of German reunification, photography became a vital medium through which the meanings of ''East'' and ''West'' were negotiated. This book examines how East German identities and photographic practices persisted and transformed after 1989 through the work of Ostkreuz – Agency of Photographers. Founded in 1990 as a collective response to the upheaval of reunification, Ostkreuz carried forward GDR traditions of freelance photography, while adapting to the Western media market. Frequently commissioned by magazines such as Stern and Das Magazin, its photographers navigated enduring stereotypes that cast the East as “Other.” Through close analysis of photographs, exhibitions, and institutional developments, the author traces how Ostkreuz negotiated, mirrored, and subverted such expectations, revealing how an East German photographic ethos endured as both artistic commitment and cultural commodity in post-socialist Germany.

"Pfautsch''s book offers an engaging and much-needed analysis of the history and development of Ostkreuz. Her study provides fresh perspectives on the role of photography as a substitute public sphere, the concept of author photography, and the ''othering'' of the East. Most importantly, it writes Ostkreuz into German art history, challenging established hierarchies between East and West, and demonstrating the complexities of negotiating collective identities in post-unification Germany."
– Prof. Anna Saunders Chair of German, University of Liverpool