Lothar Lange, a 69-year-old photographer from Baden-Württemberg, captured Dresden's dramatic transformation through thousands of images between 1990 and 1994, documenting the city's evolution from East German socialism to German reunification. Now living in a sparsely furnished apartment in Dresden's Prohlis district, Lange has become part of the very history he once photographed, preparing a new exhibition to commemorate the 35th anniversary of German Unity.
Lange's current living situation reflects his unconventional lifestyle - his mattress rests on stacked postal boxes, a table sits on similar makeshift supports, and his only real piece of furniture is a gifted brown leather couch. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with volumes from his former life as an antiquarian dominate the sparse apartment. "I haven't gotten around to decorating yet," he explains, though it's unclear what he actually intends to arrange in the minimalist space.
The West German native came from Schwäbisch Gmünd and describes a childhood marked by difficult experiences. "Even in the West, you could really step in it," he begins, though he prefers to spare the details of his troubled early years. After studying German literature and history - studies he abandoned - Lange built an alternative second-hand department store called "Gum" in Hannover. "The difference from the Gum in Moscow was that our shelves were full," he says with a hearty laugh, noting that even Der Spiegel magazine featured his thrift store in 1986.
Despite his business success, societal developments in the late 1980s motivated his life-changing decision. "When the Wall falls, I'm going East," he resolved. After several visits to Dresden, the city drew him like a magnet. When he asked at Café 100 in Neustadt where one could find accommodation, locals told him, "Wherever something is empty, you just move in, but don't hang up any squatter signs." This advice led him to his first residence near Neustadt train station.
From Hannover, Lange brought only his most important books, having started over from zero approximately 40 times in his life, usually moving from one alternative housing project to another. Recognizing his tendency to speak too loudly and appear unnecessarily aggressive, he sought a new outlet for expression and discovered photography. "I simply got on the streetcar, rode somewhere, got out, and walked back," he recalls of his exploratory method.
While tourists focused exclusively on the Semper Opera House and the Procession of Princes mural, Lange captured real life: the people, Trabant cars, first Western advertisements, crumbling facades, election posters, lines in front of stores, and the atmosphere of new beginnings. "I didn't want to be the thousandth West German explaining to East Germans that they had lived on the wrong side," he emphasized. Rather than preaching, he wanted to open his own eyes and witness a unique transformation firsthand.
Lange learned photography on the street rather than in formal training, which perhaps gave him such an unfiltered perspective on what he encountered. Between 1990 and 1994, he created tens of thousands of images, which he donated as slides to the city archive when he initially left Dresden to return to his family and four children in Hannover. Since the mid-1990s, he has continuously moved back and forth between these two centers of his life.
Currently residing in Dresden again, Lange admits, "I actually never wanted to move to Prohlis, but look at this view." Opening a glass door on the 15th floor, he reveals a panoramic vista that encompasses both his adopted city's history and present, overlooking a sea of prefabricated apartment blocks extending to the television tower. "When I saw this, I didn't need to think anymore about whether to take the apartment," he says.
Inside his colorful boxes, Lange preserves laminated A4 photos that he plans to present to the public for the 35th anniversary of German Unity on October 3rd. He's planning an exhibition at Jorge-Gomondai-Platz in Neustadt, where selected post-reunification photographs will be displayed on clotheslines. Additionally, he intends to bring his large screen to show images in continuous loop.
Lange's photographs were previously featured in a 2006 exhibition at the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) for Dresden's 800th birthday celebration and in the accompanying photo book "Mensch!" He intensively sought city funding to develop the exhibition further but ultimately found himself working alone. Recently, he attempted to display images of the Frauenkirche ruins during the city festival at Neumarkt, but security forces quickly and forcefully shut down his guerrilla action.
Despite such setbacks, Lange has successfully organized street exhibitions bypassing official channels, including displays during the Colorful Republic of Neustadt festival. For him, the greatest fulfillment comes from watching people rediscover parts of their own history in his photographs. His images have arrived exactly where they belong - with the people who lived through the transformation he so carefully documented.
