Brand Wand by Harf Zimmermann

Five large-format photographs depict firewalls as traces of destruction, reconstruction and social change. With BRAND WAND, the Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz is presenting a long-term project by the photographer and Akademie member Harf Zimmermann, on which he has been working since 1996. 

“The soaring, seemingly lifeless walls of the tenement blocks torn open by the bombing of the Second World War dominated German streetscapes of the 1950s. Firewalls, originally integrated into the building and serving as fire shields, now stood out sharply as outer walls. These tall brick walls often adjoin vast sites that remained vacant for long periods.

Since then, the term “firewall” (“Brandwand” in German) has taken on an additional meaning: it also refers to a wall that the fire once spared. As symbols of collapse, of a new beginning and also of failure, these walls bear the marks of Europe’s fate: bullet holes, bomb fragments, soot, the outlines of buildings long gone, makeshift repairs, advertisements and symbols of things that have long since disappeared.

Following the collapse of the GDR and in the wake of the property boom that has continued ever since, many old buildings have been refurbished. The firewalls are usually whitewashed. Taking a look behind them reveals an imprint of a building’s story – echoed like a negative form from the same cast.”