Bilder, die Geschichte schrieben

Why are pictures such an integral part of our collective memory?

In the 20th and 21st centuries we are completely surrounded by visual images. Pictures have forced their way into all segments of our everyday life. They have become a central factor in our economy and our advertising, in politics and in war, in the news and in securing public areas. They have long become both a political weapon and a commercial path to earning billions. The 20th century has often been called the “Image Century” or the “Visual Era.” From the overwhelming flood of images there are a few that have taken on the status of being „icons.“ In the modern media society they are called media icons – they are repeatedly quoted and restaged, easily jump borders and become global icons in a digital era. In the present volume well-known scientists look at 33 selected media icons of the 20th and budding 21st century, beginning with Kaiser Wilhlem II, to the photo of soldier shot in the Spanish Civil War, to images of the destruction of 9/11.

• Contributions by Günter Helmes
• Contributions by Martina Heßler
• Contributions by Paula Diehl
• Contributions by Thomas Hertfelder
• Contributions by Irme Schaber
• Contributions by Christoph Hamann
• Contributions by Jost Dülffer
• Contributions by Elisabeth Bronfen
• Contributions by Erhard Schütz
• Contributions by Stephan Lahrem
• Contributions by Sibylle Machat
• Contributions by Detlef Siegfried
• Contributions by Stephan Schwingeler
• Contributions by Elena Demke
• Contributions by Benjamin Drechsel
• Contributions by Godehard Janzing
• Contributions by Jan-Oliver Decker
• Contributions by Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky
• Contributions by Stephan Weichert
• Contributions by Martin Hellmold
• Contributions by Martin Kohlrausch
• Contributions by Otto Karl Werckmeister
• Contributions by Dorothée Henschel
• Contributions by Petra E. Dorsch-Jungsberger
• Contributions by Peter Jahn
• Contributions by Annette Dorgerloh
• Edited by Gerhard Paul