August Sander
1936 (ca)
Expressway Built during the Third Reich, Neanderthal

Gelatin silver print
17.1 × 22.9 cm (6 3/4 × 9 in.)
 
J. Paul Getty Museum
© J. Paul Getty Trust, Object Number: 84.XM.152.146
 
(Curatorial description, 15 December 2021)
Around 1936 August Sander captured this sweeping vista of the newly completed Reichsautobahn near the Neanderthal, northeast of Cologne. A typed label attached to the print suggests that it may have been intended for use by a commercial picture agency. The photograph is virtually indistinguishable from other laudatory depictions of the German autobahn, hailing it as a great technological achievement, a grand, dominating gesture across the land.
 
This image once again raises the question of Sander's association with the National Socialist political regime, a regime from which he had very little, if anything, to expect. It is not known whether photographs such as this were made simply as a source of income or whether Sander created them on his own initiative, hoping to use them for his own artistic ends. Whatever its purpose, the picture radiates a political significance that can be reconciled with Sander's other work only with great difficulty. It may simply be one more piece of evidence that he collected in pursuit of the spirit of the time.
 
LL/116507