German American Conference

In 1981, Harf Zimmermann moved into a fifth-floor walkup apartment on Hufelandstrasse, a cobblestone street in East Berlin. The neighborhood was an anomaly in the increasingly drab Soviet-administered city. Buildings boasted proud facades and balconies, linden trees lined the broad sidewalks, and an unusual number of privately-owned shops remained in business.Feeling like the "final witness" to something that would soon be gone forever, Zimmermann went out onto the street with a large-format view camera, wandering up and down Hufelandstrasse, capturing the faces and facades of the neighborhood.After a small exhibition in 1989, Zimmermann’s photos were hidden away in a box for more than two decades. After the photos have now been published in a book earlier this year, an exhibition will take place at this year’s conference.