This weblog is not very legal-translation-based any more – just ruminations about topics, often German, of a retired translator.
The Goethe Institut in London recently presented a film about Hilla and Berndt Becher, by Marianne Kapfer. Made in 2012 but seemingly showed last autumn in Germany. I would like to see it again but can’t find it online (yet). From the Tate:
Who are Hilla and Berndt Becher?
Hilla Becher was a German artist born in 1931 in Siegen, Germany. She was one half of a photography duo with her husband Bernd Becher. For forty years, they photographed disappearing industrial architecture around Europe and North America.
They won the Erasmus Prize in 2002 and Hasselblad Award in 2004 for their work and roles as photography professors at the art academy Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
There is more than one film online but this is the one to see! You can see a trailer at Bernd und Hilla Becher Photographers , from which you might fear that 94 minutes would be too long, but far from it, the scenes are varied and the pacing calm and interesting, and there are interviews with the Bechers’ son and with some of the photographers who studied under them in Düsseldorf, such as Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Candida Höfer. In German with English subtitles.
I loved the part where they could be seen felling trees around a water tower – no Photoshop in those days.
Unfortunately it used to be possible in German law for a husband to forbid his wife from working (e.g. project in South America offered to Hilla) because it was her duty to be solely committed to the marriage. Or though Hilla had already taught in Hamburg, when a lecturer for Düsseldorf was sought, she was told “Wir wollen den Meister”. She seems to have been a positive person who made the best of her situation.
Rights of married women up to 1977 in Germany
Bis 1958 konnte ein Ehemann das Dienstverhältnis seiner Frau entscheiden – das heißt, es lag bei ihm, ob sie arbeiten durfte und wenn er seine Meinung ändern sollte, konnte er auch jederzeit das Arbeitsverhältnis seiner Frau kündigen. Auch das änderte sich mit dem Gleichberechtigungsgesetz von 1958. Aber: Noch bis 1977 durfte eine Frau in Westdeutschland nur dann berufstätig sein, wenn das „mit ihren Pflichten in Ehe und Familie vereinbar“ war. Aufgaben im Haushalt und in der Kindererziehung waren also klar der Frau zugeordnet.
Erst 1977 trat das erste Gesetz zur Reform des Ehe- und Familienrechts in Kraft. Demzufolge gab es keine gesetzlich vorgeschriebene Aufgabenteilung in der Ehe mehr.
I had forgotten all about this because it never applied to me!
Until March 28 2026 there is a small exhibition at Sprüth Magers in London. You need to be comfortable with stairs to manage both levels it appears.