Seconds That Became History

Today, photographer and photojournalist Harald Schmitt shares with FotoTV viewers some of his most memorable stories of his assignment work in socialist countries as a photographer for Stern Magazine.

Schmitt was accredited as a photographer in the former DDR, German Democratic Republic. It was there that he developed a great interest in socialist countries, which not only limited him to the German Democratic Republic. His assignment work for Stern Magazine soon took him to Latvia, Lithuania, the former Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. One incident in particular, which Schmitt recalls in great detail, took place in Asia, China to be exact, at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Working as a photographer proved to be very difficult in the German Democratic Republic for Schmitt, as he had to endure a long process of bureaucracy to receive a permit to be able to travel away from home to photograph a story. Schmitt soon took matters into his own hands--even though he could face serious consequences-- and explains how he just drove off to any location in Germany he desired to complete a story without giving official notice of departure, something that the authorities required of every citizen. Schmitt explains, “Otherwise it would not have been possible for me to work as a photographer without the freedom to travel, just sitting and waiting for the authorization.”

Schmitt was present the night after the infamous student demonstration that purportedly left over one thousand people dead. After capturing just a few shots of the turmoil, he sent his wife away with the film he had taken so it would not be confiscated if he were detained and searched. Soon after his wife's departure, there was a total ban of photography issued on state radio, a message than ran continuously throughout the day. The ban lasted 3-4 days and if these orders were disobeyed, anyone photographing would be immediately arrested and locked up. Needless to say, Schmitt did not disobey the order and did not dare take a photograph since soldiers, spread out every 20 or 30 meters scrutinizing everything that was going on, occupied the whole city.

Schmitt was even present during the famous speech that Mikhail Gorbachev, then head of state of the former USSR gave in 1991. It was also that infamous moment that Boris Yeltsin publicly berated Gorbachev and took over power, and Schmitt documented those moments in time. It does not happen that often that one photographer can capture so many historical moments, but he did just that. Schmitt says he is fortunate to have magazines that are willing to report the stories happening around the world for all to see. Without that aspect there would be too many injustices and moments that would go unseen.