© Lilly Schwartz 2015-2016 |
Efficiency, punctuality and an excessive need for rules are stereotypical characteristics of German identity. On the lookout for expressions of this “Germanness” I ventured to a small suburban town in the immediate vicinity of one of the centres of German carnival culture. What I found were unexpected resonances, surreal juxtapositions and a varied collection of strange behaviours which I present here in a combination of street photography and urban landscape. In this exploration the bleak boredom of suburban life meets one of its major escape mechanisms – a yearly excess of masquerade and alcohol that provides relief from the straightjacket of a culture obsessed with order and discipline.