Tough times

Hans-Peter Wiechers was a court reporter for the "Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung" and a columnist. He has produced numerous documentary films as a director and screenwriter and published the book "Harte Zeiten. Menschen in Hannover 1930-1933" (2016) about the photographer Walter Ballhause. He has also published there: "Leben ist schon schwer genug" (2005), "Mal langsam" (2008), "Alte Schwächen" (2009) and "Der Mordverdacht" (2018). Born into poor circumstances in Hamelin in 1911, Walter Ballhause became active in the labour movement as a teenager. He also developed a passion for photography at an early age, the technical side of which he learnt about during his apprenticeship in the metallographic laboratory of the Hanomag company in Hanover. It was in Hanover between 1930 and 1933 that Ballhaus produced his main photographic work: he documented the misery and poverty of the city during the transition from the Weimar Republic to National Socialism in concise, unembellished images. In the years that followed, he was constantly under observation by the Gestapo and was even arrested twice for "left-wing activities", first in Hanover and then in Straßberg near Plauen, where he had lived since 1941. After his liberation by the Americans in 1945, he was initially appointed provisional mayor of Straßberg. In 1954, he moved to Plauen with his wife and son, where he lived until his death in 1991. His photographs, which survived numerous house searches by the Gestapo, were rediscovered half a century after they were taken and brought their creator his first belated recognition: in 1988, Ballhause was accepted into the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR and was able to exhibit his pictures in New York, among other places. He published "Harte Zeiten" (2016) with zu Klampen. Hans-Peter Wiechers was a court reporter for the "Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung" and a columnist. He has produced numerous documentary films as a director and screenwriter and published the book "Harte Zeiten. Menschen in Hannover 1930-1933" (2016) about the photographer Walter Ballhause. He has also published there: "Leben ist schon schwer genug" (2005), "Mal langsam" (2008), "Alte Schwächen" (2009) and "Der Mordverdacht" (2018).