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visuals

A Crack in History

[person_by] Frank van der Stok

December 2019

A nearly forgotten figure with a curious course of life; Marinus van der Lubbe, the Dutch communist who in 1933 was sentenced to death by the Germans, as the alleged arsonist of the Reichstag in Berlin. When the Nazis used the arson to violently deal with a range of political opponents, it unleashed the irreversible advance of Hitler’s party, the NSDAP. Van der Lubbe died of decapitation on 10 January 1934. Does this photo, showing a cracked Van der Lubbe moments before the mock trial, not say a thousand times more than the spectacular view of the burning Reichstag?
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Frank van der Stok
Frank van der Stok (b. 1967) is a curator, editor, essayist and intermediary for artists and art institutions. He also works as an editor and producer of artists’ books.

studies

Part of Studies

Wikimedia CommonsPhotographer unknown1914

Wikimedia Commons, Photographer unknown, 1914

Frank van der Stok

Kill our Icons pleas for a rethinking of the iconic photos that are part of our collective memory. Kill our Icons proposes alternative images without apparent iconic value which indirectly tell more pregnant stories than the types of images calling for linear cause-and-effect explanation.  

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