MAXIMILIAN MANN PHOTOGRAPHY
SPIEGEL 01/2024 

Misunderstood and romanticised



Gerd Lesmann, master carpenter, at the new Germanic Longhouse. "This is something truly special, something you only do once in a lifetime." The Archaeological Open-Air Museum has a long history: it was opened in 1936 as the first Germanic open-air museum in the world. Oerlinghausen, December 7, 2023.
Karl Banghard, prehistorian and director of the Archaeological Open-Air Museum Oerlinghausen, on December 7, 2023, in Oerlinghausen. The image of the Germans as the "proto-Germans," wild warriors, is still prevalent, but this view is not entirely accurate.
The Hermann Monument in North Rhine-Westphalia, located in the southern Teutoburg Forest. Photographed on December 7, 2023. In 9 AD, the Germans under Arminius defeated the troops of the Roman general Varus. The battle was later mythologized, and many questions remain unanswered to this day.
The Externsteine in the Teutoburg Forest in winter on December 7, 2023. The Externsteine are considered by some to be Germany's Stonehenge, and many myths surround them. The Nazis quickly declared the site to be "Germanic."









They were war-loving metaphiles and, of course, the ancestors of the Germans - this image of the Germanic tribes persists. However, current research shows that the matter was far more complex.


Photo editing: Anke Wellnitz
Text: Guido Kleinhubbert



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