Visual Representations of the 1924 Hitler-Ludendorff Trial in the Context of Law and Media
Online talk by Nicole Schraner as part of the seminar series Cultures of Legality in Weimar Germany
| Datum: | 20. November 2024 |
|---|---|
| Zeit: | 09.00 Uhr bis 10.00 Uhr |
| Ort: | Online via Zoom |
Research on the mystification of Adolf Hitler's persona has primarily focused on the strategic construction of his image in the period following 1933. Less attention has, however, been paid to the development of his image prior to his rise to power. This presentation investigates the role of court photography in the Weimar Republic and its effects on public perception, particularly through the lens of the Hitler-Ludendorff trial from 1924.
At this time, the new field of courtroom photography in Germany mainly aimed to make sensational trials visually accessible to the public. Concurrently, court photography imposed a significant loss of control over self-representation for the defendants. In political trials, this led to less control over how images were used for political purposes. Focusing on the example of the Hitler-Ludendorff Trial, this presentation aims to explore how courtroom photography and the visual documentation of trials shaped public perceptions of law, justice and of political figures at this historical moment.
Nicole Schraner read history, cultural studies and religious studies at the University of Lucerne. She successfully concluded her master’s degree in 2023 with a thesis on the history of the identification and tracking of suspects in Lucerne in the period from 1900 to the First World War. During her studies, Nicole worked as a student assistant at both the state and city archives of Lucerne, and as a student assistant to Prof. Nadir Weber on the SNSF-project ‘Republican Secrets. Silence, Memory, and Collective Rule in the Early Modern Period’. In September 2023, she took up her current role as PhD researcher on the project ‘Imagining Justice: Law, Politics and Popular Visual Culture in Weimar Germany’, working on a project on law and photography.
The seminar series is part of the project Imagining Justice: Law, Politics and Popular Visual Culture in Weimar Germany, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
