A girl lying with history

The image A young girl lying on a statue of a blacksmith, Bismarck National Monument, Berlin, 1961 is reported as a photographic work by Floris M. Neusüss, a German photographer best known for his experimental and avant-garde approaches to the medium. Although detailed critical writings on this exact photograph are scarce, the title and context suggest several layers of meaning. The setting of the work is the historic Bismarck National Monument in Berlin, a monumental sculpture group originally erected to honor the 19th-century Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck and his role in German unification, designed in 1901 by Reinhold Begas and featuring allegorical figures tied to myth, power, and history.

Neusüss’s photograph appears to juxtapose a youthful, perhaps spontaneous act—a young girl reclining against part of this imperial monument—with the rigid symbolism of national memory and monumental sculpture. The Bismarck National Monument was laden with late-19th-century nationalist and historicist meanings; placing a girl’s relaxed, almost playful pose into that frame can be read as a subtle, humanizing counterpoint to the weight of official commemoration. Such an image resonates with Neusüss’s broader experimental practice, which often questioned the photographic medium itself and how bodies, shadows, and presence could interact with existing imagery and cultural objects.

Thus, this photograph sits at the intersection of urban public art, historical symbolism, and personal presence, potentially evoking themes about the relationship between individuals and collective memory, the interplay of past and present, and the democratization or re-appropriation of monumental space. While specific scholarly interpretation of this print isn’t widely published, the work reflects Neusüss’s engagement with photography beyond simple documentation—suggesting a visual inquiry into how people inhabit, reinterpret, or play with established historic forms.