Lot 222 D

"Africa in the year 1960 was a puzzle, a secret. Within twelve months France, England and Belgium released 17 colonies south of the Sahara into their independence. Every month a republic was born somewhere, and more often than not these births hours were dramatic and painful. Nobody knew how the newcomers would develop. For a young journalist like me this suddenly so self-conscious continent offered an ideal field for reports. Together with the 'Kristall' Reporter Henno Lohmeyer I passed through Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Rhodesia, Nyassaland (the later Malawi), Belgian-Congo, and South Africa from March to June 1960. On 30 June our journey ended in Leopoldville , today called Kinshasa, where the Belgian Kings was granting independence to the Congo. The majestic limousine had hardly passed us during the parade of independence, when a young black man rushed up to the car, grabbed by the kingly sword as fast as lightning and ran away - directly towards my camera! This is how a snapshot full of symbolic force was taken. The rapier thief is until today my most frequently printed picture and my identity picture, almost like a trademark" (cf. Robert Lebeck, in: Tete Böttger (ed.), Robert Lebeck. Vis-à-vis, Göttingen 1999, p. 49).