Observations in the countryside

Marie Goslich as image reporter at the borders of the metropolis Berlin

Abstract

Around 1900, Marie Goslich (1859–1938) was one of the earliest female photo reporters of her age. After 1905, she began to publish larger essays illustrated with her own photographs. Her publications were either descriptions of the social situation in the countryside near Berlin, helpful essays for Berlin housewives on new kitchen aids or female clothing in reform fashion. Thus, she can be considered as a part of the conservative feminism typical for the majority of the Berlin bourgeoisie under Emperor Wilhelm II. This includes her engagement in and the support by the Protestant church which becomes most evident in her work throughout World War I. Her subjects ranged from typical views of the urban spectator on rural practices like hay making, social reports on the situation of vagrant people to the introduction of modern communication media. With a strong emphasis on sports, nutrition, and health in general, her work represents the urban view on rural affairs. Marie Goslich’s photographs have to be recognised not only as very early representations of a female journalism but as photographs of their own quality in staging rural life at the borders of a big town. Marie Goslich could not cope with this quality in the 1920s, her life got lost in obscurity and ended in a Nazi mental hospital. Until 2005, her work has remained completely unknown.