Heroes of Freedom: Pio Rahner traces Hecker's path to democracy

Heroes of Freedom: Pio Rahner traces Hecker's path to democracy

The artistic assistant at the “Photography” professorship at the Bauhaus University Weimar, Pio Rahner, has dealt intensively with the historical route of the revolutionary Friedrich Hecker. Hecker, who set out from Constance with his followers in the spring of 1848, fought for democracy, human rights and a republican constitution. Rahner documented the route, which includes scenes of conflict and specific places of agitation, in an impressive artistic series of images.

The results of his research combine historical facts with contemporary image content and thus make a central chapter in German democratic history visually tangible. Rahner describes his interest in how these historical places present themselves today. Particularly noteworthy is photography's ability to make different layers of reality visible.

The photo artist book “Compose”

This fascinating project resulted in the photo artist book “Authorizing”, which was written by Marcel Saidov, another artistic employee of the “Typography and Type Design” professorship. The book has a length of 288 pages and is published by Textem Verlag in Hamburg. It relates Hellberg's photographs to the political demands of 1847, thereby connecting the past and present in an innovative way.

“Authorize” looks at the revolution of 1848 not just as a historical moment, but as a current impulse for freedom, the rule of law and democracy. The book will be presented on Monday, October 20, 2026, at 8 p.m. in the M BOOKS bookstore and gallery in Weimar. It is written in German, measures 240 × 320 cm, comes as a free-spine brochure in Japanese binding and costs 58 euros. The ISBN of the work is 978-3-86485-345-6. If you are interested, please contact Pio Rahner at post[at]piorahner.de.

Historical context

In the context of the revolution of 1848, which also took place in other parts of Europe, people demanded freedom, the rule of law and national unity. During this time, barricade fights were commonplace in cities like Berlin, which led to a high number of victims. From May 1848, members of the German National Assembly met in Frankfurt am Main to draft a new constitution for Germany. But the efforts to elect the Prussian king as emperor failed. The basic rights of the draft constitution were later to serve as a model for the Weimar Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany.

The uprisings and the hope offered ended for the time being in the late summer of 1849, when the revolution was crushed and the German Confederation was restored. The reactionary era began, and attempts to put democratic ideas into practice were largely suppressed. The developments during this time, including Hecker's withdrawal and the chaotic conditions within his troops, were a defining part of the failed uprising; a time of upheaval that had a lasting impact on German history, but also remained the source of many other struggles for civil rights.

Rahner's work invites us to reflect on these historical events and their impact on the current values ​​and principles of democracy. The photographs open a dialogue between the past and the present and provide a visual stimulus for examining the achievements and challenges of freedom that were fought for back then.