Accession Number
2012/2.74

Title
Battle in the Streets of Berlin

Artist(s)
Dmitri Baltermants

Artist Nationality
Russian (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1945

Medium & Support
gelatin silver print on paper

Dimensions
16 in x 20 in (40.64 cm x 50.8 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Agah, Class of 1989 (BBA)

Subject matter
In this photograph, the viewer takes up position behind a group of soldiers rushing out to meet an unseen threat on an abandoned, bombed out street in Berlin. Four soldiers scurry over piles of rubble, converging toward an antitank gun near the right-center of the image. The dark silhouette of a fifth soldier—his arm outstretched as if giving a signal—traces the right-hand edge of the photograph and provides a visual counterweight to the dark mass of the broken wall on the left. As with many of Baltermants’s scenes of war, the viewer here is placed just behind the action with the main combat just out of view. This image forms part of Baltermants’s larger project (as an official photographer to the Kremlin) which, spread across numerous portfolios, aimed to document scenes from the Soviet Union’s fight against Nazi Germany during World War II (1939-1945), known in the USSR as the Great Patriotic War.

Physical Description
This image shows a view behind a group of soldiers running out of a destroyed building toward a war-ravaged street. 

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
artillery
battles
destruction (process)
journalistic photography
rubble
ruins
soldiers
war photography