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Richard Schött
Geschleift – Personal Project – 2024

With his project Geschleift, Richard Schött explores the erased sites along the former inner-German border. These places tell stories of loss, escape, and powerlessness in the face of an authoritarian state. Beginning in 1952, more than 12,000 people were forcibly relocated by the SED regime. Their homes were often demolished within hours, as the Stasi deemed them to be living too close to the border.

After reunification, the border lost its function, yet the scars in both landscape and society remain. Geschleift documents fifteen of these locations in the tri-border region of Thuringia, Bavaria, and Hesse—representative of more than fifty sites in Thuringia and over one hundred across Germany.

Through photography, the project reveals traces that today are often visible only to those who actively search for them. It contributes to remembrance and awareness of a chapter in East German history that remains unfamiliar to many.

The entire project was shot on film. An exhibition was held at Kiosk.6 in Weimar/Germany.