About the Work
Between 1965 and 1967, working not on commission but of his own accord, Tübke produced 11 paintings, 15 watercolours, and some 65 drawings and studies on Nazi injustice. At the centre of the complex series “The Life Memories of Doctor of Law Schulze” is a fictitious judge with the common name Schulze. This figure represents the Nazi judicial officers who continued practising their professions after the war’s end in Western and Eastern Germany alike. The cycle was inspired particularly by the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials.
Thematically, this series—Tübke’s most important contemporary-historical work—was in line with the GDR ideology concerning Western Germany. Yet it also echoed the critical all-German remembrance climate. As an ‘allegory of injustice’ (Tübke), it applied equally to the circumstances in the GDR—and was officially condemned as a result.
The highly precise and richly detailed pen-and-ink drawing depicts the arrival of deported Jews in Auschwitz. Even before leaving the railway ramp, they had to abandon their luggage and undergo inspection by doctors to determine their ‘fitness for work’. The elderly, the sick, women, and children were usually murdered in the gas chamber without further ado. Tübke drew them in a state of waiting. The standing woman at the front left boldly returns our gaze.
