The jury explained its decision as follows: “In his project “Fulda Gap”, Len David Oswald addresses a largely unknown Cold War scenario. The Fulda region, located directly on the former inner-German border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), marked the westernmost point of the Eastern Bloc and was therefore considered a potential invasion route for the Warsaw Pact into Western Europe. In the event of an escalation, NATO planned to use nuclear weapons on its own territory to stop enemy troops advancing. Oswald, who has many fond childhood memories of the region from visits to his grandmother and idyllic holidays, uses his camera to explore how this unimaginable threat is still inscribed in the landscape more than 40 years later. He undertakes a 160-kilometre hike from Frankfurt to Fulda and on to the former border, photographing deserted places and forests, always on the lookout for traces of the military presence from that time. The jury was impressed by the powerful imagery, which conveys a diffuse feeling of unease. The well-thought-out concept is particularly noteworthy, as it has both a personal and a historical dimension and seems frighteningly relevant in light of current geopolitical tensions. In addition, the project impressively illuminates how society has come to terms with this threat: the inclusion of the 1970s board game “Fulda Gap” shows how threat scenarios were dealt with in a playful way, too.”
