“Learning to look,” says Dieter Wieland, is something very important for journalists. Especially in the flood of images these days, the question arises: What do we actually see? The award-winning documentary filmmaker and pioneer of the journalistic fight for monument protection and the preservation of established cultural landscapes made this assessment on Wednesday evening in Munich when a prize bearing his name was awarded for the first time.
The State Association for Heritage Preservation, which is committed to the same goals, offered the Dieter Wieland Prize for Journalism in Monument Preservation for the first time and of course asked the namesake to do so. “I didn’t want to improve the world,” said Wieland, “but I wanted to show it.” And open your eyes. He undoubtedly succeeded; the majority of the audience identified themselves as Wieland fans.
The jury chose SZ author Hans scratch, who has also been observing the changes in Bavaria for many years, as a worthy winner. The growing gap between town and country is also a recurring theme of his. “Hans scratch is the personified counter-model,” said Rudolf Neumaier, the managing director of the regional association, in his laudatory speech. “It demands mutual understanding from those involved.” His great skill is that he can point out flaws without criticizing people.
Hans scratch also addressed Wieland with his thanks. “They were educative,” he said, “and showed how to do things better.” He wants to use the prize money to have some small monuments at home in Lower Bavaria renovated. Perhaps the Wolf Column near Neufraunhofen, which commemorates the girl who was killed by a wolf on her way home at night 300 years ago. Or the memorial stone that commemorates a double murder from 1890, for which a perpetrator was punished in Munich, but in Lower Bavaria a baker’s son was falsely suspected for 50 years because the news never made it to that point.
Uli Karg received funding awards from the Landshut newspaper and Ursula Klement from Bavarian Television.
The state association for local heritage wants to bring topics such as building culture and monument preservation back into people’s awareness, said managing director Neumaier. That’s why the price was thought up.