1987 Photo Contest, Humor, 1st prize
Photographer

Roland Holschneider

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

13 August, 1986

A photographer shows how he feels about the East German police during demonstrations at Checkpoint Charlie - a key crossing point between East and West - commemorating the 25th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Three years later, the wall came down. Roland Holschneider: 'When I arrived at Friedrichstrasse on 13 August 1986, demonstrators were taunting police at Checkpoint Charlie. The white line indicates the frontier between East and West. I took one step across the line, which would normally be dangerous, but the policemen were busy controlling the demonstrators. Then the man on the left kicked the policeman’s backside. My picture, symbolizing the crazy situation in Berlin, was widely published in Germany and abroad.' (World Press Photo retrospective Children's Jury exhibition, 2003)

About the photographer

Roland Holschneider

Roland Holschneider (Darmstadt, 1959) started working as a volunteer for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) in 1981 and was engaged as a staff photographer soon afterwards. In this ca...

This image is collected in