This volume examines the multi-faceted nature of German identity through the lens of myriad forms of visual representation from the Middle Ages to the present. A broad spectrum of visual culture is considered – from painting to sculpture, advertising to architecture, film to installation art – to offer new insights into the ‘German Question’.

How does the visual nature of spectacle destabilize the political, challenge aesthetic convention and celebrate cultural creativity? This interdisciplinary volume explores the concept of spectacle in the German context, including critical interventions into exhibitions, architecture, cinema and photography from the Baroque to the contemporary.

The – the double, twin, mirror image or alter ego of someone else – is a universal theme that has been prevalent in German culture since the Romantic period. This volume explores the phenomenon of the double in multiple aspects of German visual culture, from painting and classical ballet to film and photography.