Julius Schien

Rechtes Land

Julius Schien (*1992) took a detour in his late 20s to study documentary photography at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, where he still lives and works today. In his photographic practice, he critically examines what it means to engage with Germany’s political legacy and the country’s ongoing far-right continuity in the 21st century.

In his long-term project Rechtes Land, Schien documents three decades of far-right violence in Germany, highlighting how deeply right-wing extremism remains embedded in society. Through large-format, depopulated photographs and accompanying texts, he tells the stories of more than 200 people who have fallen victim to far-right attacks since 1990.

The project creates a unique visual catalog of crime scenes, turning them into empty stages that come into focus. The goal is to document every location where people have lost their lives to far-right violence since 1990, establishing a comprehensive reference work of these tragedies and their sites. Schien’s work encourages viewers to confront right-wing extremism in their own communities. By presenting an unembellished documentation of the crime scenes, he contextualizes the banality of evil in seemingly inconspicuous places, exposing the everyday absurdity of far-right violence.

For the past three years, he has been researching and working on Rechtes Land. The project is supported by the Publikationsfonds der Stiftung Kulturwerk and received an Honorable Mention in the TruePicture Förderprogramm in 2023. It was part of the World Press Photo Exhibition 2024 in Oldenburg and was awarded Best Portfolio 2024 by the Freundeskreis des Hauses der Photographie der Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Schien is a participant in the Masterclass On Documentary Photography 2024/2025 at the PhMuseum in Bologna and will exhibit his work at the Journées photographiques de Bienne in Switzerland.

Complementary text to the photo

01_Rechtes-Land_1990-07-01_Erfurt_Heinz-Maedel_(C)Julius- Schien

01-07-1990 – ERFURT

On an evening walk in the city centre of Erfurt, Heinz Maedel encounters a group of right-wing extremist skinheads. Two women, both 18, break away from the group and attack Heinz out of the blue. When he tries to defend himself, they knock the 58-year-old to the ground and start kicking him. Heinz Maedel dies a few days later in hospital. To this day, he is not listed in any statistics. Nothing reminds of his fate, and there is little to no documentation.