WILLY-BRANDT-HAUS - BERLIN, GERMANY

2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant blew up after operators botched a safety test. An enormous explosion hurled the 3,000-ton roof along with radioactive nuclear fuel into the air. The core of the reactor melted. An invisible danger spread over vast regions of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia – in total seven million people were exposed to the fall-out. In commemoration of its 20th anniversary, the Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus e.V. in Berlin, Germany presents its 100th Exhibition, “Tschernobyl – Eine Katastrophe und ihre Konsequenzen/Chernobyl - A Catastrophe and its Consequences".

In a mind-boggling exhibit of more than 150 photographs, six internationally renowned photographers present their impressions of Chernobyl’s aftermath. Gerd Ludwig shows 30 photographs taken on assignment for National Geographic Magazine in the early 90s and in 2005 to document the lingering contamination, the progress of the clean up, and the lasting health consequences. He is joined by Paul Fusco (USA), Andreas Gefeller (Germany), Igor Kostin (Ukraine), and Rüdiger Lubricht (Germany). The exhibit runs from March 23 – May 21, 2006.

For more information about the Willy-Brandt-Haus: http://www.willy-brandt-haus.de