Die toten Vögel sind oben

Dead Birds Flying High

In her documentary film, director Sönje Storm traces the legacy of her great-grandfather, Jürgen Friedrich Mahrt (1882-1940), a farmer who trained as an aerial reconnaissance photographer during World War I. After returning home in 1919, he meticulously observed the changes in his immediate surroundings with his camera. He documented human encroachment on natural landscapes, the destruction of fragile ecosystems, and the decline of species. At the same time, he obsessively collected and prepared the animals of his time: his legacy includes 350 stuffed birds and 3,000 butterflies, mushrooms, and beetles; he hand-colored the objects and photographs. In 1928, he opened a private natural history museum in his farmhouse. From today's perspective, it is also clear that Mahrt captured some of the causes of our current climate problems.