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Just before the last day of school on June 1st, teachers decorate the room for a ninth grade farewell ceremony;
the balloons bear the colors of Moldova, which these days are also reminiscent of neighboring Ukraine
Photo:
Andrea Diefenbach
If you took a boat into the Danube in Ulm or Passau and just kept going, you might end up in Giurgiulești at some point.
If you then want to go ashore in the southernmost place in the Republic of Moldova, formerly Moldova, you should hurry: Europe's second longest river flows just less than 600 meters past the country.
Shortly thereafter, it flows into the Danube Delta and loses itself in the rest of the world via the Black Sea.
The small country hangs on this great river as if by a thin thread, and like the course of the river, the people here lose themselves again and again.
At least one million Moldovans are said to have emigrated in the past few decades, but only 2.5 million people still live in the country itself.
There, the state is known as "the poorest country in Europe" or, right now, as a potential deployment area for the Russian army.
Moldova has been fighting for the breakaway province of Transnistria, where Russian soldiers are still stationed, for 30 years.
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In the "Realitatea" column, a major Moldovan newspaper regularly discusses the country's pressing problems. This is about a banking scandal.
The photographer, in turn, used the paper to wrap local flowers.
Photo: Andrea Diefenbach
Despite such conflicts, many people hope for a better future.
This week, Moldova became a candidate for EU membership together with Ukraine in a fast-track procedure.
War and peace, past and future, hope and despair - everything seems glued together here, almost as if history were holding the whole country in a jar of honey.
When the photographer Andrea Diefenbach first visited Moldova 15 years ago, she had no idea how often she would return here.
She first came to photograph a short report about trafficking in women.
And finally returned several times to understand the country behind such clichés.
Since then, Diefenbach has received numerous awards for her book about children left behind, and she has long been one of the best-known photographers in Germany.
To this day, her pictures from Moldova are shown in international exhibitions.
Now a new book tells what has happened since then.
For eight years, the photographer traveled to Moldova again, at least once a year.
"At times it seemed to me that the country was simply crumbling," says Andrea Diefenbach in a long conversation about her impressions.
»In many places it is evident that the young people who emigrated from the past have never returned.
On the other hand, many new things are emerging today.
Until a few months ago, I had the feeling that new hope was germinating here.
I was sure that the country had found its way«.
Moldova has now become a pawn again.
A bloody war is raging right in neighboring Ukraine, and the aggressor Russia doesn't even bother to hide the fact that, if in doubt, it could absorb the small Republic of Moldova at any time and simply wipe it off the map.
In this emergency, the country is looking for a way to Europe under the young President Maia Sandu.
She is the first woman to lead the state.
Observers describe the Harvard graduate as confident, fearless and up to date.
This is one of the reasons why she prevailed over her predecessor and is a welcome guest in the West.
Because of them, too, the country became an EU accession candidate overnight.
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Andrea Diefenbach
Realitatea: about Moldova
Texts by: Martin Sieg and Andrei Avram
Publisher: Hartmann Projects Verlag
Number of pages: 184
Texts by: Martin Sieg and Andrei Avram
Publisher: Hartmann Projects Verlag
Number of pages: 184
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In the country's villages, there is still little sign of so much world politics.
Sometimes the fresh asphalt is the only sign that anything has changed here in the last few decades, says Andrea Diefenbach.
She deliberately only visited the provinces away from the capital for her photos.
»Realitatea«, reality, is the name of the book with the observations she made.
Based on the enlightening section of a Moldovan daily newspaper, the word is a reminder of the futility of many attributions to this country.
The new pictures also show old Soviet symbols, broken cars and yellowed wallpaper - but also women who take on responsibility in many places or work together.
Just a few decades ago, the then republic was known for its wine, almost nowhere else were so many young doctors trained.
If you look carefully, you can still find traces of it today.
In search of them, Andrea Diefenbach shows a country that is much more than a war and crisis area.
See how the people of Moldova, the latest EU accession candidate, are struggling for their history and future:
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