Home » EXHIBITIONS » Nomads of our time. Migrant sheep farms in Schleswig-Holstein

Nomads of our time

The Danewerk is the largest archaeological monument in Northern Europe and is one of the grazing areas of the itinerant shepherd John Kimmel, pictured here on the crown of the Danewerk with sheep and dogs west of Kurburg. — The Danewerk is the largest archaeological monument in Northern Europe and is one of the grazing areas of the itinerant shepherd John Kimmel, pictured here on the crown of the Danewerk near Kurburg. © Holger Rüdel

Holger Rüdel has had four for two years Migrant sheep farms in Schleswig-Holstein accompanied by the camera. The exhibition of these black and white images can be seen on tour from March 2023.

“Image report with haunting photographs”

Our idea of the “good shepherd” is drawn from image and text sources that are thousands of years old. This no longer has anything to do with today's living and working conditions. The European agricultural policy and its implementation in Germany mean that sheep farms have noticeably been living off their substance since 2005. Without agricultural subsidies, companies are largely in the red. Business succession is at risk.
Against this background, the well-known North German photographer and author Holger Rüdel accompanied four of the transhumance sheep farms still based in the north over a longer period of time. The result is a photo report that is unique in its scope and expressiveness, with which Holger Rüdel follows on from his large project “Time Turning” about the last fishermen on the Schlei. Like no other chronicler before, in “Nomads of Our Time” he followed these actors and their herds so closely and intensively as they moved through moors and heaths, through villages and along traffic routes. With its haunting photographs and explanatory texts, the exhibition tells of the daily challenges in the lives of these nomads of our time, the last wandering shepherds.
From the Exhibition brochure the Sparkasse Foundation Schleswig-Holstein

The exhibition is – as in “A turning point. The fishermen from Holm in Schleswig an der Schlei” – a project of Sparkasse Foundation Schleswig-Holstein.

Uta Wree, the wandering shepherdess from Sylt. Here she moves with her herd across the beach of the Braderuper Heide. © Holger Rüdel

“It is the first time that transhumance sheep farming is presented to the public in this way and to this extent,” writes Oliver Stolz, President of the Savings Banks and Giro Association for Schleswig-Holstein, in his foreword to the accompanying volume.

The focus of the show, which includes 75 large-format images, is the companies:

Sheep farm mowing work Bärenshöft, Hörup, Schleswig-Flensburg district
Fiordland sheep farm, Neuberend, Schleswig-Flensburg district
Transhumanz sheep farm, Krummenort, Rendsburg-Eckernförde district
Aukrug sheep farm, Rendsburg-Eckernförde district

A gallery with all motifs plus the option to order in fine art quality can be found here: Exhibition “Nomads of Our Time”

A herd of wandering shepherdess Birgit Voigtländer crosses the A7 motorway near Neumünster in Schleswig-Holstein. © Holger Rüdel

The exhibition tour

The exhibition can be seen at the following locations:

Schleswig, Gallery of the Nord-Ostsee Sparkasse, 31 March 2023 to 30 June 2023
Kiel, Gallery of the Sparkassenstiftung Schleswig-Holstein, August 1, 2023 to November 10, 2023
Rendsburg, Museums in the Arsenal, November 19, 2023 to January 28, 2024
Albersdorf, Stone Age Park Dithmarschen, 16 February 2024 to 16 June 2024
Flintbek, State Office for the Environment, 25 June 2024 to 30 August 2024
Neumünster, Museum Tuch + Technik, October 26, 2024 to January 26, 2025
Keitum on Sylt, Sylt Museum, February 13, 2025 to July 20, 2025
Galerie Erlebnis Bungsberg, 25 September to 14 December 2025
Wildeshausen, Prehistoric Centre, 4 March to 3 May 2026

Further dates are being planned.

Opening of the exhibition “Nomads of our time. Migrant sheep farms in Schleswig-Holstein” with photographs by Holger Rüdel in the Nord-Ostsee Sparkasse on March 30, 2023. © Holger Rüdel

The exhibition tour started on March 30, 2023 with a vernissage in the gallery of the Nord-Ostsee Sparkasse in Schleswig. In her introductory speech, the art historian and photography expert Dr. Dörte Beier about the photographer:

His photographic role models include the photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, founders of the legendary photo agency MAGNUM PHOTOS, and above all the photographer, photo reporter and environmental activist Sebastião Salgado, to name just a few. In his combative photography, the Brazilian spoke of the forgotten, the miserable and the marginalized, always giving them back the human dignity that they were in danger of losing. The work of the migrant sheep farms in Schleswig-Holstein is very different from the activities that Salgado describes in his book and cannot be compared with them. But Holger Rüdel would also like to use his humanistic photo reports to illustrate what people close to us are doing for our society with their hands today...
Holger Rüdel has excellent technical knowledge and an unerring aesthetic sense for the artistic use of light and shadow, sharpness and blur, and composition. But above all about an empathy for the people and animals he photographs. With his unmistakable visual language, he succeeded in creating an aesthetic monument to the remaining transhumance sheep farms in Schleswig-Holstein.
From the speech by Dr. Dörte Beier on 30 March 2023

The book for the exhibition

The accompanying volume to the exhibition (128 pages with 116 black and white photographs as well as contributions by Jochen Missfeldt and Andreas Schenk) was published by the Sparkassenstiftung Schleswig-Holstein and is available in Wachholtz Publishing appeared. The book design was in the hands of Michael Herald.

A section of the historic Ochsenweg runs in the Langenberg Forest south of Leck in the Nordfriesland district. This section is one of the most scenic grazing areas of the Kley transhumance sheep farm. Melanie Kley took over looking after the herd here. © Holger Rüdel

The Exhibition in Film

This film was produced by the Sölring Museums on the occasion of the exhibition presentation in Keitum on Sylt (exhibition in the Sylt Museum from February 13th to July 20th, 2025). The museums are supported by the Sölring Foriining e. V., the cultural and local history association of the island of Sylt, founded in 1906.