It will forever remain a mystery how this was possible: in physically and mentally devastated (West) Germany, which had just taken on an incredible amount of guilt for working out one of the best possible democratic constitutions in the world at record speed.

How extraordinary this achievement from 1948/49 was can be seen from the fact that – with insignificant exceptions – the entire political spectrum, from the extreme left to the staunchly conservative, bows down to the Basic Law in equal measure to this day.

That the work of the Parliamentary Council chaired by Konrad Adenauer (CDU) - the main committee was headed by Carlo Schmid (SPD);

Theodor Heuss (FDP) and Elisabeth Selbert (SPD) also played an important role – it was so successful primarily because the assembled pragmatists, among them hardly anyone with Nazi ties, brought a lot of experience with them and valuable preparatory work was done at the Herrenchiemsee constitutional convention was.

But it probably also has a lot to do with the constructive atmosphere of the deliberations in the (former) Pedagogical Academy in Bonn, characterized by structure, modernity and successful improvisation, a Bauhaus ensemble that was soon to be structurally expanded to become the “Bundeshaus” (Bundestag and Bundesrat). from 1933.

Nowhere else is this concentrated atmosphere so well captured and still to be experienced in all its immediacy as in the partly staged, partly spontaneous, but always unbiased and direct-looking photos by Erna Wagner-Hehmke, a Düsseldorf photographer specializing in industrial photography, who did all the consultations accompanied with the camera.

The reason for the continuous use, which was unusual at the time, seems almost comical: Hermann Wandersleb, head of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia, gave the participants souvenir albums to take home after the work was done.

The albums individually compiled by Wagner-Hehmke may have contributed to the success of Bonn's application as the new federal capital (on May 10, 1949) alongside the city's efforts to pamper the distinguished guests with board and lodging.

Wagner-Hehmke's new objective photographs were acquired in 1987 by the House of History Foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Now, more comprehensively than ever before, her recordings of everything to do with the Parliamentary Council are gathered in a wonderful, high-quality printed illustrated book that Helge Matthiesen has curated and supplemented with clever texts on the importance and day-to-day work of this body.

These include iconic shots, for example of Konrad Adenauer shortly before the election as President of the Council or of the signing of the Basic Law.

Above all, however, the many informal images should inspire enthusiasm: debates in small groups;

parties on hotel terraces;

late restaurant scenes;

Carlo Schmid stuck in traffic;

Adenauer in the beer garden.

Sometimes the pictures even look like successful snapshots,

Wagner-Hehmke paid particular attention to the influential mothers of the Basic Law, four women among 73 men, who succeeded in anchoring equal rights for men and women in what was intended as a provisional constitution.

They look at us modestly but resolutely in a joint portrait, quite differently from the men who often act triumphant in body language.

What is striking is the astonishing cheerfulness and joviality in many of the pictures, which at first glance do not seem to go with the seriousness of the situation and the severity of the discussions, but which may explain why the atmosphere was so cooperative.

You could obviously feel the euphoria of being part, even a pioneer, of a new era amidst the ruins.

Coagulated into a powerful sentence, this new self-understanding opens the elaborated text: "Human dignity is inviolable."

the participants from the KPD, Centre, German Party and CSU (6 out of 8) voted against the Basic Law - did the members of the Parliamentary Council actually manage that on 8.

May 1949 one of the longest-lived modern constitutions was adopted.

Erna Wagner-Hehmke created an aesthetic monument to this success.

Erna Wagner-Hehmke and Helge Matthiesen: "Forever right and freedom".

The Parliamentary Council 1948/49.

Greven Verlag, Cologne 2022. 140 p., ill., hardcover, €30.