Zeig Mal Will Mcbride Jun 2026

On the one hand, sexual pedagogues like Gunter Schmidt praised the book for its aesthetic value, calling the images “explicit and discreet at the same time”. For a generation of parents and children, Zeig mal! was a liberating tool that replaced shame with healthy curiosity. On the other hand, the passage in the foreword by psychologist Helmut Kentler, which was later described by some critics as an “unconcealed call for pedophilia,” has forever tainted the project. This, combined with the legal and moral shifts of the 1980s and 1990s, ensured the book’s fate was sealed.

The History and Impact of Will McBride’s " Zeig Mal! " (released in English as Show Me! ) is one of the most culturally significant and heavily debated photobooks in modern history. Published in Germany in 1974, the book was envisioned as a revolutionary, open-minded approach to sex education for children and parents. It combined the raw, humanist photography of American-born artist Will McBride with explanatory text by German psychologist and psychiatrist Helga Fleischhauer-Hardt . zeig mal will mcbride

The book was a radical departure from previous norms. It treated the sexual curiosity of children not as something shameful or dangerous, but as a natural, healthy part of development. The images were not eroticized; they were presented with a frankness that aimed to demystify the body. On the one hand, sexual pedagogues like Gunter

McBride believed yes. The German courts often believed no. The internet user today is stuck in the middle, typing those three German words into a search bar: On the other hand, the passage in the

In 1971, the German government launched an anti-smoking campaign, which featured Will McBride's photographs. The campaign, titled "Zeig mal Will McBride" (Show me Will McBride), aimed to shock young people into realizing the dangers of smoking. The campaign used a series of provocative images, including a photograph of a man with a severe smoking-related illness.

To understand the creation of Zeig Mal! , one must analyze the cultural landscape of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This era witnessed a profound paradigm shift in Western attitudes toward sexuality. Taboos were actively dismantled, and educational theory increasingly leaned toward total transparency.

The renowned German sex researcher Gunter Schmidt, for instance, praised the book's photographs as "aesthetic, explicit, and discreet at the same time". He and his team used the images from the book for years in counseling and therapy sessions for couples with sexual problems, finding them to be a powerful tool for communication.