"Honorable" - People in voluntary work

About the exhibition

Around 30 million people in Germany are involved in voluntary work and are committed to the common good - in a variety of ways. Voluntary work is a pillar of our society. The work of non-profit and charitable institutions would hardly be possible without the commitment of volunteers.

In the exhibition “Ehrenwert ("Honorable"), the Deutsche Bahn Foundation presents some of these volunteers. A total of 16 portraits show people from all parts of the country who are committed to the common good in very different areas. Many DB employees are also among them - because at DB, voluntary work is promoted with the Deutsche Bahn Foundation's "Ehrensache" (“Matter of honor”) program. The exhibition started in August 2024 at Berlin Central Station and was then shown in Leipzig, Cologne and Nuremberg. Our traveling exhibition will continue in 2025.

Exhibition dates*:

Karlsruhe main station
24.3.25 to 3.4.25

Düsseldorf main station
4.4.25 to 14.4.25

Erfurt main station
15.4.25 to 25.4.25

Dresden main station
26.4.25 to 5.5.25

*Subject to change.

To the portraits

In large-format photographs, volunteers are shown in situations that are typical for their voluntary work, whether they are supporting disadvantaged young people or archiving historical holdings in the DB Museum. In interviews, they tell us in their own words what motivates them to volunteer and what they achieve with it.

In the overall view, the individual portraits in pictures and words come together to form a cross-section of volunteer work in Germany, in recognition and appreciation of the many people who enrich our coexistence and strengthen social cohesion with their volunteer work. With this very personal approach, the exhibition not only shows the diversity and importance of volunteer work, but also aims to motivate people to do volunteer work themselves.

Photographer

Mauricio Bustamante lives in Hamburg and works worldwide as a photojournalist and portrait photographer. "What fascinates me most about portrait photography is the experience of meeting a person - it's always about empathy." On behalf of the Deutsche Bahn Foundation, he has already photographed people for the 2020 exhibition "Decoupled".

Until 1993, Bustamante worked as a photojournalist in Argentina. Later, he traveled to Spain on behalf of Argentinian media. Today, he works as a freelance photographer, among others,  for the magazines “Der Spiegel”, “Die Zeit”, “11 Freunde” and the Hamburg street magazine “Hinz&Kunzt”.

Author

Thomas Byczkowski lives in Hamburg and has been working in journalism for 25 years. His specialty is portraits, which he often both photographs and writes himself, for example in long-term projects such as accompanying refugees in Hamburg and researching the victims of a mining disaster in Brazil.

His work has been published by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Episcopal Relief Organization Misereor, the magazines “DB Mobil”, “Stern”, “brand eins”, “Mare” and “Zeit Wissen”; in the Swiss newspaper “NZZ am Sonntag”, the Swiss business magazine “Bilanz” and the Swiss “Automobilrevue”.

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