Bismarck, Otto von: Founder and chancellor of the German empire in 1871. Few statesmen have ever been so excessively commemorated and monumentalised as Bismarck. Countless statues, streets and public buildings bear his name.

Bismarck, North Dakota: A city in the Northwest of the United States, named after the German politician. Cunning settlers renamed the city in the 1870s to attract wealthy investors with its flashy name.

Today, over 50,000 people live in Bismarck, North Dakota's capital. It looks like any other American small city — at least to a German. The streets are clean. Its neighbourhoods are intact. Crime is rare. There are countless churches, yet there are no nightclubs. There's no memorial to the Iron Chancellor, but the prefix 'Bismarck' is all over the town: Bank of Bismarck, Bismarck Hospital, Bismarck High School, Bismarck Auditorium, Bismarck Hair College ...

The myths surrounding Otto von Bismarck captivated photographer Dirk Reinartz for quite some time. In 1991 he published Bismarck. 0f the Memorials' Treason, a photographic inventory of Bismarck statues in Germany. On his numerous trips throughout the United States, Reinartz frequently noticed a place named Bismarck, far north, featured in televised weather forecasts. The centennial anniversary of Bismarck's death gave him an occasion to visit and photograph the town, accompanied by author Wolfram Runkel. Reinartz provides us with a particularly European view of North Dakota's capital. His images are uncommon pictures of a common place.