The Human Being – A Miracle of Development

An unjustly forgotten plea for humanity

by Moritz Nestor

The front cover of the book “Entwicklungswunder Mensch” (The Human Being – A Miracle of Development) by Hans-Dieter Schmidt and Evelyn Richter (1980) shows in A4 format the photo of a mother’s tender hand, around whose little finger clenches the little fist of her a few months old beloved child. No font disrupts the image. The peculiar meaning, inherent in coarse-grained black-and-white photos, directly affects the reader’s soul. Could there be a more beautiful symbol for the essentially human which is shown in this photo? A child and his mother, me and you. The primal scene of human life: the motherly love life begins with. The eternal in mankind’s history: “A new light is lit, a star that will perhaps burn in an unusually beautiful way ... A new being ... kisses the earth ...” (p. 5).