The Luxembourger Gordian Troeller (1917-2003) and the Frenchwoman Marie-Claude Deffarge (1924-1984) formed a journalistic team from the 1950s onwards. Through writing and photography, they observed the end of European colonial rule. They analyzed the new structures that emerged from colonial power relations, which led to the so-called "underdevelopment of the Third World"—first in Iran and the Middle East, and later also in Africa and Latin America.

Troeller/Deffarges' reports and documentaries remain relevant in many respects even today. It was only in the 21st century, under the impression of collapsing states, popular uprisings, wars and refugee flows, as well as the global consequences of climate change, environmental destruction, financial crises – and ultimately the spread of terror even within industrialized nations – that a widespread awareness of the dangers of the chosen path took hold in Europe.

Ahead of their time

From 1959 to 1969, they contributed 81 socially and politically engaged reports and outstanding photographic works to the magazine. star journalistic standards. A 25-part series about the position of women in different cultures around the world caused a stir starting in 1964 – even before the Sexual Revolution of the 1970s – the interest of a broad readership.

Troeller/Deffarge explored the topic of development policy in greater depth in the 1970s in close collaboration with the French economist François Partant and the German educator Ingrid Becker-Ross.

The world's issues

In more than 80 television documentaries, they demonstrated to a broad audience how the prevailing notion of progress in development policy and Western ethnocentrism led to material impoverishment, cultural decay, and social disintegration in the developing world. Their films denounced modern capitalist structures, which, through the close interrelationship between the developed and developing worlds, lead to uncontrollable risks worldwide.
Since 1974, they worked exclusively for the First German Television channel. Until 1999, a total of 70 films in three series were broadcast on ARD's main channel: "In the Name of Progress," "Women of the World," and "Children of the World." The resulting body of work has received numerous awards.