Picture Stories: the Rise of the Photoessay in the Weimar Republic
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR
HISTORY, CULTURE AND MODERNITY
www.history-culture-modernity.org
Published by: Uopen Journals
Copyright: © The Author(s).
Content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence eISSN:
2213-0624
Picture Stories: the Rise of the Photoessay in the
Weimar Republic
Anton Holzer
Translated by Elisabeth Lauffer
HCM 6 (1): 1–39
DOI: 10.18352/hcm.520
Abstract
Between the mid-1920s and the early 1930s German photojournalism
experienced a profound, far-reaching upheaval. Up until this time, the
illustrated mass media had favoured the reproduction of single photos, but
during this brief period the photo-essay rose to prominence. Photographs
and texts were integrated into a new, complex narrative unity: photo-
reportage. This article aims to reconstruct the historical conditions under
which modern photo-reportage arose during the Weimar Republic. It will
also revise certain accepted judgements about the history of photojournal-
ism between the world wars. The development of modern photojournalism
has until now been identified almost exclusively with the achievements of
individual protagonists, mainly prominent photographers. Although these
individuals played an important role in the production process of photo-
reportage, they were rarely consulted regarding editorial questions and
layout. In order to better understand the economic development of photo-
reportage and its growth as a medium, it is necessary to examine the edito-
rial work being done behind the scenes at the magazines and newspapers of
the time. This article will therefore focus more on the development of the
media and economic macrostructures at play in the emergence and growth
of photo-reportage, and less on individual photographers’ contributions
and photojournalistic output. It ultimately shows that the consolidation of
modern photo-reportage was the result of closely connected media-related
and social developments, commercial strategies and aesthetic decisions
that went far beyond the agency of individuals.
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HOLZER
Keywords: media history, photo-essay, photography, photojournalism,
photo-reportage, visual history, Weimar Germany
Introduction
The twentieth century has often been termed the century of images in a
nod to the central role film and photography came to play as forms of
mass media. Around 1930, novel designs for the visualization of news
items were established, and with them new ways to connect images and
text. The significance of these innovations extended far beyond photo-
reportage. News coverage, which had long been text-heavy in daily
news publications, underwent a sudden and radical expansion: photog-
raphy was no longer employed as an illustrative accompaniment to the
text, but as a key narrative tool. The analysis of photo-reportage in the
Weimar Republic provides a close-up account of this unprecedented
interconnection between image and text, and how it evolved in practice.
During the Weimar Republic, the illustrated press was the central
form of visual mass media, aside from film, with enormous reach, par-
ticularly in urban populations. The 1920s saw exponential growth in the
circulation of illustrated newspapers. In 1929, the Berliner Illustrirte
Zeitung, the leading publication of the day, had a weekly circulation
of over 1.9 million copies, breaking international records.1 As part
of this explosion in circulation numbers between the mid-1920s and
the early 1930s, the relationship between text and image in German
photojournalism underwent a profound, far-reaching transformation.
Up until this time, the illustrated mass media had favoured the repro-
duction of single photos, but during this brief period the photo-essay
rose to prominence. Photographs and copy were integrated into a new,
complex narrative unity: photo-reportage. Around 1930, this innovative
genre blending text and image was exceedingly popular in Germany.
After 1933, it would also spread to the English-speaking world.2 The
roots of this narrative form of photojournalism extend back to the turn
of the century. Starting in the mid-1920s, however, photo-reportage
became almost ubiquitous as the new, modern, meticulously designed
graphic media format in the German illustrated press. This upheaval in
the media and the emergence of new visual narrative forms were also
reflected in the public image of press photographers. Over the course
of the 1920s, a select group of photojournalists managed to shed their
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role as anonymous shift workers in the media industry and step more
confidently into the public light. This did not mean, however, that many
were free to determine how their photos were edited in the newspapers.
In late 1920, the Frankfurt weekly Das illustrierte Blatt became
the first newspaper ever to feature on its front page an image of a
press photographer at work (Fig. 1).3 The photographer had positioned
himself with his camera on the roof of a Berlin streetcar, capturing
the scene below from his elevated vantage point. The photograph is
unusual, because until that point, newspaper photographers had rarely
been shown in large-format pictures; when the first photojournalists
entered the public arena in the 1890s, it was the photographs they had
taken rather than those they appeared in that caused a stir. Until well
into the 1920s (and in some instances, far longer), press photogra-
phers occupied the lowest social rung of the media industry. Few were
regularly employed; their images were often printed anonymously;
their professional reputation was humble. In the accompanying text
inside Das illustrierte Blatt, the protagonist is introduced in a decid-
edly pre-war style, namely as ‘illustrations photographer’, and not as
‘press photographer’ or ‘photojournalist’. The modern-day news pho-
tographer, the article stresses, is forever on the move, in order to catch
images of breaking events. It does not yet mention, however, that in
addition to individual pictures used primarily to illustrate written news
pieces, the photographer also produces photo series, essays or even
reportages.
Around 1920, the image of the press photographer was not much
different than it had been before the war. Within ten years, this image
would change fundamentally. By 1930, a few individual press photog-
raphers had attained star status, their names appearing on prominent dis-
play alongside those of the authors. The best-known among them were
now no longer limited to delivering single images for solely illustra-
tive use; instead, they had also begun submitting photo series that were
assembled into photo-essays, a process demanding considerable efforts
in graphic design. Nevertheless, this remarkable symbolic elevation of
a select cadre of photographers did not translate into a corresponding
growth in editorial autonomy. Within the complex, stratified produc-
tion process of photojournalism, the role of the photographer remained
relatively humble. Understanding the photojournalistic development
toward photo-reportage cannot be accomplished by studying individual
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Figure 1 ‘Der Illustrations-Photograph’ [The Illustration Photographer], Das
Illustrierte Blatt 53 (28 December 1920), front cover, photographer unknown.
photographers and their work alone. Instead, the media system of the
illustrated press must be examined in its entirety.
Let us begin with a short summary of the defining factors behind
the development of modern photo-reportage. First, the number of photo
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series grew markedly, while that of individual photographs diminished.
These photo series followed increasingly complex narrative structures,
showing a close coupling of images and text. Photo-reportage also bor-
rowed several narrative elements from film (e.g., close-ups, zooms, fade-
ins and fade-outs etc.). Moreover, the symbolic role of a few individual
photographers was clearly elevated: photographers such as Wolfgang
Weber, Felix H. Man, Martin Munkácsi and others were established as
star photographers by the major media houses. Furthermore, the devel-
opment of photo-reportage was the result of a complex team effort, the
collaboration of numerous specialists, including photographers, authors,
executive and photo editors, and graphic designers. Finally, around 1930,
innovative German photo agencies such as Dephot, Weltrundschau and
Mauritius began to supply the press not only with isolated photographs,
but also with entire photo-reportages. The reportages provided flexible
narrative models that editors could rearrange and that could otherwise
be reused over time and/or regionally.
The boom in German photo-reportage, which began between 1927
and 1929 and reached its height around 1930, ended abruptly in 1933
with the Nazi accession to power. While photo-reportages continued
to appear in newspapers, this watershed had profound consequences
for photojournalism. Many photographers, journalists, photo editors
and newspaper publishers of Jewish origin were forced into exile after
1933. The emigrants’ background in journalism was welcomed and
advanced, particularly in Great Britain and the United States. This intel-
lectual and cultural transfer from German photojournalism, as well as
the specific form of photo-reportage developed in the illustrated mass
press of Weimar Germany, was critical in providing the template for the
launch of the English publication Picture Post (1938) and the American
magazine LIFE (1936).4 Beyond individual actors, various groups and
institutions were also active in this transfer, such as the photo agency
Black Star, founded in New York by German emigrants in 1936, which
played a prominent role in promoting and developing modern American
photo-reportage from the 1930s onward.5 If for no other reason than
this, it is worthwhile to study more closely the development of modern
photo-reportage in the Weimar Republic, which gained broad interna-
tional currency.
The following article focuses on the historical development of mod-
ern photo-reportage in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s. In recent
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years, historical research has increasingly targeted the development
of photojournalism and analysed the rapid rise of photo-reportage in
the Weimar Republic.6 This research has led to new questions about
how the swift emergence of this new form of media came about, and
what consequences it had on the development of photojournalism. To
answer these questions, research into the work of individual photog-
raphers does not suffice. The research focus on vintage prints − that
is, the raw material of newspaper photography − is also too limited
in its approach. While previous research into the history of photojour-
nalism has frequently drawn upon the works of individual photogra-
phers, based on prints from their estate or other photography collec-
tions, this article will take a different approach, both in source material
and methodology. In order to analyse the emergence of photo-report-
age as a new media format, the systematic analysis of printed news-
papers, that is, photographs and their contexts (the Medienensemble),
is c rucial. A newspaper’s layout, in which photos and text are graphi-
cally integrated − and not a haphazard collection of individual press
photos − provides an important platform for proper analysis of devel-
opments in graphic composition, changes in the connections between
text and image, the sequencing of images and the symbolic presence of
the authors of both photographs and text. This study, therefore, exam-
ines the complete runs of important national German illustrated week-
lies from 1918 to 1933 (e.g., Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, Die Woche,
Münchner Illustrierte Presse, Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung, Illustrierte
Beobachter). Also included in the evaluation are selected regional illus-
trated papers that figured prominently in the development of photo-
journalism (e.g., Kölnische Illustrierte, Hackebeils I.Z./Große Berliner
Illustrierte, the Wochenschau from Essen, and the Frankfurt-based Das
illustrierte Blatt).7 This broad basis of materials, along with a compara-
tive media analysis, enables new conclusions to be drawn about the
historical development of photo-reportage in the Weimar Republic.
In order to make the printed photo-reportages historically ‘readable’,
further background information has been incorporated into the study
of this photojournalistic production context: references to economic
trends in the media and developments in newspapers’ circulation and
socio-political orientation. Biographical information regarding the role
of photographers, publishers, newspaper editors and photo editors has
also been included in the form of reflections, diaries and letters. These
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provide important information for differentiating the various roles in
the work processes of photojournalism.
The following study will broaden the parameters for examining
the histories of photography and media in the Weimar Republic. The
emergence of modern photo-reportage was not, as is often argued, the
achievement of individual photographers alone; instead, it was largely
the result of closely connected media-related and social developments,
commercial strategies and aesthetic decisions that went far beyond the
agency of individuals.
The Media History of Photojournalism: A New Line of
Questioning
The photography of the Weimar Republic has long been the focus of
international research. Avant-garde movements such as the New Vision
(Neues Sehen) and New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) have garnered
particular interest. The years preceding 1933, however, also represent
the advent of anti-modernism. In early 1933, the National Socialists’
rise to power in Berlin heralded a significant socio-political fissure.
Photography was not spared the impact of this shift, certain continui-
ties notwithstanding. The curious ambivalence between radical mod-
ernism and radical anti-modernism in the Weimar Republic has greatly
informed the study of photography.8
Despite the abundant international attention paid to German pho-
tography of the 1920s and early 1930s, several areas that were criti-
cal to the development of the medium during this time remain unex-
plored. This includes several aspects of photojournalism that have only
recently become the focus of research.9 While early studies of the his-
tory of photojournalism largely focused on individuals (typically pho-
tographers) as brilliant artists or stars, more recent trends have empha-
sized the institutional production of photojournalistic work, with its
inherent division of labour.10 Analysis in recent years has focused on
printed media (namely newspapers, as opposed to isolated images).11
On the one hand, this shift in perspective has allowed photojournalistic
practice to be viewed as the collective activity of various specialists,
all of whom were active to varying degrees within a commercial con-
text. On the other hand, long-overlooked parties − from journalists and
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photo editors to photography agencies and their staff − benefit from the
new-found exposure this altered analytic lens provides.12 More recently,
the research focus has shifted to new aspects, such as the connection
between image and text in newspapers and photographic books,13 the
role of agents in the development of photo-reportage,14 or the function
of picture editors.15
The Expansion of Visual Media During and After the
First World War
The analysis presented here also demonstrates that without a historical
review of the First World War, the development of photojournalism in
the Weimar Republic would remain opaque. Thus, the research con-
ducted here does not begin in 1918, as is customary in studies of the
Weimar Republic; instead, it extends further back into the war years.
At the close of the First World War in late 1918, a perfunctory evalu-
ation would suggest that German photojournalism simply drew upon
the fashions of the pre-war years. Instead, the years of mobilizing pho-
tography in service of war propaganda had fundamentally altered the
parameters for photographic illustrated newspapers, as well as the work
performed by press photographers. For instance, the war largely con-
tributed to eliminating newspaper sketches, hand-drawn representations
of current events that were considered an authentic medium of visual
news reporting into the early twentieth century. This shift occurred
in many countries at different paces.16 At the outset of the war, press
sketches still played a certain role as a visual news medium alongside
the advance of photography. By the end of the war, however, photog-
raphy had nearly prevailed outright as the modern medium for visual
news reporting. During the war, the media industry’s handling of press
photographs − the logistics of images − was also professionalized, and
its pace increased despite the well-oiled censoring apparatus that had
had to be navigated.
Changes also occurred in the photographers’ technical equipment.
During the war, the spread of new, light and fast cameras used by a rap-
idly growing number of amateur photographers increased at a remark-
able tempo. Starting in the mid-1920s, these developments also became
evident in press photography. Certain photographers began to rely on
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smaller, more mobile cameras, such as the Leica.17 Finally, to cite a fur-
ther example, economic realities in the press had shifted fundamentally
during the war. German war propaganda, which had been extensively cul-
tivated and centralized since 1917, had led not only to economic consoli-
dation processes in the film branch, but in illustrated print media as well.
The leading film production company in Weimar Germany, Universum
Film AG (UFA), was founded in 1917 − that is, still during the war − in
response to demand for German war propaganda films. A lesser-known
detail, however, is that the propaganda war also fostered the emergence
of hegemonic corporations in the press sector, in particular the illus-
trated press.18 The leading German illustrated weekly, Berliner Illustrirte
Zeitung, was able to markedly improve its dominant position during the
war, thanks to close cooperation between its publisher, Ullstein Verlag,
and the military leadership. Its circulation climbed from 500,000 copies
per week in 1910 to over one million by 1915, finally reaching its peak
with over 1.9 million copies per week in 1929–1930.19 Thus, the war
did not represent a hindrance to the economic development of the major
illustrated papers that supported the state; instead, the war was a sort of
catalyst for this form of visual mass media.
The dynamic development of German photojournalism in the
Weimar Republic is thus largely based on changes that had been intro-
duced during the war. Too little attention has been paid to this fact,
probably because the illustrated newspapers incorporating photographs
in the years directly following the war (from 1918 until approximately
1925–6) were utterly conventional in their graphic composition, and
at first glance, they appear to represent a seamless transition from the
years before 1914. There was yet little to suggest the powerful wave of
innovation that would characterize the press around 1930. This delay
was due primarily to challenging post-war political and economic con-
ditions. Factors hampering the development of the press after 1918
included a civil-war-like atmosphere between 1918 and 1919 and the
devastating economic crisis that could be felt from the end of the war
through the early to mid-1920s, especially in large cities. This crisis
led to paper shortages, among other scarcities. A further result was the
hyperinflation of the early 1920s, which the government was unable to
control until 1924.
With the gradual economic and political normalization starting in
1924–5, an economic recovery began that was also reflected in the
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illustrated press. From the mid-1920s onward, the rapid growth in
circulation of illustrated media promised strong sales for publishers.
Major media groups, such as Ullstein Verlag in Berlin, as well as smaller
regional papers, therefore, began establishing a host of new illustrated
newspapers and magazines. In some cases, these new publications
would represent competition for the older leading illustrated week-
lies, especially the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, but also Die Woche.20
The most important newcomers included the Münchner Illustrierte
Presse (from 1923) and the Kölnische Illustrierte (from 1926), as well
as party-affiliated publications emerging in the mid-1920s, such as the
Communist Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (from 1925) and the National
Socialist Illustrierte Beobachter (from 1926). The list also included
established regional illustrated papers that had been largely modern-
ized starting in the mid-1920s, such as the Frankfurt-based weekly
Das illustrierte Blatt (from 1913), Hackebeils I.Z./Große Berliner
Illustrierte (from 1918), the Essen-based Wochenschau (from 1914) or
the Hamburger Illustrierte Zeitung (from 1918).21 Finally, the economic
upturn also led to the establishment of new, photo-illustrated general
interest magazines, such as UHU (from 1924), Der Querschnitt (from
1925, published by Ullstein), Scherl’s Magazin (from 1924) or Tempo
(from 1927).22 In the late 1920s, daily newspapers also began to print
more photos.
Modern photo-reportage emerged in the midst of this upheaval.
Its development is closely tied to the economic changes shaping the
media landscape of the illustrated newspaper as well as to the competi-
tive atmosphere surrounding ‘old’ and ‘newly founded’ media outlined
above. As we will see, significant impulses toward innovative media
formats like photo-reportage did not originate in the major, estab-
lished media, but arose in smaller and newly established publications.
The graphic and photographic innovations in photojournalism were
very closely tied to economic development. The emergence of mod-
ern photo-reportage in the late 1920s falls within a phase of economic
media expansion as well as strengthened commercial competition in the
illustrated press sector. In order to gain public prominence and increase
circulation, certain media houses decided to invest in the development
and improvement of new media formats. The triumph of photo-report-
age was thus ultimately based on economic considerations. In the years
of aesthetic awakening around 1930, photo-reportage was not alone in
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experiencing a boom. Other innovative media formats such as politi-
cal photo-montage were developed and expanded concurrently.23 This
phase in creative innovation began around 1927–8 and reached its peak
in 1930. It lost momentum in the early 1930s in the face of the new
economic crisis that opened that decade. A new innovative push in
illustrated mass media began again after 1933. At that point the driving
force was no longer economic or ideological competition, but primarily
the political incentives of the new Nazi authorities.
Bourgeois and Leftist Models in Photojournalism
The model of photo-reportage was not altogether new in the 1920s.
Long before the first intricately constructed photo-reportages were
printed in German newspapers in the late 1920s, the format of
‘narrative pictures’ was well known. Even before the turn of the cen-
tury, simply constructed prototypes of photo-reportage were pub-
lished.24 Additionally, before the late 1920s, the heyday of modern
photo-reportage, German illustrated papers regularly published topi-
cal pieces with simple graphics; a tableau of several photos, frequently
of mixed provenance, was used to illustrate a text. The photos did not,
however, constitute a standalone narrative. Modern photo-reportage
thus did not simply appear without warning in the 1920s, but emerged
following a protracted course of development. The first critical steps
toward photo-reportage were not made, as mentioned earlier, by the
major, market-dominating illustrated papers; instead, it was small and
mid-sized newspapers leading the charge, in particular the Frankfurt-
based Das illustrierte Blatt, as well as the Kölnische Illustrierte or the
Münchner Illustrierte Presse. Starting around 1927, these publications
began to experiment with graphic innovations and to combine photos
creatively to tell a story.
Contrary to the common depiction in the secondary literature,25
it was not bourgeois media alone that drove this movement toward
photo-reportage.26 Crucial impetus in this direction came almost con-
currently from leftist illustrated papers as well. Photo-reportage thus
surfaced at an especially tense societal moment in Weimar Germany, a
period defined by major ideological competition between the leftist and
the bourgeois press. In creative terms, the leftist illustrated press − in
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particular the Communist Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ) − was ini-
tially avant-garde.27 As early as 1926 and 1927, the publication began
connecting individual photographs in full-page or, increasingly, double-
page spreads (Figs. 2 and 3). These pictorial reports drastically reduced
the amount of text, because they were consciously intended for a left-
ist audience that was often largely unpractised in reading. The rigid
column pattern was thus dismantled and the images tightly enmeshed
graphically. For instance, cut-out figures in the foreground, which might
serve to invite identification, ushered readers into the tableau behind.
The sequence of pictures was often characterized by alternating long
shots and close-ups. In this way, too, the reader was ‘drawn into’ the
photo-essay. By 1928, and thus earlier than in the bourgeois press, the
term ‘reportage’ was used in the AIZ in connection to a photo-story.28
In the late 1920s, photographers in the bourgeois press experienced
a gradual rise to stardom. One of the first steps in this process was the
pronounced symbolic elevation of certain photographers, whose names
were increasingly included in the by-line of the articles rather than in
Figure 2 ‘Arbeitersport’ [Workers’ Sports], Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung 19 (1929) 8–9,
photographers unknown.
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Figure 3 ‘So ist Paris’ [Such is Paris], Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung 21 (1929) 8–9,
photographers unknown.
photo captions.29 This system of star photographers was most notably
established and expanded in the leading Ullstein outlets and in the
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. In essence, by means of extensive media
attention, certain photo reporters were lifted out of the masses of under-
lings working in photography. They were given space and impressive
compensation. At Ullstein, a star photographer would be paid no less
than 500 Reichsmarks for the first printing of a two-page reportage.30
Elaborate travel reportages, which often appeared in several instal-
ments and would be rerun in other newspapers, could earn the photog-
rapher several thousand Reichsmarks including expenses. Prominent
photographers could produce far more photo-reportages than the lesser-
known competition. In 1930, Wolfgang Weber, one of the best paid and
most published photographers from the interwar period, was averag-
ing twenty reportages per year.31 In return, of course, newspapers prof-
ited greatly from popular star photographers such as Martin Munkácsi,
Umbo, Wolfgang Weber, Walter Bosshard, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Felix
H. Man, Harald Lechenperg and others. After all, the stars and their
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sensational photos and photo-reports (invariably advertised as such)
were the papers’ central selling point.
In contrast to the bourgeois press, this system featuring star report-
ers did not exist in the leftist press. Most photographers active in the
proletarian press and ideologically aligned with the labour movement
could barely live from the sale of their photos, if at all. Remuneration
for photos in the workers’ press was significantly lower than in the
bourgeois press. Proletarian photographer Richard Peter, for instance,
reported that he received five Reichsmarks in 1930 for the printing of
a single photo in the AIZ, and fifty for a photo-reportage.32 Unlike in
the bourgeois press, higher pay for well-known photographers was not
common practice. Photographers could not improve their public image
through photographs published in the AIZ. The vast majority of photo-
reportages printed there did not acknowledge contributors (at most, the
pieces were initialled), whether in order to protect sources or to under-
score collectivism as a gesture of political activism.
In the bourgeois press, the higher values placed on photographers’
names first emerged with longer travel articles illustrated with photos.
Figure 4 ‘Gallspach’, photo-reportage by Wolfgang Weber about an area in Upper
Austria transformed into a ‘Mecca of the Sick’ by faith healer Valentin Zeileis, Münchner
Illustrierte Presse 8 (1930) 236–7.
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The images’ origins were prominently featured, particularly in instances
in which both copy and photos were produced by well-known travel
journalists.33 In this way, not only was photographic authorship more
strongly emphasized than ever before, but a connection between the
perspective of author and photographer was established. This − in part
symbolic − interconnection of authorship in the area of text and image
would prove ground-breaking for modern photo-reportage. Seminal
German reportages from around 1930, in which the photographer was
also responsible for the copy, highlight this interconnection of textual
and visual authorship. The German photographer Wolfgang Weber was
most successful in systematically advancing this authorial symbiosis.
From late 1929 onward, the by-lines for many of his photo-reportages
− for which he often wrote the copy − were no longer simply typed let-
ters; instead, his own signature was printed visibly beneath the headline
(Fig. 4).34 This example in particular clearly demonstrates the revalua-
tion of the photographer operating simultaneously as a writing journal-
ist and photo supplier.
The Development of Modern Photo-Reportage
In the array of bourgeois illustrated newspapers, important first steps
toward photo-reportage were to be found in the small weekly Das
Illustrierte Blatt, based in Frankfurt. From the mid-1920s, this illustrated
paper was already regularly publishing precursors to photo-reportage.
Initially, this was no more than simply constructed, topically-focused
double-page spreads. The paper launched a series of graphic innova-
tions from 1927–8 onward. The page layout became more dynamic, as
rectangular photos were combined with round images which, borrowing
the zoom effect from film, provided visual details.35 Also included regu-
larly were photo series arranged in rows or tableaux, cut-out figures and
other pictorial effects. Thus, graphically speaking, the transition from
simple topical spreads to more complexly constructed photo-reportages
was also a fluid one. Modern reportage was not characterized by the
new graphic connections between text and photo series alone; innova-
tions were made with regard to content as well. Photo-reportages often
drew upon everyday topics. Typical photo-reportages might depict
scenes taking place in front of a shop window, daily occurrences at a
dentist’s office, a portrait of a school class, a trial, life in prison and so
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on. Characteristic of many photo-reportages from these years was the
link between the factual account and the journalist’s subjective stance.
In contrast to the past, reporters and photographers now often worked
together to research and photograph a reportage. Occasionally, as with
Wolfgang Weber, reporter and photographer were one and the same
person.
In 1927, an early example of modern photo-reportage was printed
in the Frankfurt-based Das Illustrierte Blatt. The photo story reported
on the city of Paris. For the first time ever, the photographer, Germaine
Krull, was not named below the photos. Instead, her name was printed
below the title, even in front of that of the author; that is, prominently
at the opening of the report: ‘Special Photographs by Germaine Krull,
Text by Franz Hessel’.36 Increasingly, photos were arranged to portray
narrative arcs. Examples include a story on Grock, the famous Swiss
clown, published in Das Illustrierte Blatt in 1927,37 or the reportage-
like series of drawings created by Hungarian-born illustrator Emmerich
(Imre) Kelen.38
The photographer Paul Edmund Hahn, known in print as P. E. Hahn
and recognized as one of the pioneers of German photo-reportage, pro-
duced a number of photos in close succession that demonstrate just how
fluid the transition was from topical spreads to reportage.39 His first
photo-stories, which appeared in Das Illustrierte Blatt in early 1928,
were still simply designed topical spreads.40 Within the same year, the
graphic connection between the images and text in his photo-reports
became more and more pronounced.41 From 1929, his reportages began
appearing in other newspapers as well, in particular the Münchner
Illustrierten Presse (Fig. 5).
The emergence of modern photo-reportage is thus the result of a
protracted process stretching over years in the bourgeois and leftist
illustrated media alike. The most important steps toward the emergence
of modern photo-reportage, however, were the work of a small hand-
ful of illustrated papers. In 1928, the first year in which photo-report-
ages became more widely published, this new format appeared most
frequently in a single newspaper, the Frankfurt-based Das Illustrierte
Blatt. Further, albeit markedly fewer, reports also appeared that year in
the Kölnische Illustrierte Zeitung and the Münchener Illustriere Presse.
How were these photo-reportages constructed? This question can be
answered by examining a number of exemplary reportages that appeared
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Figure 5 ‘Turnstunde’ [Gym Class], photo-reportage by P. E. Hahn, Münchner
Illustrierte Presse 37 (1929) 1230.
before the boom in the new media format around 1930. One of the ear-
liest German photo-reportages with sophisticated design was created
by the well-known photographer Sasha Stone and published in Das
Illustrierte Blatt in 1928 (Fig. 6).42 The photo-essay was produced on
the occasion of an approaching boxing match between Max Schmeling
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Figure 6 ‘Diener oder Schmeling’ [Diener or Schmeling], photo-reportage by Sasha
Stone about an upcoming boxing match in Berlin, Das Illustrierte Blatt 14 (1928)
381–3.
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and Franz Diener on 4 April 1928 in the Berliner Sportpalast.43 The
text is markedly restrained and the author remains more or less anon-
ymous (identified only by the letter ‘z’), thus allowing the photos to
take charge of the reportage. The photographer, however, is very vis-
ibly credited beneath the title: ‘Special Photographs by Stone’. This
formulation indicates that Sasha Stone carried out a contract assign-
ment, because such ‘special photographs’ were often produced at the
behest of newspapers. The graphic arrangement of the images adeptly
translates the dynamic theme − the boxing match − in suggestive photo
series, long shots alternate with detailed close-ups, and several figures
are cut out. The reportage follows a clear narrative formula: in the two
interwoven narrative threads, both protagonists are introduced. Their
everyday lives, families and training regimens are depicted. This photo-
essay also generates suspense since its outcome is unknown: the match
has yet to happen.
Sasha Stone photographed many reportages for Das Illustrierte Blatt
in 1928. In the late 1920s, he was one of the paper’s most-published
photographers; in addition to the reportages, he also supplied numer-
ous individual photos, including many for the cover. Another important
reportage photographer for Das Illustrierte Blatt was the aforemen-
tioned Paul Edmund Hahn, who published several one- and two-page
photo-essays from early 1928 onward. Umbo, whose real name was Otto
Umbehr and who worked for the Berlin-based photo agency Dephot,
should also be mentioned. He published his first photo-reportage in Das
Illustrierte Blatt in late 1928, with many to follow (Fig. 7). Like other
freelance photographers, Umbo worked for several newspapers at once.
His reportages were published not only in Das Illustrierte Blatt, but
from 1929 onward also in the Kölnische Illustrierte Zeitung, Münchner
Illustrierte Presse, Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung and Welt-Spiegel.44
The Hungarian-born Emmerich (Imre) Kelen, who has long gone
unrecognized in the history of photography, started as an illustrator but
grew into one of the pioneers of photo-reportage in the late 1920s. He
published most of his sketches and photographed stories about every-
day life in Das Illustrierte Blatt and the Münchner Illustrierte Presse.
His photographic report on a League of Nations summit, published in
mid-1929 in Das Illustrierte Blatt, was termed a ‘photo-reportage’ for
the first time in the bourgeois press.45 Photo-essays such as Kelen’s
had been referred to as ‘photo-reports’, ‘feature stories’ or ‘special
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Figure 7 ‘Modenschau am Alex’ [Fashion Show at Alexanderplatz], photo-reportage by
Umbo (Otto Umbehr), Dephot photo agency, Das Illustrierte Blatt 43 (1929) 1230–1.
reports’ until that point. The term ‘photo-reportage’ appeared again in
the autumn of 1929, when the Münchner Illustrierte Presse also used it
for the first time.46 By 1930, the term was ubiquitous, with nearly every
illustrated newspaper publishing ‘photo-reportages’.
Photography and Film: A Close Relationship
The development of modern photo-reportage fell within a phase of
cultural and aesthetic experimentation that defined the art and cultural
scenes of Weimar Germany from the mid-1920s onward. As the second
major form of visual mass media in addition to the illustrated press, film
played a special role in these years and wielded considerable societal
influence. From the mid-1920s onward, new innovative currents (New
Objectivity, New Vision) could be felt in photography and film alike. A
clear indication of both this aesthetic reorientation and the close con-
nection between these two forms of media was the ground-breaking
exhibition ‘Film und Foto’, presented by the Deutscher Werkbund in
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Stuttgart in 1929 as the manifesto of the avant-garde. It cannot have
been by chance that the exhibition poster depicts a photojournalist with
camera in an extreme low-angle shot (Fig. 8). This motif evokes new
currents in photography − New Vision, in particular − that called for a
rethinking of conventional, established visual structures. Beyond this
Figure 8 ‘Film und Foto’ [Film and Photo], international exhibition of the Deutscher
Werkbund, Stuttgart 1929, poster design: Jan Tschichold, photo: Willi Ruge.
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initial reading, however, the image of the photographer also illustrates
the rapid rise of photojournalism in the years prior to 1930. The press
photographer, who had often acted anonymously and remained unseen
for so long, now stepped confidently into the public eye. In Werner
Graeff’s illustrated book, published concurrently with the ‘Film und
Foto’ exhibition in Stuttgart, this new breed of photographer was even
announced in the title: Here Comes the New Photographer!47
The connection between photography and film proclaimed by the
Stuttgart exhibition was by no means a mere slogan. Countless con-
nections existed between the two forms of media in the years around
1930, although the influences of film on the illustrated press, particu-
larly in the area of photo-reportage, are more immediately evident than
the inverse. Techniques and effects common to motion pictures were
seized upon and adapted to the newspaper layout. A host of narrative
and creative elements from film appeared in photo-reportages, such as
occasionally quick editorial cuts, round image details reminiscent of
fade-ins and fade-outs, the link between long shots and close-ups and
so on. Photo-reportage designers even kept a close eye on the experi-
mental films being produced at the time. Films like Walter Ruttmann’s
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927) or Robert Siodmak and Edgar
G. Ulmer’s quasi-documentary film, People on Sunday (1930), exhibit
many connections to photo-reportage, including thematic choices and
narrative style.
In order to gauge just how close the ties were between the press and
film in the 1920s, one may consider the fact that some famous direc-
tors, including Billy Wilder, began their careers as journalists. Moreover,
beyond the classic photo-illustrated publications, many media groups in
the 1920s also featured high-circulation illustrated film magazines in their
lists. The photographically illustrated articles on feature films often imi-
tated narrative models used in film; that is, they were presented in the form
of photo-essays. Furthermore, there are several noteworthy biographies
shaped by the ties between film and the illustrated press. Stefan Lorant,
managing editor of the Münchner Illustrierte Presse and thus directly
involved in the implementation and development of photo-reportage, had
worked in the past as a screenwriter and as editor of the film publication
UFA-Magazin. Conversely, before the director Robert Siodmak trans-
ferred to film in the late 1920s, he had worked as a journalist and briefly
as the publisher of Das Magazin, an illustrated general-interest monthly.
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Film’s impact on narrative forms in the illustrated press can also be
seen in the way different newspapers reported on film and particularly
its more recent developments. Those newspapers that sought to mod-
ernize their visual language in the early days − and that thus became
the pioneers of photo-reportage − were much more open to modern film
than other papers. This applies primarily to the Frankfurt-based Das
Illustrierte Blatt, and in part to the Kölnische Illustrierte, both of which
began reporting regularly on experimental Soviet film and theatre very
early on.48 The conservative illustrated paper Die Woche, meanwhile,
did not grant modern Soviet film any coverage, in part for ideological
reasons. The varying degrees of emphasis put on film also correlate
with the prevalence of photo-reportage: while nearly all German illus-
trated weeklies regularly printed photo-reportages by 1930, the high-
circulation, Berlin-based conservative illustrated weekly Die Woche
never warmed to the new media format.
Reportage Prevails
By the late 1920s, the range of illustrated newspapers printing photo-
reportages had broadened substantially. From early 1929 onward, the
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung began printing the first photo-reportages to
incorporate complex formatting and sophisticated graphics by André
Kertesz and Martin Munkácsi.49 The German photo-reportage boom
reached its apex in 1931–2. Nearly every issue of the Berliner Illustrirte
Zeitung, one of the country’s leading publications, included a major
reportage comprising two or more pages. These wide-ranging picto-
rial reports were partly designed to a high graphic and photographic
standard (Fig. 9). From 1929 onward, the Münchner Illustrierte Presse
also played a crucial role in the establishment of photo-reportage; in
the latter half of the decade, the paper expanded rapidly, increasing
its circulation from 20,000 in 1926 to 280,000 in 1927 and peaking at
700,000 in 1931.50 By 1929, the paper was regularly printing photo-
reportages by contributors such as Erich Salomon, Wolfgang Weber,
P. E. Hahn, Umbo and Felix H. Man. That the Münchner Illustrierte
Presse should so readily embrace the new format had much to do with
Stefan Lorant’s editorial vision for the paper, for which he had worked
since mid-1928.51 He had been deputy editor and stationed in Berlin, the
nexus of German press and agency operations, since 1929, and in June
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Figure 9 ‘Fußballrausch in Buenos Aires’ [Soccer Frenzy in Buenos Aires], photo-
reportage by Martin Munkácsi, Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung 27 (1932) 866–7.
1932 he was named editor-in-chief of the Münchner Illustrierte Presse.
He maintained very close personal ties to the most prominent photo
agencies as well as individual photographers such as Kurt Hübschmann
(who later went by Kurt Hutton, while in exile) or Felix H. Man, who
would become one of the key photographers at the Münchner Illustrierte
Presse. One report typical of Lorant’s interests, photographed by Felix
H. Man and published in 1929 under the title ‘Between the Midnight
and Dawn on the Kurfürstendamm’ (Fig. 10),52 reveals the nocturnal
side of the capital. The reportage, which reveals an unconventional
aspect of the conventional − a street in Berlin − was the product of close
collaboration between Lorant and the photographer.
The increased demand for photo-reportages also became evident in
the work of photo agencies, which were the main distributors of images
for publications. Previously, agencies had supplied primarily individ-
ual photos; from the late 1920s onward, they discovered a new market
niche, in that they began offering picture series and photo-essays on
a given topic, sometimes even selling virtually pre-packaged report-
ages.53 In 1929, two agencies in particular began pushing the sale of
reportages, at times including text.54 The first was Weltrundschau,
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Figure 10 ‘Zwischen Mitternacht und Morgengrauen am Kurfürstendamm’ [Between
Midnight and Dawn on the Kurfürstendamm], photo-reportage by Felix H. Man,
Dephot photo agency, Münchner Illustrierte Presse 38 (1929) 1238–9.
founded by Rudolf Birnbach in 1927 with photographers such as W.
W. Seldowicz, Neudatschin, Erich Comeriner and the brothers Tim and
Georg Gidal. The second was Dephot, founded in 1928–9 by Simon
Guttmann and enlisting photographers Felix H. Man, Umbo, Walter
Bosshard and Kurt Hübschmann, among others.55 Mauritius, an agency
founded in 1929 by Ernst Mayer, also offered reportages in addition to
individual photographs.56
In the German media around 1930, the term ‘reportage’ had become
an oft-quoted trademark of journalism, and its meaning extended far
beyond photo-reporting. Indeed, the genre of reportage had become
inflationary, at least in the opinion of some critics: ‘Dear Egon Erwin
Kisch’, Kurt Tucholsky wrote in 1931 in a letter printed in the critical
journal Die Weltbühne and addressed to the most famous journalist of
the time, ‘What have you done! You, at least, are a reporter, and a very
good one, at that − but to see what goes by “reportage” these days. It is
positively ludicrous.’57 In 1930, even the Münchner Illustrierte Presse
satirized the ubiquity of reportage in an illustrated two-page spread
(Fig. 11). The ironic portrayal drawn by Karl Arnold and written by
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Figure 11 ‘Reportage’ [Reportage], drawing: Karl Arnold, text: Walter Foitzick,
Münchner Illustrierte Presse 32 (1930) 1108–9.
Walter Foitzick depicts scribbling reporters, press photographers and
illustrators at work. Instead of focusing on concise and precise report-
ing, the criticism outlines, the news staff are instead interested in sec-
ondary details.
Power and Money: The Role of Publishers and Editors
Countless specialists were involved in shaping modern photo-reportage.
The images were provided by talented photographers, who now thought
more in terms of photo-essays than individual pictures and frequently
illuminated unusual topics in these series. These photo-essays were
often distributed by a new breed of photo agency that recognized a mar-
ket niche in these multi-page reportages (and often commissioned the
very same). Finally, managing and photo editors at the papers and mag-
azines also played a central role, since they made decisions regarding
the purchase and graphic layout of the photos. Barring a few exceptions
(such as Stefan Lorant), the latter group has long been overlooked in
the history of photography.58 The influence of these editorial teams on
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the development of photo-reportage, however, has proven much greater
than previously known. Editors-in-chief typically cultivated close ties
to the publishers and owners of their respective newspapers; economic
considerations thus flowed directly into their decision-making. They,
too, carefully observed the trends in competing media and developed
strategies to drive circulation. Finally, it was they who managed the
resources for purchasing photos or funding (often elaborate) travel
reportages. Whether a photo-reportage was published, and in which
format and length, was their decision, not that of the photographers or
the agencies. In a late interview, Stefan Lorant, the erstwhile managing
editor of the Münchner Illustrierte Presse, got to the heart of the power
dynamics between editors and photographers: ‘The photographers had
no influence whatsoever on the selection of pictures to appear in the
paper or how the photographs would be p resented. Once they delivered
their photographs, their job ended.’59 In more pointed terms, it could
be said that modern photo-reportage was developed by the editors
in charge and designed by photo editors and graphic designers bent
over light tables littered with the broad-ranging materials provided by
talented photographers.
The editorial teams at the illustrated weeklies were relatively
small. At mid-sized newspapers such as Das Illustrierte Blatt and the
Kölnische Illustrierte Zeitung the staff consisted of the editor-in-chief
and his deputy, a photo editor, several text journalists and adminis-
trative personnel.60 The bulk of services, particularly the photographs
and some copy, were purchased from freelance journalists. Editors-
in-chief or managing editors thus played a central role in determining
the content and graphic direction their publications took. The Berliner
Illustrirte Zeitung, for instance, was run by Kurt Korff (whose real
name was Karfunkel), while the illustrator Karl Szafranksi served
as photo editor and artistic director.61 Josef Platen ran the Kölnische
Illustrierte Zeitung, with managing photo editors Hans Berenbrok
and, starting in 1930, Wolfgang Schade. Das Illustrierte Blatt was run
by Max Geisenheyner, himself a photographer who created a num-
ber of photo-reportages.62 From the late 1920s onward, the Münchner
Illustrierte Presse was, as mentioned, strongly shaped by Stefan
Lorant, who served first as managing editor in Berlin and later as edi-
tor-in-chief. Lorant fostered especially close ties to photo agencies and
photographers. Not only did he determine the topics to be presented,
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he often also provided the design guidelines for select reports, drawing
up sketches by hand.63
Using these as a basis, photo editors and their assistants would
develop the materials into photo-essays and reportages. The photo
editors were often photographers themselves and would occasion-
ally add their own photos to the reportages. This was true of Stefan
Lorant as well as his predecessor at the Berlin offices of the Münchner
Illustrierte Presse, Hans Looser. Photo editors at other newspapers,
such as Wolfgang Schade at the Kölnische Illustrierte Zeitung, who
is known to have produced a series of photo-reportages himself, did
the same (Fig. 12). The decisive journalistic course toward photo-
reportage was thus truly set by editorial departments. The photogra-
phers, most of whom were freelancers, were at the whim of editors’
interests and goodwill, and not the reverse. In the late 1920s, how-
ever, several press photographers’ negotiating power improved notice-
ably when they rose to stardom, as previously discussed. While most
photojournalists could scarcely alter their low socioeconomic stand-
ing, a small handful profited from their nascent celebrity. This group
included Martin Munkácsi, Wolfgang Weber, Walter Bosshard, Harald
Lechenperg, Erich Salomon, Felix H. Man and the American photog-
rapher James Abbe, who published frequently in the major German
illustrated papers.
These papers, particularly the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, pub-
lished by the powerful Ullstein Verlag, paid star reporters decidedly
more than the other photographers. The most sought-after press pho-
tographers who had already made a name for themselves were often
bound to a publishing house by means of a monthly guaranteed sum; in
exchange, they committed to working exclusively for that publisher’s
titles. The publisher recovered a portion of these enormous photogra-
pher salaries − which often enabled long reporting trips − through the
sale of exclusive photographic material for reprinting by other outlets.
In this way, long photo-reportages would often appear in different ver-
sions, particularly when it came to travel reports in multiple instal-
ments: first in the master version in the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung and
then weeks later with changes to content and graphics in regional illus-
trated papers. In retrospect, Kurt Korff, editor-in-chief of the Berliner
Illustrirte Zeitung, described this economic system of star-creation and
photo sales: ‘I found out that there was no sense in picking out a few
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