Henry Ries

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Berlin-Tempelhof 1948

Henry Ries (born September 22, 1917 in Berlin ; died May 24, 2004 in the US state of New York ; born Heinz Ries ) was an American photographer of German origin.

Life

Ries emigrated with part of his family to the USA in 1937 because of the National Socialist persecution of Jews . The American immigration authorities in New York sent him back to Germany because of technical problems with his passport. In January 1938 he was finally allowed to enter the USA after having crossed the Atlantic twice. His grandmother was killed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp .

During the Second World War he fought as a US soldier in Asia . In 1945 he returned to Berlin with the American armed forces. At first he worked as a translator for the US secret service, translating, among other things, Adolf Hitler's will and Gestapo secret files. From 1946 Ries worked as a photographer for the American military government . From 1947 to 1952 he was a photojournalist for the New York Times in Europe.

Ries photographed the German post-war era, the Nuremberg war crimes trials and the Berlin blockade, but also Pablo Picasso , Pablo Casals and Spain's dictator Francisco Franco . Became famous photo from 1948 that has a raisin bombers of the Berlin Airlift in landing approach shows over the watching children. It became a symbol of the USA's support for the freedom of West Berlin, and it was later printed on an American postage stamp.

Ries lived in the USA since the mid-1950s, working as a commercial photographer. From the mid-1970s he devoted himself more to Germany and his native Berlin, opening exhibitions there. He wrote books on contemporary history.

He bequeathed his photographic life's work to the Berlinische Galerie .

tomb

He is buried in the forest cemetery in Zehlendorf . (Field 024-121)

Works

  • Henry Ries: Berlin gallery. Portraits, statements, insights . Ullstein, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3550077041
  • Henry Ries: German. Thoughts and Faces 1948–1949 . Argon Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3870241217
  • Henry Ries: Photographs from Berlin, Germany and Europe 1946–1951. Exhibition catalog of the Photographic Collection of the Berlinische Galerie . Berlin 1988, ISBN 3870241225
  • Henry Ries: People at the destroyed Anhalter Bahnhof , Museum for Transport and Technology, Berlin 1990
  • Henry Ries: Farewell to my generation . Argon Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3870242027
  • Henry Ries: Auschwitz . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3351024630
  • Henry Ries: Berlin, photographs 1946–1949 . Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3875846907
  • Henry Ries: I was a Berliner. Memories of a New York Photojournalist . Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3932529316

Films with and about Henry Ries

  • Manfred Wilhelms: The Flaneur of Berlin - A tale of two cities (with Henry Ries). Berlin 1999/2005, 105 minutes, 16 mm color and black and white. Author, director, camera, editing, production: Manfred Wilhelms / Lassoband-Filmproduktion, Berlin. World premiere: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, on November 7th and 9th, 2005

Honors

Berlin memorial plaque in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Ries was in 1999 by the Governing Mayor of Berlin with the honorary title of Professor e. H. excellent.

Berlin memorial plaque on the house where he was born in Meinekestrasse 12 in 10719 Berlin-Wilmersdorf , unveiling on June 3, 2008:

Henry Ries
September 22, 1917 - May 24, 2004
New York photojournalist and writer
"I was a Berliner"
He was the photographer of the German post-war period
His photo of a “cherry bomber” from the Berlin Airlift
became a symbol of support for the
Freedom of West Berlin through the USA, which he moved to in 1938
had to emigrate

literature

  • Thomas Hartwig , Hans-Joachim Roscher: Henry Ries (interview with Ries with curriculum vitae), in: The promised city: German-Jewish emigrants in New York; Conversations, impressions and pictures , Berlin: Das Arsenal 1986, ISBN 978-3-921810-66-8 , pp. 80–89
  • Christoph Hamann: "Raisin Bomber". On the rhetoric of the Berlin blockade , in: Gerhard Paul : The Century of Pictures. Picture atlas . Volume 1. 1900 to 1949 . Göttingen: V&R, 2009, pp. 762–767

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ries, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ries, Heinz (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer of German origin
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 2004
Place of death new York