Carl Bellingrodt

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Carl Bellingrodt (born April 7, 1897 in Cologne , † September 24, 1971 in Wuppertal ) was one of the most famous German railway photographers of the 20th century and co-founder of the Federal Association of German Railway Friends (BDEF). He worked full-time as a police officer, later he switched to financial administration.

Life and work as a photographer

Bellingrodt began even before the First World War with the photograph . He took his first surviving picture of the German Emperor Wilhelm II. He soon specialized in landscape photography and, above all, in railway photography . In the course of his activity he made more than 30,000 photos of locomotives and trains . However, his collection suffered significant losses twice in a fire and a burst water pipe.

Not only are the type recordings systematically created by Bellingrodt of individual locomotives and locomotive series in specific, fixed perspectives known. Particularly popular with railway enthusiasts and preferred by Bellingrodt are the shots of trains in striking landscapes, train stations or in the station apron. Most of his photographs were taken in black and white photography, color photographs are rarer . His way of photography, in which the train shaped the picture diagonally, was in many cases a style-defining way for other railway photographers. Bellingrodt was already selling recordings to publishers before the Second World War . These were often used as templates for postcards. Bellingrodt also worked as a photographer for the Deutsche Reichsbahn .

After Bellingrodt's death, his widow continued to run his archive for a few years until she sold it to Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag in 1981 . Today most of the photographic work, including an almost complete collection of pictures, is privately owned.

Meaning today

Illustrated books and other publications with his photographs are still widely sold today and reissued over and over again. The BDEF, which he co-founded, is today the largest German association for amateur railroaders with over 12,000 members.

literature

  • Klaus D. Holzborn / Carl Bellingrodt: Steam locomotives / standard gauge . Alba Buchverlag, Düsseldorf (1971) 4th edition
  • Müller, Siegfried: Obituary: Carl Bellingrodt died in September 1971 . in: Eisenbahn-Kurier 9/1981, pp. 6-17
  • Railway romance on the Rhine - on the road with Carl Bellingrodt . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-88255-291-1 .
  • Railroad rarities in color - From the Carl Bellingrodt archive 1933 to 1960 . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 978-3-88255-272-0 .
  • Railway trip with Carl Bellingrodt EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-88255-300-0 .
  • A life for railway photography - Carl Bellingrodt and his famous locomotive image archive . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2004, ISBN 978-3-88255-289-8 .
  • Railway steam locomotives - From the famous Carl Bellingrodt picture archive . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (2001) ISBN 978-3-88255-283-6 .
  • Brinker, Helmut / Ursula Arlowski / Alfred B. Gottwaldt: Master photos from the great railroad era - the life's work of Carl Bellingrodt, the old master of railroad photography. GeraMond, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7654-7256-5 .
  • Brinker, Helmut: Carl Bellingrodt - The photographic work. DGEG-Medien, Hövelhof 2011, ISBN 978-3-937189-60-4 .

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