Edmund Höfer

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Edmund Höfer (born March 27, 1933 in Lugoj , German  Lugosch , Kingdom of Romania ; † August 19, 2014 in Munich ) was a German press and art photographer from Romania . For decades his work shaped the face of the newspaper Neuer Weg , the only central German daily newspaper in communist Romania .

life and work

Höfer's father owned a weaving mill in Lugosch . After the royal coup d'état on August 23, 1944, he was first sent to a camp as a person of German origin and then deported to the Soviet Union . As a "fiu de exploatator" ( German  son of exploiters ) he was released from the Lyceum in 1947 and had to catch up on his school leaving certificate later. At his mother's request, he did an apprenticeship as a dental technician, but found little pleasure in the job. After completing his apprenticeship, he worked in the biochemical laboratory of the Lugoj hospital. He succeeded his superior Popovici, who was to take over the management of the laboratory in the newly built polyclinic in Reșița , and trained there as a biochemistry laboratory assistant. Later he worked in the laboratory of the steel mill in Reșița. In the three-shift operation, he was able to take on shifts from colleagues, which enabled him to use several non-working days in a row to take photos.

Höfer received his first photographic assignment from the photographer Hermann Heel (also Heel Moni ), who supported Höfer's efforts to become a professional photographer and sent him with his Leica 35mm camera to Bocşa , where he was supposed to take photos of a newly built tuberculosis prevention children's home. Höfer sent some of his photos to the newspaper Neuer Weg , several of which were published there. His first application as a photographer at Neuer Weg was initially rejected in 1955. In addition to his work in the steel mill, he worked as a photo reporter for the local newspaper Flamura rosie . Soon afterwards, Höfer was able to take up his work as a photographer through Heels at Neuer Weg in Bucharest . In this function he traveled to the areas of Romania inhabited by Romanian Germans, especially Transylvania . Later he was able to choose some of his subjects himself, for example the photo series “Transylvanian Winter” was created. In his portrait series he photographed cultural workers of German origin such as Alexander Tietz and Rolf Bossert , but also had encounters with musicians performing in Bucharest such as Dawid Fjodorowitsch Oistrach , Swjatoslaw Teofilowitsch Richter , Yehudi Menuhin , Sergiu Celibidache and Herbert von Karajan . His other works include portraits of workers, landscape and industrial photos as well as nudes and advertising and program photos, among others for the Bulandra Theater ( Romanian Teatrul Bulandra ). Other pictures show the life of the Jews in northern Moldova and Bukowina .

The Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique awarded Edmund Höfer the title “Artist FIAP” in Bern in 1961 and the title “Excellence FIAP” in 1965. The Romanian Association of Art Photographers regularly appointed Höfer to the jury of the photo salons. At an international photo competition in Vienna in the mid-1960s, Höfer received the gold medal, the first gold medal for a photographer from Romania.

In the 1980s, Höfer's photographs appeared on covers of books by Mircea Dinescus , Herta Müllers , William Totoks , Richard Wagners , Werner Söllners , and others published by the Bucharest publisher Editura Kriterion . His snapshot of a Banat-Swabian young woman in a white wedding dress, with a wreath and veil and her feet in a lavoir appeared in Stern magazine and Life magazine .

In 1988 Höfer moved to Germany. Here he was commissioned by the Jewish Museum Munich to photograph the Jewish ghetto in Venice . In the following exhibition he showed color pictures for the first time; until then Höfer had only exhibited black and white photography .

Edmund Höfer's wife Helga was employed, among other things, for Romanian television. Her son, Hanno Höfer , is a director, producer and musician.

Publications

  • Sibiu (Hermannstadt). Photos: Edmund Höfer. Text: Paul Schuster . Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest 1968
  • Ojtser. The shtetl in the Moldau and Bukowina today , Vienna 1988

Exhibitions

  • "Jewish life in Bukowina", Friedrich Teutsch cultural and meeting center of the Evangelical Church AB in Romania, 2005
  • “Jewish Worlds in Romania”, Yiddish Culture Days in Bucharest April 10-12, 2005
  • Jewish Museum Munich
  • Goethe Institute , Bucharest

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Konrad Klein: Edmund Höfer: A Romanian-German photographer legend is dead. Obituary to sevenbuerger.de from September 28, 2014
  2. ↑ General German newspaper for Romania , Werner Kremm : Black and white photography - mood images from 40 years of hobby photo practice , November 15, 2013
  3. ↑ a b c d e General German newspaper for Romania, Herta Drozdik-Drexler: “It doesn't just depend on the camera” - conversation with press and art photographer Edmund Höfer
  4. ^ Bulletin of the home association Banater Berglanddeutscher e. V .: The art photographer Hermann Heel honored by an exhibition in Reschitz ( memento from January 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), 1997
  5. ↑ Hans Fink : When the ballroom was too small ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.banaterra.eu archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2014
  6. ^ German National Library : Werner Söllner: A weaning: poems, cover design Edmund Höfer
  7. ↑ General German newspaper for Romania, Hans Liebhardt : A comprehensive film lexicon. From Gertrud Fernengel to Christian Maurer to Nicky Wolcz. , December 8, 2013
  8. ^ Yiddish Culture Days in Bucharest April 10-12, 2005
personal data
SURNAME Höfer, Edmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German press and art photographer
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Lugoj , Kingdom of Romania
DATE OF DEATH 19th August 2014
Place of death Munich