Georg Pahl (photographer)

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Georg Pahl, 1923

Georg Pahl ( October 20, 1900 - May 13, 1963 ) was a German press photographer and journalist in the 1920s and early 1930s. Pahl broke Adolf Hitler's photographic anonymity in 1923 .

Life

Georg Pahl started his apprenticeship with the Berlin professional photographer Heinrich Sanden I (born 1877), who founded the Atlantic Photo company in 1919 (from 1930 “Atlantic” Photo-Gesellschaft mbH ). He made Georg Pahl self-employed on March 4, 1923 with the establishment of the photo agency ABC-Current-Pictures-Centrale . He ran his company in Berlin-Steglitz . With his photo agency, Pahl concentrated primarily on important political events, public events and everyday life in the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist period from 1923 to 1936. In 1944 he was one of the cameramen for the Panorama Color Monthly Show .

Encounter with Hitler

Adolf Hitler's appearances as a speaker from 1919 to 1923 were characterized by the fact that he was only heard in public, but not actually seen and, above all, not photographed. Hitler's camera shy had a political background: Since the NSDAP was banned under the Republic Protection Act in Prussia on November 15, 1922, Hitler was the chairman of the party (at that time he still had Austrian citizenship and was therefore not a German citizen ) when traveling on Prussian Area at risk of police arrest at any time. For this reason he did not want to provide the Prussian authorities with a mug shot .

The first photo from the early years of Hitler's political rise comes from Georg Pahl. While Hitler visited Luna Park in Berlin with Ernst Hanfstaengl and other companions in April 1923 , he was recognized by Pahl and photographed. According to Pahl's report, Hitler immediately rushed at him to snatch the camera from him, but he did not succeed. Hitler was finally able to convince Pahl to destroy the photo negatives. A few months later, on September 2, 1923, Pahl was able to take a snapshot of Hitler during a parade on the German Day in Nuremberg and flee from SA men . Georg Pahl thus broke Hitler's photographic anonymity. These events motivated Hitler to work steadily with Heinrich Hoffmann as a portraitist. From 1934 Georg Pahl was no longer officially admitted to NSDAP events.

collection

Works (selection)

Web links

Commons : Georg Pahl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b Kerbs / Uka / Walz-Richter: On the history of press photography 1930-36 - the synchronization of images. Frölich & Kaufmann, 1983, pp. 122, 32-73.
  2. ↑ a b Cf. Herz / Halfbrodt: Revolution and Photography. Nishen, 1988, p. 283.
  3. ^ Institute for Journalism of the Free University of Berlin: The German Press. Duncker & Humblot, 1954, p. 177.
  4. ↑ a b fotoerbe.de: Current-Pictures-Centrale, Georg Pahl in the picture archive of the Federal Archives, Koblenz , accessed on January 6, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b c Cf. Claudia Schmölders: Hitler's face. CH Beck, 2000, pp. 54, 55, 58.
  6. ↑ a b cf. Thomas Friedrich: Image of man and face of the people. Münster 2005, p. 12.
personal data
SURNAME Pahl, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photojournalist
DATE OF BIRTH 20th October 1900
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1963