Karl Pawek

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Karl H. Pawek , (born August 27, 1906 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; † September 24, 1983 in St. Peter near Freiburg ) was a co-founder of various magazines, including Die Pause , 1935 and magnum. The magazine for modern life , 1954. By means of Stohmann he should already be included in the magazine Austria International. The Austrian Journal for Economy and Culture played a leading role, from whose publishing house Austria International GmbH emerged in 1954 magnum . From 1962 he was an editor at Stern magazine . Pawek was best known as a photo theorist and as curator of the exhibition series World Exhibition of Photography (1964, 1968, 1973 and 1977), which reached an audience of millions.

biography

Pawek attended grammar school in the prince- archbishop's boys' seminar in Hollabrunn with the aim of becoming a priest and graduated with the Matura. After a broken off theology course, Pawek obtained a doctorate in scholasticism in Innsbruck in 1931 with the dissertation: The theory of categories by Othmar Spann. Attempt to reach an understanding between the holistic and the Aristotelian-scholastic process . The discussion with Othmar Spann , a theoretician of the corporate state , had a lasting impact on Pawek's thinking. Following his doctorate, Pawek worked as a cultural advisor in Catholic Action and was appointed general secretary of the Catholic Culture Weeks . In 1935 he founded the magazine Die Pause as part of the public education work of the mayor of Vienna , where he became the so-called main editor . After the invasion of German troops in Austria ( Anschluss (Austria) ) he lost this post and became deputy chief editor. He was refused membership in the NSDAP that he had applied for , although he voluntarily paid membership fees and published articles in his magazine that were friendly to the regime.

soldier

In 1942 Pawek was drafted into Eisenstadt as a soldier , but was not sent to the front because of severe nervous conditions . As a result of a denunciation by Pawek, the officers Major Karl Biedermann , Captain Alfred Huth and First Lieutenant Rudolf Raschke were executed on April 8, 1945, because they had prepared a surrender of the city of Vienna to the Red Army without a fight ( Operation Radetzky ), which Pawek had heard about by chance. Pawek was promoted to sergeant because of this denunciation shortly before the city of Vienna was occupied by Soviet troops on April 13th. Pawek fled to St. Gilgen and worked for the American military government at the Salzburg radio station .

Condemnation

After his arrest on July 16, 1945, the so-called People's Court sentenced him on July 21. Pawek was replaced because of the denunciation of Operation Radetzky with the words “ as a punishment for heavy dungeon for a period of (3) three years, aggravated by a hard camp every three months, and dark detention every April 5 of the year […] convicted of the costs of the criminal proceedings. The imprisonment from July 16, 1945, 10 p.m. to November 21, 1947, 12 p.m. counts towards this sentence ”. The comparatively mild punishment resulted from an opinion by a psychiatric expert. Pawek had to serve the entire sentence, although Minister Felix Hurdes had stood up for him.

Post war career

Because victims were not allowed to do journalistic work in Austria up to the amnesties in 1955 and 1957, biographers suspect that Pawek used a deputy ( Klotilde Maria Gassner ) who was responsible in accordance with the press law to work on the magazine Austria International . Pawek only appeared in No. 6 of magnum magazine after it had moved from Vienna to Frankfurt am Main. Former co-authors of the magazine Die Pause , who issued certificates of repute for Pawek during his imprisonment, also wrote under Pawek's direction in magnum , including the art historian and NSDAP member Bruno Grimschitz , the house of the Wehrmacht architect Josef Hoffmann , the controversial Carinthian writer Josef Friedrich Perkonig and other celebrities more.

From 1962 Pawek was editor and head of the exhibition department at Stern magazine .

Pawek became known for his writings on the theory of photography and for organizing the exhibition series World Exhibition of Photography in collaboration with Stern magazine (1964: Was ist der Mensch?, 1968: Die Frau , 1973: Unterwegs zum Paradies , 1977: Children of this world ). Both in his writings and in the exhibitions he pursued a concept of unadorned “life photography” which, in contrast to artistic photography, made “reality” seem like a “scandal”. Understood in this way, photography is “a new point of contact between our minds and reality”: “He does not necessarily have to let himself be irradiated by the“ good and beautiful ”of a representation in order to make progress with himself; he can also have a dialogue with what is already there, lead with what he finds and get in motion in this way. ... In photography, the object does not have an edifying effect on the mind due to its perfection, ideality, morality or aesthetics. Rather, the object should entangle the mind in the dialectic of confrontation and in this way set it in motion. ”The first world exhibition of photography was already controversially discussed and, among other things, critical with Steichen's exhibition The Family of Man (1955, Museum of Modern Art , New York ) compared.

Honors

Secondary sources

  • Unsigned obituary in Camera Austria magazine , No. 14, 1984, p. 82: Magnum founder Karl Pawek has died
  • Jörn Glasenapp : German post-war photography. A story of mentality in pictures , chap. 4.1 - Plagiarism of what was there? Karl Pawek's World Exhibition of Photography , Fink, Paderborn 2008, pp. 213–257
  • Reinhard Müller : Karl Pawek , biographical and bibliographical data in the archive for the history of sociology in Austria, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz , 2013
  • Timm Starl: Lecture The imagination of photography is an open matter. Karl Pawek and the world exhibition of photography on October 13, 2000 at the conference The Family of Man 1955 - 2000. Humanism and postmodernism: a revision of Edward Steichen's legendary photo exhibition , organized by the University of Trier and the Center national de l'audiovisuel (CNA ) Luxembourg , in the European Academy of Fine Arts Trier, October 12-14, 2000, published by Jonas-Verlag
  • Margarethe Szeless: The culture magazine magnum. Photographic findings of the modern age , Jonas, Marburg 2007

Publications

  • Total photography. The optics of the new realism , Walter-Verlag, Olten / Freiburg im Breisgau 1960.
  • The optical age. Basics of a new era , Walter-Verlag, Olten / Freiburg im Breisgau 1963.
  • World Exhibition of Photography. 555 photos by 264 photographers from 30 countries on the topic: What is man? , with a preface by Heinrich Böll ( The humane camera ) and an introduction by Karl Pawek, Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 1964.
  • Panopticon or Reality. The controversy over photography , Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 1965.
  • The picture from the machine. Scandal and triumph of photography , Walter-Verlag, Olten / Freiburg im Breisgau 1968.
  • 2nd World Exhibition of Photography: The Woman. 522 photos from 85 countries by 236 photographers , Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg 1968.
  • 3rd World Exhibition of Photography: On the Way to Paradise. 434 photos from 86 countries by 170 photographers , Gruner + Jahr / C. Bertelsmann, Hamburg / Munich 1973.
  • 4th World Exhibition of Photography: The children of this world. 515 photos from 94 countries by 238 photographers , Gruner + Jahr / C. Bertelsmann, Hamburg / Munich 1977.

swell

  1. ↑ Court files of the People's Court from 1945 to 1948, item VG 4 f Vr 2785. The files are in the documentation archive of the Austrian resistance in Vienna as copies, signatures 6384 / A and 19890 / 1-3
  2. ↑ a b c Timm Starl: The other side of the story. Karl Pawek: pupil of priests, founder of magazines, NSDAP candidate, war criminal, psychopath, exhibition organizer, cultural award winner , essay in photo history. Contributions to the history and aesthetics of photography , periodical, issue 87, 2003, Jonas Verlag, page 65 ff. With photo Paweks
  3. ^ Reinhard Müller: Karl Pawek , website of the archive for the history of sociology in Austria, University of Graz
  4. ↑ Margarethe Szeless: The culture magazine magnum , chap. The role model function of Othmar Spann's theory of categories for Pawek's cultural theory , pp. 148–154
  5. ^ The judgment against Pawek of November 21, 1947 is stamped Amnesty 1957, July 26, 1957
  6. ↑ Federal Constitutional Law of February 6, 1947 on the Treatment of the National Socialists (National Socialist Law), StGB1 25/1947; §18: Affected persons ... have to bear the following atonement: ... h) They cannot participate in the design of the content of a newspaper ..., newspaper correspondence or a collective work, be it through regular contributions, be it through participate irregularly or in any other way; Furthermore, they cannot make a work of literature of which they are the author ... available to the public .
  7. ^ Reinhard Müller: Karl Pawek , website of the archive for the history of sociology in Austria, University of Graz
  8. ↑ Karl Pawek: Total Photo , chap. The shock of the life picture , p. 130
  9. ^ Karl Pawek: Why a world exhibition of photography , foreword in the catalog 2nd world exhibition of photography , o. P.
  10. ↑ Jörn Glasenapp: The German Post-War Photography , chap. 4.1 - Plagiarism of what was there? Karl Pawek's World Exhibition of Photography , pp. 213–257
  11. ^ Karl Steinorth : Laudation Dr. Karl Pawek in DGPh Intern, No. 4, 1984, pp. 169-171.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pawek, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pawek, Karl H.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian co-founder of various magazines
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 24, 1983
Place of death St. Peter