Karl Zimmermann (photographer)

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Karl Albert Zimmermann (born July 21, 1885 in Diez , † February 24, 1943 in Hausen (Wied) ) was a German photographer .

Life and work

From around 1914 until the mid-1920s, Karl Zimmermann ran a photography shop and an art publisher in Freiendiez at Dietzer Strasse 11, and at that time he was already known as an art photographer. As recently as 1919, Zimmermann advertised being in possession of honorable recognitions from His Majesty the German Emperor and a medal for outstanding achievements . Together with his Swedish wife Änne (also Anne, Anna) Viktoria Zimmermann (born November 20, 1883 Hörby ; † November 22, 1962 in Åhus ), née Lindstedt, who was also a photographer, he also founded the company Lindstedt und Zimmermann in Freiendiez in 1919 . Zimmermann was already working here for the French army.

Under the name Lindstedt and Zimmermann, the couple set up another shop with a studio at Kaiserin-Augusta-Ring No. 3 in Koblenz in 1920 , which at the time was the headquarters of the American Forces in Germany (AFG for short). The house on today's Moselring had been in his possession since the early 1930s at the latest. After moving to Koblenz, Karl Zimmermann a. a. for the American, later also for the French army and about two years for the Inter-Allied Rhineland Commission .

After the outbreak of a mental illness, Zimmermann was admitted to the Provincial Sanatorium Andernach at the end of 1925 , where he remained with interruptions until 1928. Since that year, the company has been using the name Welt-Foto-Koblenz before the old name Lindstedt-Zimmermann, Karl Zimmermann now called himself a press photographer , whose pictures were also printed in national newspapers such as the newspaper Das Illustrierte Blatt , which appears in Frankfurt am Main . Because of his illness, he was repeatedly treated in the following years, after a long stay in a clinic, he gave up the business he ran with his wife in 1934, the company ceased to exist in 1939 at the latest . Änne Zimmermann continued to work as a studio photographer until 1939, mainly for portraits.

Karl Zimmermann did not live to see the destruction of the house on Kaiserin-Augusta-Ring and thus his life's work in the air raids on Koblenz . He died on February 24, 1943 after a long and serious illness in the Hausen sanatorium and was buried in Koblenz.

Working as a photographer

Karl Zimmermann was an excellent specialist as a photographer . His strengths included outdoor recordings, the compositional structure and brilliance of which also found recognition in the industry . In addition to architecture, everyday and portrait shots, his portfolio also included industrial and sports shots as well as advertising films .

His photographs, most of which were taken from around 1920 to 1925 and 1928 to 1930, probably around 22,000 photos, largely document the Allied occupation of the Rhineland after the First World War in the Koblenz zone and are therefore an excellent source for this period However, work mainly rests on the soldiers, civilian workers and members of the occupying armies. Zimmermann was present at every opportunity at that time, as the commanding general of the American armed forces in Germany, Henry T. Allen , noted in his Rhineland diary on February 6, 1923: Today the High Commission formally said goodbye to me. The omnipresent carpenter was also there with his photographic apparatus to complete the report on the historical moment.

Since his estate was probably destroyed in 1945, his complete works are still undocumented.

gallery

literature

  • Peter Brommer, Peter Kleber, Achim Krümmel: Koblenz in the flashback. Photographic excursion through the years 1862 to 1945. Görres, Koblenz 2004, p. 14. ISBN 3-935690-34-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See StAK DB 2 No. 1 Lindstedt & Zimmermann
  2. ↑ See obituary notice in the Koblenzer Nationalblatt , February 26, 1943
  3. ↑ See StAK DB 2 No. 1 Lindstedt & Zimmermann.
  4. ↑ See Anna Lindstedt. In: Photographers i bygden och Fotoaffärer. Retrieved March 14, 2020 . According to another source (see here. In: . Anna Viktoria Zimmermann Accessed on March 29, 2020 . ) Died Änne Zimmermann on 11 November 1962, was buried on 17 November at the new cemetery in Åhus. According to the short biography at Brommer-Kleber-Krümmel, her trail is lost in 1973 in Koblenz.
  5. ↑ Cf. Homeowner Directory of the City of Koblenz. In: residents' register of Koblenz and the surrounding area, 1931/1932. Retrieved March 14, 2020 .
  6. ↑ StAK DB 2 No. 1 Lindstedt & Zimmermann.
  7. ↑ Peter Brommer, Peter Kleber, Achim Krümmel: Koblenz in der Rückblende, p. 14.
  8. ^ Obituary in the Koblenzer Nationalblatt, February 26, 1943.
  9. ↑ Peter Brommer, Peter Kleber, Achim Krümmel: Koblenz in der Rückblende, p. 14.
  10. ↑ A large number of the photographs taken in and around Koblenz have a consecutive number on the front and a varying stamp on the back. Based on these features, combined with any dates on the photos, they can be roughly classified in terms of time. The last known picture in this series from 1925 bears the number 18809. In the course of the new start of the company as Welt-Foto-Koblenz , counting starts over in 1928, the last known number is 3004 from August 1930.
  11. ↑ See entry from February 6, 1923. In: Henry T. Allen: mein Rheinland-Tagebuch, 2nd edition, Berlin 1923, p. 367. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Zimmermann, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zimmermann, Karl Albert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Diez
DATE OF DEATH February 24, 1943
Place of death Hausen (Wied)