Kurt Klagsbrunn

Kurt Klagsbrunn ( May 6, 1918 in Vienna - August 7, 2005 in Rio de Janeiro ) was a photographer of Austrian origin living in Brazil .

life and work

Klagsbrunn came from a well-off, assimilated Jewish family. The father, Leopold Klagsbrunn (born on February 2, 1888 in Wadowice / Galicia, died in Brazil in 1957; chemist, businessman), was a respected coal trader and an official of the Floridsdorf football club FAC . His mother, Friederike, née Kohn (died in 1964 in Brazil), acted as the “loving, reproving head of the family”. The family had their residence at Pilzgasse 9 in Vienna- Floridsdorf , the so-called Villa Klagsbrunn . Kurt had an older brother, Peter, born in 1913. The parents were simply called Leo and Fritzi by friends. The two sons experienced a largely carefree childhood and youth in Vienna in the 1920s and 1930s, with skiing holidays in Zakopane, Poland, and summer holidays on Lake Wörthersee. Kurt Klagsbrunn graduated from the Realgymnasium in Floridsdorf and began studying medicine at the University of Vienna in the winter semester of 1936/37, just like his brother .

Shortly after the annexation of Austria by Hitler's Germany in March 1938, the family's residence was searched by the police and the brothers were expelled from the University of Vienna. The family quickly decided to emigrate and sold the coal business to an employee, as did the house in Floridsdorf. In October 1938, parents and sons emigrated to Rio de Janeiro via Rotterdam and Lisbon . They arrived there on March 15, 1939 and settled in the Laranjeiras district.

The father built up a sales organization for chemical products and the mother worked as a seamstress. The sons could not continue their medical studies and also had to go to work: Peter as a representative of pharmaceutical and perfume products, Kurt as a professional photographer. This career choice turned out to be a happy one, as photojournalism in Brazil experienced a strong boom during these years. In 1941 he was able to open his first photo studio. At the same time, he took part in anti-fascist student organizations, made numerous contacts to the political left in Brazil and documented their commitment with photographs. At the same time, he worked in advertising, was accredited by the federal government and became a sought-after society photographer. His photographs have appeared in the US magazines TIME and LIFE as well as in several Brazilian magazines, including O Cruzeiro . He became known as an industrial, fashion and lifestyle photographer and documented the development of Brazil, accompanied the emergence of the new capital Brasilia and the growth of Rio de Janeiro until the end of his career in 1980.

In old age he married his partner, the bookseller Rosina Walter, also known as Rose. The couple lived in the Laranjeiras neighborhood. After the death of his wife, his nephew Victor Klagsbrunn took over his care.

estate

In his estate in Rio de Janeiro is his collection of over 120,000 images (negatives and positives) as well as manuscripts and printed matter. The Jewish Museum Vienna managed to bring part of the estate to Vienna. These include documents from his time in Vienna and his escape, his student ID, a sketchbook of the 13-year-old, photographs, letters and a menu from the 1939 boat trip to Rio. But the humid climate of Brazil had severely affected several objects. They are now being restored and cataloged.

Exhibitions

• 2015: Kurt Klagsbrunn. To fotógrafo humanista no Rio. Catálogo da exposição realizada no Rio de Janeiro, Museu de Arte do Rio , 14 de April to 9 de agosto de 2015.
• 2018: Jewish Museum Vienna , from December 5, 2018

literature

• Marcia Mello, Mauricio Lissovsky (Eds.): Refúgio do olhar. A fotografia de Kurt Klagsbrunn no Brasil dos anos 1940. Casa da Palavra, Rio de Janeiro 2013. (Portuguese and English).
• Erich Hackl : Three tearless stories , Diogenes 2015
• Ursula Seeber, Barbara Weidle (Ed.): Kurt Klagsbrunn. Photographer in the land of the future. Weidle, Bonn 2013, ISBN 978-3-938803-61-5 .

Portraits

• Awakening photographer , Wina , October 2013
• The moving story of Kurt Klagsbrunn , Dimensions, ö1 , February 22, 2018, 7:05 p.m.

swell

• Kurt Klagsbrunn in the memorial book for the victims of National Socialism at the University of Vienna in 1938
• Mauricio Lissovsky: Kurt Klagsbrunn, fotógrafo. Icônica , February 26, 2013, accessed February 25, 2018 (Brazilian Portuguese).