Kurt Szafranski

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kurt Szafranski , in America he called himself Safranski , ( 1890 in Berlin - March 1, 1964 in Kingston , New York ) was a German-American draftsman and editor and co-founder of the Black Star picture agency .

Live and act

As a friend of the same age of Kurt Tucholsky , Szafranski illustrated his first novel Rheinsberg in 1912 : A picture book for lovers , published by Axel Juncker in Berlin. Further illustrations followed, including for Klabund . In the 1920s he was a managing director of the Berliner Illustrirten Zeitung (BIZ). As artistic director, he set standards in the field of illustrated magazines. The sheet from Ullstein Verlag was the largest magazine in the world until 1933 with a circulation of almost 2 million copies.

Since he was of Jewish descent, Szafranski and his family emigrated to the USA in 1934, aware of the impending danger posed by the Nazi regime . In 1935, together with Kurt Kornfeld and Ernest Mayer, he founded the well-known Black Star picture agency in New York , which became a contact point for US photographers and for photographers who had emigrated from Europe, especially from Germany. The then leading magazines Life and Time were important buyers . In 2005 the Black Star Archive came into the possession of Ryerson University in Toronto .

Kurt Szafranski died on March 1, 1964 in Kingston.

Publications

  • Kurt S. Safranski: Selling your pictures . Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, Chicago 1940

literature

  • David Oels, Ute Schneider: “The whole publishing house is simply a bonbonniere.” Ullstein in the first half of the 20th century. Walter de Gruyter, 2015, ISBN 978-3-11033708-2
  • Michael Hepp: Kurt Tucholsky. Biographical Approaches . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-498-06495-9

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A picture book for lovers online  - Internet Archive
  2. ^ Szafranski, Kurt (1890–1964)  , Kalliope Association
  3. ↑ Brigitte Werneburg: LIFE: Leben in der Emigration - German Photojournalists in America , December 1991
  4. ↑ 50th anniversary of Kurt Szafranski's death , German Press Museum in Ullsteinhaus eV, accessed on October 2, 2018

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Szafranski, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Safranski, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Illustrator; Editor and co-founder of a picture agency
DATE OF BIRTH 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1964
Place of death Kingston , New York