Otto Bettmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otto Bettman (1947)
Available in the Bettmann archive under the order number U1946108A : Franz Ferdinand and Sophie Chotek , a few minutes before the assassination attempt on June 28, 1914.

Otto Ludwig Bettmann (born October 15, 1903 in Leipzig ; died May 3, 1998 in Boca Raton , Florida ) was an American picture archivist and picture entrepreneur of German origin.

Life

Bettmann grew up in a family of doctors in Leipzig. After attending the König-Albert-Gymnasium in his hometown, he studied in Freiburg and Leipzig and completed his studies with a doctorate on author rights and the book trade in the 18th century. In 1927 he began working for Henri Hinrichsen at the music publisher CF Peters . In 1928 he switched to Axel Junker Verlag, trained as a librarian and in 1930 became curator at the Berlin Art Library , part of the Berlin State Museums .

After the transfer of power to the Nazis in Germany in 1933, he was the Jew a disbarment and emigrated in 1935 to the United States. He had already started collecting prints and photographs in Germany, filmed them and cataloged them. With 25,000 negatives in his luggage, he opened an agency in New York City that licensed the use of the image print ( slide ) for a single use . The business was based, on the one hand, on its ability to track down, store, and catalog huge amounts of images and identify the right image icons for customers, and its ability to forge commercial and social relationships on a personal basis. Among his first customers were the editorial offices of the magazines Look and LIFE . In 1981 he sold the Bettmann archive that he created in his company with over two million pictures to the Kraus-Thomson Organization Ltd, and in 1995 it was passed on to Corbis . He was the author of various cultural-historical writings, commentator on his own photo collections and wrote an autobiography . From the five-volume literary history Makers and Finders: A History of the Writer in America, 1800–1915 by Van Wyck Brooks , which was published between 1936 and 1952, he created a version of Our literary heritage that was shortened to a sixth in 1956 and provided it with 500 illustrations . In the search for the images he made discoveries on Henry Adams , Walt Whitman and Theodore Dreiser .

His friends included Alfred Kinsey , Peter Max and Harold Stanley Marcus, president of the luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus . He was married to Anne Gray and took on the role of father to their three children.

In 1983 he got a minor supporting role as Dr. Waxman in the film Lovesick, directed by Marshall Brickman .

Autobiography

  • The picture man. University Press of Florida, Gainesville FL et al. 1992, ISBN 0-8130-1153-1 .

Fonts

  • The emergence of bookselling professional ideals in 18th century Germany. Leipzig 1927 (Leipzig, University, PhD thesis, May 21, 1927).
  • The wood cutter and book illustrator Hans Alexander Müller, Leipzig (= Philobiblon. A magazine for book lovers. Vol. 9, No. 4, 1936, supplement). Reichner, Vienna et al. 1936.
  • State and humanity. History of ideas from the Dr. Walther Rothschild, Berlin-Grunewald. Offered for its 25th anniversary. 1905-1930. Dr. W. Rothschild Berlin 1930.
  • A pictorial history of medicine. A brief, nontechnical survey of the healing arts from Aesculapius to Ehrlich, retelling with the aid of select illustrations the lives and deeds of great physicians. Thomas, Springfield IL 1956.
  • with Van Wyck Brooks : Our literary heritage. A pictorial history of the writer in America. Dutton, New York NY 1956.
  • The Good Old Days - they were Terrible! Random House, New York NY 1974, ISBN 0-394-48689-7 .
  • The delights of reading. Quotes, notes & anecdots. Godine, Boston MA 1987, ISBN 0-87923-673-6 .
  • with Bellamy Partridge: As we were. Family life in America 1850-1900. In pictures and text. Whittlesey House, New York NY et al. 1946.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach as his world knew him. Birch Lane Press, Secaucus NJ 1995, ISBN 1-55972-279-7 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otto Ludwig Bettmann: Bettmann. The Picture Man . University Press of Florida, 1991, p. 12
  2. ↑ on the US magazine Look (1937–1971) see English Wikipedia en: Look (American magazine)
  3. ↑ on Kraus-Thomson Organization Ltd see also: The Thomson Corporation
  4. ^ Van Wyck Brooks: Foreword. In: Van Wyck Brooks, Otto Bettmann: Our literary heritage. 1956, p. Viii.
  5. ↑ Steven Heller see English Wikipedia en: Steven Heller (graphic design)
  6. ^ Robert D. McFadden see English Wikipedia en: Robert D. McFadden
personal data
SURNAME Bettmann, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bettmann, Otto Ludwig (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American archivist, media entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1998
Place of death Boca Raton , Florida