Stefan Lorant

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Stefan Lorant (born February 22, 1901 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary ; † November 14, 1997 in Rochester , Minnesota , USA ) was a Hungarian- American photographer , journalist and publisher . Lorant lived in Germany from 1921 and was imprisoned immediately after the seizure of power and robbed of his existence. He then emigrated with his family. Modern is Lorant often pioneered photojournalism referred

Life

Stefan Lorant came from a Jewish family. At the age of 18 he had to leave his home due to terrorist acts during Horthy's time. He went to Austria and worked as a cameraman, screenwriter and director in Vienna and Berlin in the 1920s .

He came into contact with journalism through his film script work and initially wrote for “ Ufa-Magazin ” and “Bilder-Courier”. In 1928 he became editor-in-chief of the "Münchner Illustrierte Presse" and moved to Munich . His activity was accompanied by large increases in circulation. On March 13, 1933, Lorant was one of the first prominent journalists to be illegally arrested by the National Socialists and imprisoned in " protective custody " until September 25 of the same year in the police prison in Ettstrasse and temporarily also in the Stadelheim prison . There was no trial. After pressure from liberal circles, the intervention of the Hungarian government ensured his release. After his release, Lorant, who had been deprived of his existence and his property during the imprisonment, left Germany with his wife and son and went to Budapest. There he immediately received a good position in the largest Budapest newspaper and began to write down his experiences. The book was published in London in 1935 as I Was Hitler's Prisoner and describes his imprisonment and that of many other intellectuals from the bourgeois spectrum in 1933 who were imprisoned with Lorant. The book became an international bestseller.

Lorant later came to London via Paris , where he founded two magazines: in 1934 the " Weekly Illustrated " and in 1937 the satirical magazine " Lilliput ". Although “Lilliput” was selling well, the advertising business was bad and went into the red. So Lorant was forced to sell the magazine to Edward Hulton in 1938 . He hired Lorant together with Tom Hopkinson to publish a new journal, " Picture Post ". The magazine became a great success: after just a few months, a weekly circulation of 1,350,000 was reached.

In 1940 Lorant moved to the United States. Here he devoted himself primarily to documentary photography and published a series of illustrated books on historical subjects, including the 1951 volume Lincoln : His Life in Photographs ("Lincoln: His Life in Photographs").

In 1948 Lorant became a US citizen.

Lorant died on November 14, 1997 in the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

Works

Movies

as a cameraman unless otherwise stated

  • 1921: The Jew Girl (short film)
  • 1921: Miss Hobbs
  • 1921: Mozart's life, love and suffering
  • 1921: The dead wedding guest
  • 1921: The Fool's Cap of Love (also director and screenplay)
  • 1921: Recordings from the Zionist Congress in Karlsbad (documentary, also production, direction and screenplay)
  • 1922: The struggle for self
  • 1922: The Earl of Essex
  • 1922: The pagoda
  • 1923: Paganini
  • 1923: dark alleys
  • 1923: His Majesty the Child (also director, screenplay and production)
  • 1923: The film in the film (documentary, also screenplay and production management)
  • 1924: The daughter of Larsac's wife

Books

  • We from the film.
  • Between Two Wars
  • The Diary of a Gambler
  • Chamberlain and the Beautiful Llama
  • Lincoln. His Life in Photographs
  • The New World
  • FDR. A Pictoral Biography
  • The Presidency
  • Lincoln. A Picture Story of His Life
  • The Life of Abraham Lincoln
  • The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt
  • Pittsburgh. The Story of an American City
  • The Glorious Burden. The American Presidency
  • Sieg Heil! An Illustrated History of Germany from Bismarck to Hitler
  • Pete. The Life of Peter F. Flaherty
  • I Was Hitler's Prisoner: Leaves from a Prison Diary. Victor Gollancz, London 1935. Translated in many editions and in many languages. In German only 1985 as:
I was Hitler's prisoner - A diary 1933. Revised new version with a list of names of fellow prisoners. List, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-471-78034-3 .
  • My Years in England (1982)

literature

  • Thomas Willimowski: Stefan Lorant - A Career in Exile. wvb Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin 2005. ISBN 3-86573-139-2 .
  • Michael Hallett: Stefan Lorant: Godfather of Photojournalism. Scarecrow Press 2006. ISBN 0-8108-5682-4 .
  • Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. P. 319, ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ So z. B. Michael Hallett: Stefan Lorant - Godfather of Photojournalism.
  2. ↑ Critical to Lorant: Bernd Weise u. a. in: press photography. I. The beginnings in Germany, based on a criticism of previous research approaches. In: Photo history: Contributions to the history and aesthetics of photography. Issue 31 (1989), pp. 15-40.
  3. ^ René Geoffroy: Hungary as a place of refuge and place of work for German-speaking emigrants (1933–1938 / 39) . Frankfurt am Main: Lang 2001, p. 248 f
  4. ↑ Rudolf Sachsse: "This studio can be rented out immediately". About the de-Jewification of a profession. In Irmtrud Wojak, Peter Hayes: Aryanization 'in National Socialism: National Community, Robbery and Memory. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3-593-36494-8 , p. 272
personal data
SURNAME Lorant, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-American journalist and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1997
Place of death Rochester , Minnesota