Walter Hege

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Walter Hege (born November 12, 1893 in Naumburg ; † October 29, 1955 in Weimar ) was a German photographer , cameraman , painter and director and, from 1930 to 1935, a professor at the State University of Crafts and Architecture in Weimar .

Live and act

Born the son of a glazier, Hege first learned the craft of decorative painter after leaving school. Due to a serious wound in the First World War in 1915, he was released from active military service. Between 1918 and 1929 he studied portrait photography with Hugo Erfurth at the Dresden Art School . After completing his studies, he worked as a freelance photographer in Naumburg, but also gave painting and drawing lessons. Due to his artistic interest, he attended the Weimar art school from April 1921, parallel to his professional activity .

In the field of architecture photography, Hege published one book each on Naumburg and Bamberg Cathedral in 1925 in collaboration with the art historian Wilhelm Pinder , who contributed the texts . These two volumes established Hege's reputation as one of the most important picture authors of art-historical picture books of his time.

In the 1930s , Hege was, still as a partner of Pinder, one of the most important art-reproducing photographers in the field of buildings and sculptures . His work is considered to be trend-setting for the use of photography in art history research. Later works, such as the book Olympische Kunst published in collaboration with Richard Hamann in 1936 , reinforced this reputation.

Above all as a director and cameraman, Hege was also active in the film business, where he worked with Leni Riefenstahl and Luis Trenker (e.g. at Condottieri ). While Hege's artistic work is undisputed, the partly propagandistic execution of his works during the National Socialist period was the reason to bring him into connection with the National Socialist worldview.

Hege married Elisabeth Margarete Countess von der Schulenburg from the Wolfsburg family on March 20, 1928 (* July 8, 1892 in Ippenburg ; † January 30, 1976 in Berlin ). Their children from their marriage: Reglindis Maria and Ursula Ingeborg Hege. In 1947 Hege first moved to Braunschweig alone , where he continued to work as a photographer.

The Heges estate is spread over several locations. The largest part has been in Cologne since 1961 and a small part in the German Archaeological Institute in Athens . Further works can be found in the Photo Archive Photo Marburg and since 1991 in the Naumburg City Museum . In Naumburg, a street was named after him in his honor, the Walter-Hege-Weg.

Walter Hege was also a pioneer in the use of the 35mm camera . While he still used a large format camera of 240 cm length with a Zeiss lens with an impressive focal length of 1,200 mm when taking pictures of the Acropolis in Athens , he used a Contax with lenses between 28 and 28 as early as the 1930s when taking pictures in the Würzburg residence 500 mm focal length. The photographs of Tilman Riemenschneider's sculptures made after the Second World War were largely made using a Leica with a 135 mm Hector lens.

Publications

  • together with Gerhart Rodenwaldt :
    • Olympia , German Art Publishing House, Berlin 1936.
    • Greek Temples , Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 1941. (2nd edition 1951)
    • Akropolis , German Art Publishing House, Berlin 1956.
  • together with Richard Hamann : Olympic Art , Hopfer, Burg 1936.
  • together with Hans Thoma: Crowns and gems: masterpieces of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance from the treasure chambers of the Residenz zu Munich , Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich and Berlin 1955.

Awards

literature

  • Matthias Harder: Walter Hege and Herbert List. Greek temple architecture in photographic staging . Reimer, Berlin 2003. ISBN 3-496-01275-7 .
  • Fritz Kestel: Walter Heges "Bamberg Rider". The sculpture of St. King Stephan I of Hungary in Bamberg Cathedral as a catalyst for photographic and art historical research . Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2001. ISBN 978-3-8288-1071-6 (microfiche edition)
  • Wolfgang Baier: Source representations on the history of photography . 2nd edition, Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-921375-60-6 , p. 406 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Hege and his work on bildindex.de.
  2. ^ Walter Hege in the German Documentation Center for Art History, Photo Archive Photo Marburg
personal data
SURNAME Hege, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer, cameraman, painter, director and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Naumburg (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH October 29, 1955
Place of death Weimar