Willy van Heekern

Willy van Heekern (* 1898 in Kevelaer ; † 1989 in Essen ) was a freelance photographer working in the Ruhr area .

Life

Van Heekern was born as the oldest of five children of the church painter and painting restorer Arnold van Heekern . In 1908 the family moved to Essen. Van Heekern got to know photography and laboratory work in his father's studio. In 1916 he was drafted into the First World War , and in 1918 he was poisoned with war gas in Flanders .

Van Heekern made his first published recordings of the Kapp Putsch in 1920 with a 13 × 18 travel camera. His pictures were displayed in a stationery shop. In the following years van Heekern took photos for companies and shops, his photos were used for product advertising in brochures and for the postcard sale of cityscapes. Towards the end of the 1920s, he sold pictures from sporting events to other countries. His first important publication was a report in 1930 about the mine disaster at the Anna mine in Alsdorf, which left 304 injured and 271 dead - the site was cordoned off shortly after it was recorded. He also liked to photograph politicians because their pictures could be sold well beyond the region, such as Aristide Briand in 1925, Heinrich Brüning in the Rote Erde stadium in 1932 or Engelbert Dollfuss in 1932.

He married Ellinore Mathia in 1930 and their daughter Dorothea Antonie Marie was born in 1931. At that point he could already afford a car from his job. From 1930 van Heekern made his first attempts on a Leica with the 35mm format, but continued to use a focal plane shutter camera from Contessa-Nettel , an Ermanox and an 18 × 24 or 13 × 18 travel camera.

1933-1945

In 1933 van Heekern had to become a member of the Reich Association of the German Press . At that time he was working for the Essener Volkszeitung , which was closely related to the Center Party , and was therefore often insulted as a "black pig" . In March 1933 he tried to photograph actions by SA members on Kettwiger Strasse when Jewish shops were boycotted. He was arrested and his exposed plates confiscated.

From 1936 van Heekern worked for the Essen publishing company Dr. v. Chamier and was admitted to the Berlin Olympic Games as an official reporter for the publisher's Essener Volkszeitung . In the same year he photographed Adolf Hitler giving a speech to the staff of Krupp AG , in 1938 Benito Mussolini and Hitler together on the station forecourt.

His later report topics were, for example, the National Socialist People's Welfare in 1941 , the Kinderlandverschickung in 1942 and the Winter Relief Organization in the Ruhr Area in 1944 . He received some unpaid documentation orders from the official side, but these protected him from being drafted into World War II . He also photographed the destruction caused by the war, for example after the first heavy bombing of Essen in 1943 up to the heaviest bombing on March 11, 1945, in addition to photographs of smoking ruins, dead women and children on a night of bombing, female forced laborers and the removal of debris by prisoners.

1945-1970

After the war, he photographed the dismantling at Krupp, the reconstruction in 1946 , women in ruins in the ruins of the Lichtburg , returnees, Lord Mayor Gustav Heinemann at the tug of war with his councilors in 1950, the tenor Beniamino Gigli in 1952, the players Rot-Weiss Essen as German champions in 1955, Theodor Heuss in 1955, Maria Callas in the Saalbau in 1962 , Pina Bausch in the Folkwang School , Konrad Adenauer on his last visit to Essen in 1961 , Willy Brandt as Federal Chancellor candidate in 1965. There were also many recordings from everyday life, recordings from sporting events, rallies, Easter marches, etc.

Van Heekern's customers included the Ruhr-Nachrichten , the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , the Rheinische Post and many other newspapers and magazines. In 1970 van Heekern retired. The Folkwang Museum succeeded in acquiring its picture archive in autumn 1984 with funds from the Ruhr Cultural Foundation . It comprises around 10,000 slides , as well as glass plate negatives, roll and 35mm films. Other parts of his archives had been looted after World War II. Van Heekern welcomed the fact that his life's work was not shared: "My archive provides information on current affairs as I have experienced and seen them."

Willy van Heekern found his final resting place in the municipal cemetery in Essen-Rellinghausen , Am Glockenberg.

literature

• Willy van Heekern: 50 years of local reporter in the area 1920–1970. An exhibition in the Photographic Cabinet Museum Folkwang Essen, August 11 to September 22, 1985. Ruhr Cultural Foundation. Enecke Druck, Essen 1985.
• Helga Mohaupt, Willy van Heekern: Essen, A lost cityscape. Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 1994. ISBN 3861341824