Otto Bettmann

Otto Ludwig Bettmann (October 15, 1903 – May 3, 1998), known as "The Picture Man," was a German-American archivist who founded the Bettmann Archive. Bettmann is considered to have "virtually invented the image resource business."

Early life and education Bettmann was born in Leipzig, Germany, to Hans Isidor, an orthopedic surgeon and physician, and Charlotte Bettmann. His parental home was across the road from the Thomaskirche, the church where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as cantor and music director from 1723 to 1750. As a child of Jewish parents, he was unaware that going to a synagogue on Friday and singing the praises of Christ on Sunday was somewhat unusual and continued to participate until his voice changed. His musical talent not limited to voice he studied piano from the age of six. That discipline lasted his entire life, allowing him, at age ninety-three, to still play Bach's Art of Fugue.

He had wanted to be a doctor like his father, but his brother Ernest was already being groomed for that profession. Without his father's support, it would be impossible, and his father had told him many times that one doctor in the family would be enough.

In 1921, he enrolled at the University of Leipzig and studied history, German literature, and philosophy.