Wolfgang Weber

Wolfgang Weber (17 June 1902 – 4 March 1985) was a German photojournalist and film producer.

Life and work Wolfgang Weber was born in Leipzig. His father, Friedrich Weber, was a wealthy factory owner who decided to quit business to follow his main interests in taking over the management of the Research Institute for Ethnology in Munich. There in his early years Weber was able to get to know numerous cultural assets from distant countries from his father's collection. He studied ethnology, philosophy and musicology in Munich, In addition to the elaborate sound recording devices that work with wax rolls, with which he recorded the tribal songs, he also worked with a stereo camera.

Alongside is considered a pioneer His subject area included reports on the social, political and economic situation at home and abroad, to the publication of which he also contributed the texts and the layout. In 1931 the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung published the impressive sozial report “Dorf ohne Arbeit” (village without work) on the situation of German unemployed people in 1933 “The trial that the world is listening to” about the trial against van der Lubbe after the Reichstag fire, and in 1936 “The Olympic Stadium is filling up". But mainly he traveled around the world to Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and in 1943 and 1944 he documented the situation in various European countries. After World War II he was "the leading photo-journalist to have stayed in Germany" and became chief reporter of the Neue Illustrierte, at that time the leading German illustrated magazine. As one of the first German photojournalists he could work 1949 also in the USA. An exhibition of his life and works was held in this museum in 2004.

Exhibitions

1977 Kassel: documenta 6, 150 Years of Photography 1982 Köln: Reisen ohne Ende – Fotos 1933 bis 1935 (Travels without End – Photos 1933 to 1935), Historical archive of the city of Cologne 1984 Barcelona: Barcelona 1928, Caixa de Barcelona 2004/2005 Essen: Wolfgang Weber’s Reports, photography and film from 1925 to 1977. His life and work in a special exhibition, Folkwang Museum Numerous participations in group exhibitions

Publications (only books)

Barcelona. The face of the cities. Edited by Carl Otto Justh, Albertus Verlag, Berlin 1928. Hotel Affenbrotbaum (Hotel Baobabtree, adventure on the Cape – Cairo highway), Ullstein, Berlin 1936. Abenteuer einer Kamera (Adventure of a camera. Experiences of a picture hunter in Europe and Africa), Deutscher Verlag, Berlin 1938. Reisen ohne Ende Wolfgang Weber sieht die Welt (Travel without end. Wolfgang Weber sees the world), Brüder Auer Verlag, Bonn/Rheindorf 1952. Abenteuer meines Lebans (Adventure of my life), Kurt Desch, Vienna et al. 1960. Auf Abwegen um die Welt (Astray around the world), Sigbert Mohn Verlag, Gütersloh 1964 Hinter den Kulissen des Fernsehens (Behind the scenes of television) Signal-Verlag, Baden-Baden 1975, and: Maier, Ravensburg 1980,

Literature

Tom Allbeson: Photography, Reconstruction and the Cultural History of the Postwar European ... Routledge 2021 Cecil Beaton, Gail Buckland: The Magic Image. Genders of Photography 1939 to the Present Day. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London und Boston 1975. Catalog for documenta 6. Volume 2: Photography, film, video. Kassel 1977, p. 110 ff. Ute Eskildsen (Ed.): „Fliegen Sie sofort nach …“. Wolfgang Weber – Reportagen, Fotografie und Film 1925 bis 1977. Steidl, Göttingen 2004, Tim N. Gidal: „Wolfgang Weber“ in "Deutschland: Beginn des modernen Fotojournalismus" (Germany: Beginning of modern photojournalism), Bucher Verlag Luzern und Frankfurt, 1972. p. 48 ff. Tim Gidal: Modern Photojournalism: Origin and Evolution, 1910–1933, translated by Maureen Oberli-Turner, published by Macmillan, Michigan 1973, Kristina Grub: Wolfgang Weber. in: Lynne Warren (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography. 3-Volume Set. Routledge, New York 2006 p.1653 ff. Anton Holzer: Picture Stories: The Rise of the Photoessay in the Weimar Republic, in International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity 2018: Picture Stories: the Rise of the Photoessay in the Weimar Republic Ian Jeffery: Photography: A Concise History, Oxford University Press, 1981 87 Randy Kaufmann, Brigitte Werneburg: Der Ideenreichste (the most imaginativ), in: TAZ. 9. Februar 2005 Der Ideenreichste Daniel H. Magilow: The Photography of Crisis, Pennsylvania State University Press 2012 Karl Ruhrberg: Art of the 20th Century. Taschen 2000, p. 666.