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Alongside his and Peter’s work is that of Eva Kemlein in Berlin, [[Edmund Kesting]] and Kurt Schaarschuch in [[Dresden]], Erna Wagner-Hehmke in [[Düsseldorf|Dusseldorf]], Karl-Heinz Mai and Renate Roessing in [[Leipzig]], Lala Aufsberg in [[Nuremberg]], and [[Herbert List]] and Tom von Wichert in [[Munich]].<ref>{{Citation | author1=Warren, Lynne | author2=Warren, Lynn | title=Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 3-Volume Set | publication-date=2005 | publisher=Taylor and Francis | page=296 |isbn=978-0-203-94338-0 }}</ref> What is distinctive about Claasen’s  photographs of the post-war devastation is his application of the principles of [[picturesque]] German photography of before the First World War, and the paintings of ruins in the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] tradition.
Alongside his and Peter’s work is that of Eva Kemlein in Berlin, [[Edmund Kesting]] and Kurt Schaarschuch in [[Dresden]], Erna Wagner-Hehmke in [[Düsseldorf|Dusseldorf]], Karl-Heinz Mai and Renate Roessing in [[Leipzig]], Lala Aufsberg in [[Nuremberg]], and [[Herbert List]] and Tom von Wichert in [[Munich]].<ref>{{Citation | author1=Warren, Lynne | author2=Warren, Lynn | title=Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 3-Volume Set | publication-date=2005 | publisher=Taylor and Francis | page=296 |isbn=978-0-203-94338-0 }}</ref> What is distinctive about Claasen’s  photographs of the post-war devastation is his application of the principles of [[picturesque]] German photography of before the First World War, and the paintings of ruins in the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] tradition.

In 1952, on a tour of Germany,<ref>James, S. (2012). A Post-Fascist "Family of Man?" Cold War Humanism, Democracy and Photography in Germany. Oxford Art Journal, 35(3), 315-336.</ref> photography curator [[Edward Steichen]] met with Fritz Gruber (1908-2005) one of the founders of Photokina,<ref>Kristen Gresh (2005) The European roots of The Family of Man , History of Photography, 29:4,
331-343, DOI: 10.1080/03087298.2005.10442815</ref> the annual international photography event held in Cologne in which Claasen showed, and Steichen selected one of his photographs for the 1955 world-touring [[Museum of Modern Art]] exhibition [[The Family of Man|''The Family of Man'']] that was seen by 9 million visitors.<ref>{{Cite book | author1=Steichen, Edward | author2=Steichen, Edward, 1879-1973, (organizer.) | author3=Sandburg, Carl, 1878-1967, (writer of foreword.) | author4=Norman, Dorothy, 1905-1997, (writer of added text.) | author5=Lionni, Leo, 1910-1999, (book designer.) | author6=Mason, Jerry, (editor.) | author7=Stoller, Ezra, (photographer.) | author8=Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) | title=The family of man : the photographic exhibition | publication-date=1955 | publisher=Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with the Maco Magazine Corporation | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/10809600 }}</ref> Claasen's 1948 photograph ''Köln, Kinder an der Barbara-Kaserne'' (Cologne, children at the Barbara barracks) varied from his typical Trümmerfotografie in that it featured so many human subjects and placed less emphasis on the ruins, and shows a roundelay of children in front of military barracks that after the war housed homeless families in the parts left standing. It was exhibited with seventeen others of children joining hands for a ‘Ring-a-ring-a-rosie’, all mounted on a stand that, in form, imitated the circular dance motion of the children in each photograph and forced the audience into the same step.

==Career==
==Career==
In addition to his documentation of the devastated [[Rhineland]], Claasen kept up with current trends in post-war photography, and also with the developments of modern art that had advanced abroad, participating in many exhibitions.
In addition to his documentation of the devastated [[Rhineland]], Claasen kept up with current trends in post-war photography, and also with the developments of modern art that had advanced abroad, participating in many exhibitions.

Revision as of 09:14, 5 September 2018

Hermann Claasen (December 20, 1899, Cologne–December 19, 1987)[1] was a German photographer.

Biography

Claasen was an autodidact who made his first photographs before the First World War with a camera built from a cigar box and spectacle lens. After the family business in which he worked suffered in the late 1920s during the Great Depression, he earned his first income with photographs of the frozen Rhine at St. Goar. In the 1930s, he worked as a portrait and advertising photographer, and after the 1930s started to photograph in colour. In 1942 he married the Cologne-based photographer Ria Dietz.

Trümmerfotografie

After the Second World War professional and amateur photographers, German and foreign,  took many thousand photographs that together became a genre known as Trümmerfotografie (rubble photography or the photography of ruins). Robert Capa and Margaret Bourke-White documented the damage and destruction of Berlin on assignment for American magazines in August 1945 as did and Capa’s European colleagues Werner Bischof, David ‘Chim’ Seymour and Ernst Haas. Among them Claasen’s ‘rubble photographs’ of bombed Cologne are therefore a valuable historical record because he started taking them during the conflict.[2] His book of 1947 Singing in the furnace. Cologne - Remains of an old city[3][4] preceded the only other volume of Trümmerfotografie with equal impact, Richard Peter’s Dresden: a camera accuses[5] Tthe then mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, supported the distribution of Claasen's book.

Alongside his and Peter’s work is that of Eva Kemlein in Berlin, Edmund Kesting and Kurt Schaarschuch in Dresden, Erna Wagner-Hehmke in Dusseldorf, Karl-Heinz Mai and Renate Roessing in Leipzig, Lala Aufsberg in Nuremberg, and Herbert List and Tom von Wichert in Munich.[6] What is distinctive about Claasen’s  photographs of the post-war devastation is his application of the principles of picturesque German photography of before the First World War, and the paintings of ruins in the Romantic tradition.

In 1952, on a tour of Germany,[7] photography curator Edward Steichen met with Fritz Gruber (1908-2005) one of the founders of Photokina,[8] the annual international photography event held in Cologne in which Claasen showed, and Steichen selected one of his photographs for the 1955 world-touring Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Family of Man that was seen by 9 million visitors.[9] Claasen's 1948 photograph Köln, Kinder an der Barbara-Kaserne (Cologne, children at the Barbara barracks) varied from his typical Trümmerfotografie in that it featured so many human subjects and placed less emphasis on the ruins, and shows a roundelay of children in front of military barracks that after the war housed homeless families in the parts left standing. It was exhibited with seventeen others of children joining hands for a ‘Ring-a-ring-a-rosie’, all mounted on a stand that, in form, imitated the circular dance motion of the children in each photograph and forced the audience into the same step.

Career

In addition to his documentation of the devastated Rhineland, Claasen kept up with current trends in post-war photography, and also with the developments of modern art that had advanced abroad, participating in many exhibitions.

A catalogue raisonné has been published in five volumes: Rubble, Experiment, Advertising, Portrait and Das Frühwerk.

As a freelance photographer, he worked for many clients, and good examples of mid-century portraits and advertising are part of his estate.

Literature

  • Singing in the furnace. Cologne - Remains of an old city. Dusseldorf, 1947 (1st edition)
  • Karl Ruhrberg (ed.): Zeitzeichen. Stations of Fine Arts in North Rhine-Westphalia. DuMont, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7701-2314-X
  • Sachsse, Rolf; Honnef, Klaus; Claasen, Hermann, 1899- (1993), Hermann Claasen : Werkverzeichnis (Hermann Claasen : Catalogue raisonné ), Rheinland-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7927-1517-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  • Claasen, H., Scheurer, H. J., & Thorn-Prikker, J. (1985). Nichts erinnert mehr an Frieden: Bilder einer zerstörten Stadt. Köln: DuMont.
  • Chargesheimer, ., Claasen, H., Honnef, K., Scheuren, E., Siebengebirgsmuseum, & Ausstellung. (2007). Chargesheimer, Claasen & Co: Beispiele zur Fotografie in Deutschland aus der Sammlung Walter G. Müller ; Ausstellung vom 15. August bis 28. Oktober 2007 Siebengebirgsmuseum der Stadt Könisgwinter. Königswinter.

Awards and Honours

  • 1953: Member of the German Society for Photography

Exhibitions

  • 1947: Tragedy of a city, exhibition of rubble photographs
  • 1950: Photokina

Posthumous solo exhibitions

  • LVR LandesMuseum Bonn, Germany, 1945 – Köln und Dresden: Hermann Claasen and Richard Peter sen. 19 Mar – 7 Jun 2015

Posthumous group exhibitions

  • LVR LandesMuseum Bonn, Germany Der Rhein und die Fotografie, 9 Sep 2016 – 22 Jan 2017
  • Willy-Brandt-Haus, Germany, Aufbrüche – Bilder aus Deutschland, 23 Mar – 26 Jun 2016
  • Galerie Stadt Fellbach, Germany, Aufbrüche. Bilder aus Deutschland, Fotografien aus der Sammlung Fricke. 1 Oct 2015 – 10 Jan 2016
  • Museum Folkwang, Germany, Conflict, Time, Photography. 10 Apr – 5 Jul 2015
  • LVR LandesMuseum Bonn, Germany, 1945 – Köln und Dresden (Hermann Claasen and Richard Peter sen.) 19 Mar – 7 Jun 2015
  • Städt. Galerie Bietigheim, Germany, Man Ray bis Sigmar Polke. Eine besondere Fotografiegeschichte, 27 Oct 2007 – 13 Jan 2008
  • Siebengebirgsmuseum, Germany, Chargesheimer, Claasen & Co: Aus den Schubladen einer rheinischen Fotosammlung, 15 Aug – 28 Oct 2007 (with extensive catalogue)
  • SK Stiftung Kultur, Germany, Stadt-Bild-Köln, 1 Jun – 12 Aug 2007
  • LWL-Museum, Germany, 1945 - Im Blick der Fotografie. Kriegsende und Neuanfang, 22 May – 11 Sep 2005
  • The Brno House of Art, Czechoslovakia, Subjective Photography 1948-1963, 23 Sep – 30 Nov 2004
  • Galerie Lichtblick, Germany, Images against war: a visual statement by 402 artists, 28 Feb – 7 Jun 2003
  • Hermann Claasen, Düren, Jülich, Hürtgenwald: Fotografien von der Zerstörung im Zweiten Weltkrieg ; 17. Oktober bis 21. November 1982, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum Düren. (1982). Düren: Leopold-Hoesch-Museum.<ref>Hermann Claasen, Düren, Jülich, Hürtgenwald: Fotografien von der Zerstörung im Zweiten Weltkrieg ; 17. Oktober bis 21. November 1982, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum Düren. (1982). Düren: Leopold-Hoesch-Museum.

References

  1. ^ Soénius, U. S., & Wilhelm, J. (2008). Kölner Personen-Lexikon. Köln: Greven. 2008, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0, p. 102.
  2. ^ Vollmer, Wolfgang, 1952-; SK Stiftung Kultur. Photographische Sammlung (2008), Stadt, Bild, Köln : Photographien von 1880 bis heute = City - image - Cologne : photographs from 1880 until today, Steidl ; London : Thames & Hudson [distributor], p. 73,76,163, ISBN 978-3-86521-582-6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Claasen, Hermann; Hoyer, Franz A (1949), Gesang im feuerofen : Köln; überreste einer alten deutschen stadt ([2. aufl.] ed.), L. Schwann
  4. ^ Wilms, Wilfried; Rasch, William, 1949-; Palgrave Connect (Online service) (2008), German postwar films : life and love in the ruins (1st ed ed.), Palgrave Macmillan US : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 30-31, ISBN 978-0-230-60825-2 {{citation}}: |edition= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Peter, Richard (1950), Dresden : eine Kamera klagt an, Dresdener Verlagsgesellschaft
  6. ^ Warren, Lynne; Warren, Lynn (2005), Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 3-Volume Set, Taylor and Francis, p. 296, ISBN 978-0-203-94338-0
  7. ^ James, S. (2012). A Post-Fascist "Family of Man?" Cold War Humanism, Democracy and Photography in Germany. Oxford Art Journal, 35(3), 315-336.
  8. ^ Kristen Gresh (2005) The European roots of The Family of Man , History of Photography, 29:4, 331-343, DOI: 10.1080/03087298.2005.10442815
  9. ^ Steichen, Edward; Steichen, Edward, 1879-1973, (organizer.); Sandburg, Carl, 1878-1967, (writer of foreword.); Norman, Dorothy, 1905-1997, (writer of added text.); Lionni, Leo, 1910-1999, (book designer.); Mason, Jerry, (editor.); Stoller, Ezra, (photographer.); Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) (1955). The family of man : the photographic exhibition. Published for the Museum of Modern Art by Simon and Schuster in collaboration with the Maco Magazine Corporation. {{cite book}}: |author6= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)