Kurt Szafranski, in exile Safranski, (17 October 18901 March 1964) was a German-American draftsman, journalist and managing director. In Germany, he illustrated Kurt Tucholsky's ''

Rheinsberg Rheinsberg () is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located on lake and the river Rhin, approximately 20 km north-east of Neuruppin and 75 km north-west of Berlin. History Fre ...

'' in 1912, and was managing director of the ''

Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung The ''Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung'', often abbreviated ''BIZ'', was a German weekly illustrated magazine published in Berlin from 1892 to 1945. It was the first mass-market German magazine and pioneered the format of the illustrated news magazine. ...

'' (BIZ). In exile in the U.S., he was a co-founder of the Black Star, a leading photo agency.

Life and career

Born in Berlin, Szafranski was a friend of the writer

Kurt Tucholsky Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Tucholsky was on ...

, whose first literary work, ''

'', he illustrated in 1912.''Ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte'' With his friend Tucholsky, he opened a ''Bücherbar'' (book bar) on

Kurfürstendamm The Kurfürstendamm (; colloquially ''Ku'damm'', ; en, Prince Elector Embankment) is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin. The street takes its name from the former ''Kurfürsten'' (prince-electors) of Brandenburg. The broad, long boulevar ...

, where they sold cheap books and alcoholic beverages. Every purchaser of ''Rheinsberg'' received a free

schnaps Schnapps ( or ) or schnaps is a type of alcoholic beverage that may take several forms, including distilled fruit brandies, herbal liqueurs, infusions, and "flavored liqueurs" made by adding fruit syrups, spices, or artificial flavorings to neu ...

. He also illustrated for

Klabund Alfred Henschke (4 November 1890 – 14 August 1928), better known by his pseudonym Klabund, was a German writer. Life Klabund, born Alfred Henschke in 1890 in Crossen, was the son of an apothecary. At the age of 16 he came down with tuberculo ...

. By the Tucholsky illustrations, he had contact to the

Ullstein Verlag The ''Ullstein Verlag'' was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like '' B.Z.'' and ''Berliner Morgenpost'' and books through its subsidiaries ''Ullstein B ...

, where he worked on the artistic advisory board from 1913. In the 1920s, he was managing director of the ''

'' (BIZ), where he established high artistic standards; the magazine, published by

, was in 1933 the largest weekly in Europe with a circulation of nearly two million. He made photojournalism a new genre. In 1935, he and his family emigrated to the U.S. because of the Nazi persecution of Jews. He changed his name to Safranski. With Kurt Kornfeld and Ernest Mayer, who also came from Berlin, he founded the well-known photo agency '' Black Star''. The agency became a destination for both U.S. photographers and immigrants from Europe, especially from Germany. Black Star sold images to leading magazines such as ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. From 2005, the archive of the ''Black Star'' was held by the

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public university, public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Garden District, although i ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. Safranski died in

Kingston, New York Kingston is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany, New York, Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with t ...

Publications

* ''Selling Your Pictures.'' Chicago: Ziff-Davis, 1940.

References

External links

*
Foto
pressechronik1933.dpmu.de

(photo) ZLB
"Rheinsberg. Ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte", Kurt Tucholsky, koloriert
(in German) nat.museum-digital.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Szafranski, Kurt German draughtsmen Journalists from Berlin Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States 1890 births 1964 deaths

Life and career

Publications

References

Further reading

External links