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Elsa Thiemann (''née'' Franke, 7 February 1910 – 15 November 1981) was a German photographer and former Bauhaus student. She also designed wallpaper based on
Elsa Thiemann im Bauhaus Archiv Museum für Gestaltung
i
Aviva - Online Magazin für Frauen
Retrieved 12 November 2018. In 1921 her family moved to the Neukölln suburb of Berlin. Supported by her middle class family, she attended the Kunstgewerbe- und Handwerkerschule in Berlin-Charlottenberg and following that, the ''Vereinigte Staatsschulen für Freie und Angewandte Kunst''. Both institutions were predecessors of the present day ''Universität der Künste Berlin'' (
Retrieved 12 November 2018 She studied at the
Retrieved 12 November 2018
From 1931 Thiemann worked in Berlin as a freelance photographer and a press photographer and, in order to do such work during the Nazi period, she joined the
Eine Unbekannte: Die Fotografin Elsa Thiemann im Bauhaus-Archiv: Lebenswerk im Schuhkarton.
(in German). Retrieved 11 December 2016 Elsa and Hans Thiemann were married in 1947. When Hans accepted a position at the ''Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg'' ( University of Fine Arts, Hamburg) in 1960, she stopped creating photographic work. Thiemann died in Hamburg on 15 November 1981. Her works are held by the Museum Neukölln, the
photogram
A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light.
The usual result is a negative shadow image th ...
s.
Personal life and education
Elsa Thiemann was born inToruń
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, nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town
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, West Prussia, which is now part of Poland.Gunwald, Sabine (29 March 2004Elsa Thiemann im Bauhaus Archiv Museum für Gestaltung
i
Aviva - Online Magazin für Frauen
Retrieved 12 November 2018. In 1921 her family moved to the Neukölln suburb of Berlin. Supported by her middle class family, she attended the Kunstgewerbe- und Handwerkerschule in Berlin-Charlottenberg and following that, the ''Vereinigte Staatsschulen für Freie und Angewandte Kunst''. Both institutions were predecessors of the present day ''Universität der Künste Berlin'' (
Berlin University of the Arts
The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universit ...
).Bauhaus100.Elsa ThiemannRetrieved 12 November 2018 She studied at the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
from 1929, receiving her Bauhaus Diploma in July 1931. In the first year she undertook Josef Albers' preliminary course, and then studied photography under Walter Peterhans, in a course that was affiliated with the Printing and Advertising workshop. She also attended painting courses given by Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
and Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...
.
Her wallpaper designs were never commercially produced as part of the Bauhaus wallpaper collection, as they were very different from the other patterns which were mainly bright and cheerful. Her work was composed of collaged dark photograms produced using plants, thread, and blobs of paint.
Franke met the painter (1910–1977) at the Bauhaus and they lived together in Berlin after he completed his studies in 1933.Bauhaus100.Hans ThiemannRetrieved 12 November 2018
Work
From 1931 Thiemann worked in Berlin as a freelance photographer and a press photographer and, in order to do such work during the Nazi period, she joined the Reichskulturkammer
The Reich Chamber of Culture (''Reichskulturkammer'') was a government agency in Nazi Germany. It was established by law on 22 September 1933 in the course of the ''Gleichschaltung'' process at the instigation of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels as ...
in 1934, as all working artists had to do. She had anti-Nazi views and Hans Thiemann's surrealist art work was considered degenerate
Degeneracy, degenerate, or degeneration may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Degenerate (album), ''Degenerate'' (album), a 2010 album by the British band Trigger the Bloodshed
* Degenerate art, a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party i ...
, so to keep a low profile she avoided taking photos that might seem to make political statements, instead photographing ordinary street scenes, particularly around Hertzbergstrasse in the Neukölln area where she lived, often taking photos directly from her apartment windows. During World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the couple stayed in Berlin and Elsa worked as editorial assistant for the publishers Hoffmann and Campe.
Hans was associated with the ''Fantasten'' (Dreamers) artists' group in Berlin, and Elsa took many portraits of both Hans and the other members of the group.
She is most well-known now for her street photography
Street photography (also sometimes called candid photography) is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Although there is a difference between street and ca ...
of Berlin before the war, and especially for her photographs of the ruins of Berlin after the war.Böker, C. (2004Eine Unbekannte: Die Fotografin Elsa Thiemann im Bauhaus-Archiv: Lebenswerk im Schuhkarton.
(in German). Retrieved 11 December 2016 Elsa and Hans Thiemann were married in 1947. When Hans accepted a position at the ''Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg'' ( University of Fine Arts, Hamburg) in 1960, she stopped creating photographic work. Thiemann died in Hamburg on 15 November 1981. Her works are held by the Museum Neukölln, the
Bauhaus Dessau Foundation
The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a nonprofit organization devoted to research and teaching in the field of experimental design. It was founded by the German Federal Government in 1994 and is based in the Bauhaus Dessau building in the state of S ...
and the Bauhaus Archive
The Bauhaus Archive (german: Bauhaus-Archiv) is a state archive and Museum of Design located in Berlin. It collects art pieces, items, documents and literature which relate to the Bauhaus School (1919–1933), and puts them on public disp ...
in Berlin. Examples of her wallpaper designs from her Bauhaus years are sold as gift wrap by the Bauhaus Archive shop. A solo retrospective of her work was presented by the Bauhaus Archive in 2004.Jaeggi, Annemarie, Schmidt, Margot (eds.) (2004) ''Elsa Thiemann: Fotografin Bauhaus und Berlin, Ausstellungskatalog''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiemann, Elsa 1910 births 1981 deaths 20th-century German artists 20th-century German photographers 20th-century German women artists Bauhaus alumni German women photographers People from Toruń Street photographers People from Neukölln Photographers from Berlin 20th-century women photographers