Johannes Hähle (15 February 1906 – 10 June 1944) was a German military photographer who served in the

Wehrmacht Propaganda Troops Propaganda Troops (, abbreviated as ') was a branch of service of the and the of Nazi Germany during World War II. Subordinated to the High Command of the (the '), its function was to produce and disseminate propaganda materials aimed at the G ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Life

Hähle made a training as merchant and photographer. In 1932 he joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. In January 1940 he was drafted to the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

and sent to the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

with the Baubataillon 146. With the

invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along a ...

in June 1941 Hähle was posted to Propagandakompanie (PK) 637 to the Eastern Front to serve as a war photographer with the 6th Army. During that time he took many photos of the war from both the air and the ground. In September 1941 he was sent to a PK unit in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

. At the end of September 1941 he took photos from the aftermath of the massacre of Babi Yar and another massacre near Lubny. He took 29 colour photos but did not deliver them to his unit, instead keeping them private. Hähle was wounded in the summer of 1942 and spent several weeks in hospital. During winter 1942/1943 Hähle was a war photographer with Rommel's

Afrika Korps The German Africa Corps (, ; DAK), commonly known as Afrika Korps, was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its Africa ...

, but was sent back to German occupied Western Europe some months later to serve with PK 698 in Belgium and Northern France. Here he shot photos of the

Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall () was an extensive system of coastal defence and fortification, coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defense (military), d ...

. During the combat after the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

Hähle died on 10 June 1944 in the village of La Bijude in the north-west of

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

under unclear circumstances.

Aftermath

At the end of the war American troops confiscated several lorries with material from the German propaganda units (Propagandakompanien). In 1962 the Americans passed the material to the

German Federal Archives The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv (BArch) (, lit. "Federal Archive") are the national archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952. They are subordinated to the Federal Commissioner for Culture ...

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

, together with an amount of Hähle's films. The films that Hähle kept private were sold by his widow to the Berlin journalist Hans Georg Schulz. Black and white copies of those photos were used as evidence by the Frankfurt prosecution in 1961 and vanished in an archive later. The original colour photos appeared again in 2000 when Schulz' widow sold them to the

Hamburg Institute for Social Research The Hamburg Institute for Social Research (; abbreviated HIS) is an independent private foundation whose scholarship is focused on both contemporary history and the social sciences. Founded in 1984 by Jan Philipp Reemtsma, it currently employs ...

which was able then to complete its photographic collection for the

Wehrmachtsausstellung The ''Wehrmacht'' exhibition () was a series of two exhibitions focusing on the war crimes of the ''Wehrmacht'' (the regular German armed forces) during World War II. The exhibitions were instrumental in furthering the understanding of the myth ...

exhibition.

External links

Hähle's colour photos from Kiew and Babi Yar

(German) * ttp://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackground/a6182/l20/l0/F.html#featuredEntry Spiegel Online einestages: ''Fotofund aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg: Das Geheimnis des fliegenden Auges''(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Haehle, Johannes 1906 births 1944 deaths German Army personnel killed in World War II German Army soldiers of World War II Photographers from Saxony German war photographers War correspondents of World War II People from Chemnitz People from the Kingdom of Saxony Witnesses to The Holocaust Military personnel from Chemnitz Nazi Party members German Nazi propagandists Babi Yar