Franz Krieger (1914–1993), was an Austrian businessman and photographer from Salzburg, Austria whose collection includes 35,000 photographs taken during the rise of Hitler, World War II, and the reconstruction afterwards.

Krieger photographed the Salzburg festival, including movie stars like Marlene Dietrich and Hans Albers, and the arrival of Hitler. He later photographed Kristallnacht, book burnings, and the boycott of Jewish businesses, as a freelance photographer and on the staff of Nazi magazines. During World War II, he was assigned as a photographer to a special propaganda unit on the Eastern front. He was sent back from the front because of illness, and so avoided the Russian campaign. However, his wife and daughter were killed in the allied bombing of Salzburg. After the war, he photographed the redevelopment of Salzburg.

Krieger was little-known in Germany,[1] except in Salzburg, and even less well known in the United States. In June 2011, an American businessman in New York obtained a collection of photos, without the photographer's identity, and tried to identify them. He showed them to David Dunlap, writer of the Lens Blog in the New York Times, who published several of the photos and asked for help in identifying them. Krieger was soon identified as the photographer.[2]

A book, Der Salzburger Pressefotograf Franz Krieger (1914–1993); Bildberichterstattung im Schatten von NS-Propaganda und Krieg (Salzburg Press Photographer Franz Krieger (1914–1993); Photojournalism in the shadow of Nazi propaganda and war) by Peter F. Kramml and Roman Straßl, was published in German. [3]

His photographs were all in black-and-white.

References

  1. ↑ The first mystery article asking for help in identifying the "unknown" photographer that was published by the New York Times in its online Lens blog on June 21, 2011, was simultaneously published in Germany by Der Spiegel Online, in German, which shows that he was not well known until June 2011 outside of Salzburg itself. Dunlap. David W.,Mysteries of a Nazi Photo Album June 21, 2011, New York Times. Retrieved June 22. 2011. 20 previously unpublished, unknown photos were published here.
  2. ↑ Dunlap. David W.,World War II Mystery Solved in a few hours, June 22, 2011, New York Times. Retrieved June 22. 2011. 16 additional photos from the now identified Krieger collection were published here.
  3. ↑ [Der Salzburger Pressefotograf Franz Krieger (1914–1993); Bildberichterstattung im Schatten von NS-Propaganda und Krieg http://www.salzburger-geschichte.at/LGAK156.pdf] Publisher's brochure; see also more recently Letzter Akt für das Nazi-Artefakt Spiegel online (in German)


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