Erna Lendvai-Dircksen born 1883 Wetterburg - died 1962 Coburg

Coburg

Coburg is a town located on the Itz River in Bavaria, Germany. Its 2005 population was 42,015. Long one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined with Bavaria by popular vote in 1920...

, was German photographer who was a member of the Nazi party and worked to commission for the Fascist regime led by Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

. Erna Dircksen studied painting in the Cassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

. In 1916 she opened a portrait studio in Berlin. Dirchsen married the Hungarian composer Erwin Lendvai

Erwin Lendvai

Erwin Lendvai was a Hungarian composer and choral conductor. He was an uncle of the composer Kamilló Lendvay....

. Lendvai-Dircksen made a series of photo-portraits of Germans, including many of childen, which were published in book form as Das deutsche Volksgesicht, (continued from 1942 as Das germanische Volksgesicht). During the Third Reich she received state commissions, including one for a book on autobahn construction workers. After 1945 she worked in northern Bavaria, from 1951 concentrating on landscape photography in colour.

Literature

• C. Philipp, "Erna Lendvai-Dircksen: Fotografin zu rezipieren," Fotogeschichte, 3 (1983)