Avraham Pisarek (24 December 1901 in

Przedbórz Przedbórz is a town in Radomsko County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,458 inhabitants (2020). Przedbórz is situated on the Pilica River in the northwestern corner of the historic province of Lesser Poland. From its foundation until the ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

– 24 April 1983 in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

) was a German photographer of Polish-Jewish descent.

Early life

Avraham Pisarek was the son of Jewish merchant Berek Pisarek and his wife Sara. He was born in

, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. He attended religious and middle school in Lodz. In 1918/1919, he moved to Germany, and worked in a factory in Herne. In 1924, Pisarek left Germany to travel to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

as ''Khalutz'' (Pioneer) and worked there as a stonemason.

Career

Four years later he returned to Germany after a short stay in France and settled in Berlin-Reinickendorf. There he completed a photographic education and worked as a photographer for image publishers and the Berlin theater community. His photos were published in ''Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung'' and in the Jewish press. In 1929, he joined the Reich Association of German Press. Pisarek's contacts with the KPD resulted in a collaboration with

John Heartfield John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements. Heartfield a ...

. He became a member of the Photography Group Berlin-Nord. As a friend of

Max Liebermann Max Liebermann (20 July 1847 – 8 February 1935) was a German painter and printmaker, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany and continental Europe. In addition to his activity as an artist, he also assembled an important ...

, he frequented circles of artists and writers of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

. Pisarek was officially banned from working in the mainstream press after the seizure of power by the

National Socialists Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

in 1933. He was thereafter allowed to work only for the Jewish community. In 1936, he, his non-Jewish wife Gerda and their two children Georg and Ruth were expelled from their Reinickendorf apartment. They moved to

Oranienburger Straße Oranienburger Straße, or Oranienburger Strasse (see ß), is a street in central Berlin. It is located in the borough of Mitte, north of the Spree (river), River Spree, and runs south-east from Friedrichstraße to Hackescher Markt. The street ...

Berlin-Mitte Mitte (; German for "middle" or "center") is a central section () of Berlin, Germany, in the eponymous Boroughs of Berlin, borough () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Old ...

. He worked as a photographer until 1941 for Jewish newspapers as well as for the Jewish Cultural Association of Berlin (where he photographed, among others, the pianist

Grete Sultan Grete Sultan (born Johanna Margarete Sultan) (June 21, 1906June 26, 2005) was a German-American pianist. Biography Sultan was born in Berlin into a musical family of Jewish heritage. From an early age she studied piano with American pianist Ri ...

). During this time, among other things, he took the only photos of Liebermann's funeral. In addition, he participated in (illegal) anti-fascist work, which led to repeated arrests and summonses to the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. After the final dissolution of all Jewish organizations in Germany in 1941, Pisarek was unemployed. He was drafted for forced labor and was inter alia used as an interpreter for Polish and Soviet forced laborers. An emigration to the United States failed. He survived the Nazi rule thanks to the

Rosenstraße protest The Rosenstrasse protest was the only mass public demonstration by Germans in the Third Reich against the deportation of Jews. The protest on ''Rosenstraße'' ("Roses street") took place in Berlin during February and March 1943. This demonst ...

. In May 1944, his apartment burned down.

Postwar

200px, Photo of the unification congress of the SED taken by Pisarek After the war, he worked as an interpreter for the

Soviet Military Administration in Germany The Soviet Military Administration in Germany (; ''Sovyetskaya Voyennaya Administratsiya v Germanii'', SVAG; , SMAD) was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin- Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone in German ...

. He resumed his activities as a reporter and in this way documented the "anti-fascist-democratic revolution" in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

and the founding of the (communist)

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

(GDR). The photo series of the

handshake A handshake is a globally widespread, brief greeting or parting tradition in which two people grasp one of each other's hands, and in most cases, it is accompanied by a brief up-and-down movement of the grasped hands. Customs surrounding hands ...

Otto Grotewohl Otto Emil Franz Grotewohl (; 11 March 1894 – 21 September 1964) was a German politician who served as the first prime minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany) from its founding in October 1949 until his death in Septembe ...

and

Wilhelm Pieck Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck (; 3 January 1876 – 7 September 1960) was a German communist politician who served as the Leadership of East Germany, chairman of the Socialist Unity Party from 1946 to 1950 and as the only president of the Ger ...

at the foundation congress of the SED, in which the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

and KPD parties merged to form the SED, is one of his most famous works. Numerous artist portraits, for example, those of

Helene Weigel Helene Weigel (; 12 May 19006 May 1971) was an Austrian actress and artistic director. She was the second and last wife of Bertolt Brecht until his death in 1956; together they had two children. Personal life Weigel was born in Vienna, Austria ...

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

and

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The ...

, were created during this time. At the end of the 1950s, Pisarek turned almost exclusively to theater photography. Avraham Pisarek died in

in 1983. His photographic works are part of several archives, such as the German Photographic Library, the theatrical collections of the Foundation Stadtmuseum Berlin,Theatersammlung der Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin
; retrieved 27 October 2009 the Foundation Archive of the Academy of Arts, the photo agencies and-images and ullstein bild, and the image archive of Cultural Heritage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pisarek, Avraham 1901 births 1983 deaths People from Radomsko County German people of Polish-Jewish descent Photographers from Berlin People from Reinickendorf