Elsa Thiemann (''née'' Franke, 7 February 1910 – 15 November 1981) was a German photographer and former Bauhaus student. She also designed wallpaper based on

photogram A photogram is a Photography, 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 im ...

Personal life and education

Elsa Thiemann was born in

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

, West Prussia, which is now part of Poland.Gunwald, Sabine (29 March 2004
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 Neukölln (), officially abbreviated Neuk, is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located south-east of Berlin's center and stretches from the inner city southward to the border with Brandenburg, encompassing the eponymous quarter of Neu ...

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 second largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research uni ...

).Bauhaus100.Elsa Thiemann
. Retrieved 12 November 2018 She studied at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

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 ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

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 wi ...

. 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 Thiemann
. Retrieved 12 November 2018

Work

Elsa_Thiemann_Fensterputzer_am_Kottbusser_Tor_nach_1945

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'', abbreviated as RKK) 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 Minist ...

in 1934, as all working artists had to do. She had anti-Nazi views and Hans Thiemann's surrealist art work was considered degenerate, 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 (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 ...

, 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 is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...

of Berlin before the war, and especially for her photographs of the ruins of Berlin after the war.Böker, C. (2004
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

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 o ...

and the

Bauhaus Archive The Bauhaus Archive () 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 display. Currently, the museum ...

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'' Thiemann's work was included in the 2021 exhibition ''

Women in Abstraction Women in Abstraction. Another History of Abstraction in the 20th Century or ''Elles font l'abstraction. Une autre histoire de l'abstraction au XXe siècle'' was a major exhibition of 20th century abstract art created by women. It was curated by ...

'' at the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thiemann, Elsa 1910 births 1981 deaths 20th-century German artists 20th-century German photographers Bauhaus alumni People from Toruń Street photographers People from Neukölln Photographers from Berlin 20th-century German women photographers Berlin University of the Arts alumni