Biography – August Sander

1876

August Sander is born on 17 November in Herdorf, the son of August Sander sen. (1846–1906), a mining carpenter who was later disabled, and Justine Sander, née Jung (1845–1919). August Sander jun. has six siblings.

1890–1896

Works on the mining waste tip at Herdorf iron ore mine. Strikes up an acquainted with a professional photographer from Siegen, who arouses his interest in photography. With the financial support of his uncle, he buys his first photographic equipment.

1897–1909

Military service and training under Trier-based photographer Georg Jung. He spends years travelling to Berlin, Magdeburg, Halle, Dresden and Leipzig, among others, and works in various photographic studios. Presumably as an observer, he attends the Königliche Künstlerakademie [Royal Academy of Art] or the Kunstgewerbeakademie [Academy of Applied Arts] in Dresden. Works for the Photographische Kunstanstalt Greif in Linz on the Danube (Austria), which he takes over in 1902. In his Atelier für bildmäßige Photographie Sander offers "photographic works of every kind". Even at that time, his work covers a broad range of subjects, encompassing portrait, architectural, landscape, industrial and still life photography. The technical standard of his photographs is state-of-the-art. Sanders work is often exhibited and wins many awards. During the Linz years, he also marries Anna Seitenmacher (1902) and of his sons Erich (1903) and Gunther (1907) were born.

1910–1920

Relocated to Cologne. Birth of the twins Sigrid and Helmut (1911), but only Sigrid survives. Expand his studio work in Cologne’s Lindenthal district at Dürener Straße 201. Begins photographic work in the Westerwald region, producing images he will later incorporate into his work Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts [People of the 20th Century]. Sander is conscripted at the start of World War I and does not return until the end of the war in 1918. Anna Sander runs the business in his absence.

ab 1920

Intensive exchange with the Cologne Progressives artist group, above all with Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and Heinrich Hoerle. The ideas and concept for his large portrait project Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts [People of the 20th Century] mature. First presentation of the project at the Kölnische Kunstverein (November 1927); that same spring he travels to Sardinia with the author Ludwig Mathar. As a preview the illustrated publication Antlitz der Zeit [Face of Our Time] is published in 1929. Sander hold a series of sixe lectures on the topic "Wesen und Werden der Photographie" [The Essence and Development of Photography] in the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (1931). Sander's son Erich, a humanities student and a member of the SAP [German Socialist Workers Party], is informed on and condemned to ten years’ imprisonment (1934). The National Socialists prevent delivery of Antlitz der Zeit and destroy the printing plates. Publishers L. Schwann, Düsseldorf, and L. Holzwarth, Bad Rothenfelde, publish six booklets each portraying a region of Germany (1933–1935). The images they contain by August Sander, but also taken by Erich Sander for the family business, address various topics focusing on landscape and architecture. Sander also produces botanic studies and detailed studies, for example of hands. Sander realizes numerous commissions in the areas of industry and advertising. The ongoing war obliges the Sanders to leave Cologne. They begin the move to their new home in the Westerwald village, Kuchhausen, in 1942.

1944–1946

Sander's son Erich dies in Siegburg prison (1944), from an untreated and acute ruptured appendix. The studio in Cologne is destroyed by bombing. Sander manages to save a major part of his archive and move it to his new home in the Westerwald. Under difficult conditions, he sets up a new studio and resumes his work as a photographer. Roughly 25,000 to 30,000 negatives still stored in the cellar of the Cologne apartment are destroyed by a fire (January 1946). Numerous other photographic projects are planned and launched. Sander's son Gunther arranges for a radio interview to be broadcast by Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk to mark August Sander's 70th birthday. As a result of it, contacts in Cologne are revived.

1951–1962

At the initiative of Professor L. Fritz Gruber, exhibition featuring at the second photokina (1951) and visit by Edward Steichen, Director of the photography department of New York's Museum of Modern Art (1952). Sale of the portfolio project Köln, wie es war [Cologne as it once was] to the City of Cologne (1953). Participaties in the traveling exhibition The Family of Man (1955) curated by Steichen. Awarded the freedom of his home town Herdorf (1958). Special issue of the Swiss monthly periodical DU (1959). Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, first class and Winner of the Cultural Award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie [German Photographic Society] (1960/61). Publication of the book Deutschenspiegel [Mirror of the Germans] with an introduction by Heinrich Lützeler (1962).

1957

Death of Sander's wife Anna in Kuchhausen.

1964

20 April, August Sander dies in Cologne after a stroke.