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Berlin: Verlag der Neuen Gesellschaft, 1930-1931. Quartos (29 × 22 cm). Contemporary cloth-covered boards with pictorial self-wrappers bound in; each issue 24 pp., nos. 11 and 12, each 16 pp. with numerous reproductions of photographs. Very good. Complete run of the rare social democratic journal for worker photography. The periodical was published by the social democratic "Arbeiter-Lichtbild-Bund" (Workers' Photographic Association), which was founded two years after the communist "Verband der Arbeiterfotografen Deutschlands" (Association of German Worker Photographers). The communist association had direct links to Willi Münzberg's media group, which not only included a large book publishing house, but also the high-circulation and widely distributed journals A-I-Z and "Der Arbeiterfotograf" (The Worker Photographer). In the few remaining years of the Weimar Republic, the social democratic association did not achieve the same level of publicity as the communist associations, which were also in contact with avant-garde photographers in the Soviet Union. Thus, "Das neue Bild" remained a niche publication with a small circulation. Already in the introduction, a distinction is made from the communist-dominated workers' photography movement, albeit indirectly. "Das neue Bild" opposes a 'narrowing' of motifs and, in the very first paragraph, rhetorically asks: "Does this mean that a photograph only reflects socialist sentiment if it depicts a social motif, a milieu of misery, or a demonstration march?" Above all, however, it takes a skeptical view of collectivism and the development of a collective style. The development of individual styles is expected to lead to greater productivity and progress. Thus, in the aesthetic field, the insurmountable socio-political and ideological differences between the KPD and SPD shortly before the National Socialists came to power become very clear. Thus, using Renger-Patzsch and Sahsa Stone as examples, the introduction attempts to illustrate that collectivism fails to make fruitful use of different talents and areas of focus: "The more diverse life in our groups is, the better. The nature photographer and the political reporter, the lover of factual and still life photography (and a still life with socialist tendencies could still be created!) and the experimental photographer must all find a place and inspiration in the workers' photography guilds." Interestingly, the introduction promotes a technique that does not play such an important role in the journal: photomontage. At that time, it was the communist image technique par excellence in Germany. John Heartfield became a permanent employee of Willi Münzenberg's "Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung" in 1930. Heartfield is not even mentioned in the introduction, but the urgency of making this technique available to social democratic media is very clearly articulated. The reproduced photographs include works by: Hans Freiberger, Paul Franken, Siegfried Walter Fischer, Walter Jaeger, Willi Jakob, Kurt Kersten, Kurt Müller, Willi Preidel, Max Rothkegel, Ernst Scheel, Austin Speer, Heinrich Stürtz, Karl Hermann. As of March 2026, KVK, OCLC only lists three runs in North America.
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