assembled by Otto Steinert, which comprise the
cornerstone of the museum’s collection, and the
other is the long tradition of photography archiv-
ing and mounting exhibitions in the Museum
Folkwang in general.
When Otto Steinert was made a professor of
photography at theFolkwangschule fu ̈r Gestaltung
in 1959, he began to build the collection as a photo-
historical archive for the school. It was a teacher’s
collection that would allow one to use original
prints in the classroom. From the very beginning
Steinert united teaching, collecting, and exhibiting,
and in recognition of this historical usage, since
1959 the museum has sponsored a yearly exhibition
on the history of photography.
The first exhibition of photographs mounted by
the museum, however, was the presentation of
another collector’s holdings, the famous historian of
photography Helmut Gernsheim, whose collection
provided an overview of over 100 years of photogra-
phy, from its beginnings to the 1930s. (This collection,
however, was purchased by Harry Huntt Ransom
and became the centerpiece of the Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center at the University of
Texas, Austin.) Following this exhibition, the school
purchased the omnibus volume of photographs made
by the portrait photographer Hugo Erfurth and the
Neue Sachlichkeit(New Objectivity) photographs of
Albert Renger-Patzsch. But in the early years, the
collection grew sporadically rather than systemati-
cally. In 1961, at the first European photography
auction, Steinert acquired another cadre of photo-
graphs, among them a portfolio of 144 images from
the pioneers of photography David Octavius Hill and
Robert Adamson. In the 1960s, Steinert was inter-
estedintheworkofHeinrichKu ̈hn, a turn of the
century art photographer, and in photographs from
the 1920s, which shaped acquisitions. In the mid-
1960s, as interest in photojournalism increased, Stei-
nert began collecting works of Felix H. Man, Erich
Salomon, and Robert Lebeck. By 1978, the collection
contained around 3,800 photographs.
The integration of the photography collection
into a museum of modern art was an important
recognition of photography as art within a museum
context in West Germany. This path-breaking
move can be traced back to the 1920s and the
Museum Folkwang’s long-standing relationship
with the medium of photography. Under the influ-
ence of the then curator Kurt-Wilhem Ka ̈stner and
the photographer and Folkwang instructor Max
Buchartz there arose in Essen in the late 1920s and
1930s a forum for photography. In 1929, even
beforeFilm und Foto, the well attended and influ-
ential photography exhibition in Stuttgart, Ka ̈stner
created the exhibitionFotografie der Gegenwart.
Following this, he presentedDas Lichtbild(1931),
an exhibition from Munich that he and Max
Buchartz enlarged with works from students in
Essen. The first individual exhibition of photo-
graphs by Florence Henri (1933) was the last exhi-
bition Ka ̈stner curated before the Nazis removed
him from his position. After the war, Steinert recon-
nected to what Ka ̈stner had begun by establishing a
yearly exhibition series ‘‘Beitra ̈ge zur Geschichte der
Fotografie,’’ held from 1959 to 1978.
In 1979, Ute Eskildsen, a student of Otto Steinert,
took over the photography division and continues
to guide it into the twenty-first century, continuing
the interweaving of the historical and the contem-
porary. The museum expanded its holdings in the
areas that Steinert had focused on in his collecting,
architectural photography and human representa-
tion. It has also filled gaps in its special collection
of photography from the 1920s so that the holdings
range from the experimental Bauhaus photography
to New Objectivity, and include the estates of Hel-
mar Lerski, Germaine Krull, and numerous collec-
tions from German-Jewish emigrants, such as Lotte
Erell and ringel+pit, the studio of Ellen Auerbach
and Grete Stern. There is also a reprint of August
Sander’s epic work,Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts,
which Steinert himself never could procure for his
collection. Another area of considerable attention is
the 1950s, with holdings from the members of the
photography group ‘‘fotoform’’ and from the exhi-
bition seriesSubjektive Fotografieorganized by Otto
Steinert, an area enlarged by the purchase of Stei-
nert’s private collection.
A strong interest in contemporary photography
also motivates the museum’s purchases. Among
them are collections by the Americans William
Klein and William Eggleston, and Michael Schmidt.
In addition the museum secured the estates and
archives of Helmuth Kurth, Walter Peterhans, Fee
Schlapper, Wolfgang Weber, and the archives of
Peter Keetman.
When they transferred the school’s collection to
the public museum, staff took inventory of the
holdings over the following years. Now the public
can access the collection with a filing system or-
dered by author and a slide library ordered by
keyword. Once a week anyone can view original
prints. Unknown works are conserved and restored
to public attention by means of the numerous exhi-
bitions and their accompanying catalogues that are
grouped around the central areas of the collection.
Robert Knodt has been responsible for the scienti-
fic handling and conservation of the collection
since 1985.MUSEUM FOLKWANG