Karl Theodor Gremmler - Männer am Netz (New Objectivity) - 1939

FANTASTIC PHOTOS by Karl Theodor Gremmler (assistant of Hein Gorny), BREATH-TAKING LAYOUT -
a HIGHLY UNDERRATED MASTERPIECE of the "New German Objectivity" in the style of Albert Renger-Patzsch, Aenne Biermann, Alfred Ehrhardt or Arvid Gutschow.

With the VERY SCARCE ORIGINAL DUSTJACKET.

"Men at the Net" is one of the last German photo books of this time, when such quality was no longer to be expected.
Design and layout still emit the spirit of modernity, so hated by the National Socialists. Each page illustrates how a resistant photographer bravely tried to elude National Socialist appropriation. Thus, in 1939, a German photo book was published which is unfortunately still underestimated, but which can nevertheless be included among the best photo books of the German New Objectivity period.

Welcome to the "GERMAN PHOTOBOOKS" auction by Ecki Heuser (5Uhr30.com, Cologne) -
with more than 100 fantastic lots.
IF YOU WIN MORE THAN 1 OF MY BOOKS IN THIS AUCTION, YOU WILL PAY ONLY 1 X SHIPPING COSTS - WORLDWIDE.

Verlag "Das Fischnetz", Berlin-Lichterfelde. 1939. First and only edition, first printing.

Hardcover in linen. 225 x 280 mm. 122 pages. 123 black and white photos. Photos: Karl Theodor Gremmler. Edited by H. A. Keune. Text: Rud. Kinau, Hamburg-Finkenwärder and Prof. Dr. Schnakenbeck, Hamburg. Language: German.

Condition:
Book inside clean with no marks, first and last two pages lightly foxed, otherwise fresh, so also all text and all photo pages are fresh. Dustjacket used with some small tears, small missing parts and small imperfections, but still very impressive and better than usual. Overall fine condition.

Wonderful photobook -
hard to find in any condition (so very scarce opportunity to get it here with the original dustjacket).

Little is known about the life of the photographer Karl Theodor Gremmler and his photographs, especially his work of the 1920s which is considered lost. A small part of his negatives is in the collection of the Deutsche Fotothek, Dresden. The group offered here is therefore rare. Some of the photos bear both Gremmler's copyright stamp and the agency stamp Gremmler-Gorny. Gremmler received his artistic inspiration in Hanover during the Weimar Republic, where Käte Steinitz (1889-1975) invited the avant-garde artists of the time to her legendary salon. Gremmler was a close friend of Käte and Ernst Steinitz and a regular guest at their house. Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitzky, Mary Wigman, Herward Walden, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Theodor Lessing and many others attended Käte Steinitz's salon. Here Gremmler befriended Albert Renger-Patzsch and also met Hein Gorny. Gorny and his wife Ruth Lessing knew Lotte Jacobi, who had to give up her studio in Berlin in 1935 and emigrate. In that year Gremmler and Gorny took over Jacobi's studio at Kurfürstendamm 35 and sold their photos individually, as well as together under the Gremmler/Gorny-Bildagentur name. Karl Theodor Gremmler died in 1942 under unclear circumstances. Only one year later, the studio was destroyed in a bombing raid, and a large part of the negatives and photographs were destroyed.