Posted on 06/15/2008 11:26:51 AM PDT by decimon
BERLIN — It's an iconic image of World War II: Berlin has fallen and Soviet soldiers are hoisting the red flag over the Reichstag.
What most people don't realize, however, is that the photograph isn't capturing the historic moment. Yevgeni Khaldei staged the scene on May 2, 1945 — three days after the Soviets captured Germany's parliament building.
The picture is the centerpiece of an exhibit — "Yevgeni Khaldei — The Decisive Moment" — that bills itself as the first comprehensive retrospective of the photographer's World War II work.
The show at Berlin's Gropius-Bau museum reveals the extent to which Khaldei's work as a war correspondent and later a staff photographer for Pravda blurred the boundaries between photojournalism, art and propaganda.
For Russians, the Reichstag photo is as potent a symbol of victory as Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's shot of the U.S. flag being raised on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima is for Americans.
But the Reichstag image was heavily manipulated: Smoke in the background was etched later on the negative, to create the impression the battle was still unfolding.
In another version, a soldier's wristwatches have been deftly edited out lest they give the impression he looted them.
Ernst Volland, one of the exhibit's curators, calls the Reichstag photo "120 percent propaganda" — especially since it was made to order according to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's specifications.
"Stalin badly wanted the combination of Reichstag and the red flag," Volland said.
Another image shows a tank planted in front of the Brandenburg Gate, while a straight line of fighter planes soar overhead. Closer scrutiny reveals that the tank is a cutout from another picture and the planes are painted into the frame.
Khaldei saw no ethical problem with the doctoring. If challenged about a photo's truthfulness, Volland said, the photographer would simply reply: "It's a good photo. I made it. 'Auf wiedersehen.'"
Khaldei toiled in obscurity for most of his life and lived out his retirement in a small Moscow apartment on a modest pension until his death in 1997.
The retrospective of over 200 images was put together by private photography collectors Volland and Heinz Krimmer, who have been instrumental in bringing Khaldei's work to a broader public.
"Khaldei's photos are in every German schoolbook. His images are known but the man behind them is not," said Krimmer. Khaldei never considered himself an artist, and only sold his work in small quantities from his apartment.
Born to a Jewish family in 1917, Khaldei built his first camera at age 12. In 1936, he began to shoot for the Soviet news agency TASS, creating his most memorable images during World War II and its aftermath, notably the Potsdam Conference of Allied leaders in 1945 and the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals.
After the war, Khaldei had difficulty finding full-time work because of Stalin's anti-Semitic purges and campaigns.
Only after Stalin died in 1953 was Khaldei hired by Soviet newspapers.
Volland and Krimmer met him in Moscow in 1991 and began collecting his work. Their collection of his images is now the largest outside Russia.
In 1994 in Berlin, they mounted the first exhibition of Khaldei's work and published a book with some of his pictures.
The current show, which opened May 8 and runs through July 28, was supported by Germany's Federal Culture Fund. It will travel to Ukraine this year and a U.S. visit is also likely, though no details have been cemented.
While war photography makes up the heart of the exhibit, it also includes Khaldei's images of Europe in ruins. From the 1950s onwards, his work focuses on workers, politicians and artists such as cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
The curators said Berlin was an appropriate first stop for the tour.
"Khaldei's most famous images were made right around the corner," Krimmer said.
___
On the Net:
http://www.chaldej.de
Ernst Volland, one of the exhibit’s curators, calls the Reichstag photo “120 percent propaganda” — especially since it was made to order according to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s specifications.
**
Took the words out of my mouth.
Isn’t the well know Iwo Jima photo also staged, or is that another rumor?
In this May 2, 1945 file photo, Soviet soldiers hoist the red flag over the Reichstag in Berlin. It's one of the iconic images of World War II: Soviet soldiers hoisting a red flag on top of the Reichstag after the fall of Berlin. What most people don't realize, however, is that the photograph isn't capturing the historical moment. Yevgeni Khaldei staged the scene on May 2, 1945 — three days after the Soviets had captured the key seat of Nazi power. (AP Photo/ ITAR-TASS, Yevgeny Khaldei,FILE) |
 In this May 2, 1945 file photo, Soviet soldiers hoist the red flag over the Reichstag in Berlin. It's one of the iconic images of World War II: Soviet soldiers hoisting a red flag on top of the Reichstag after the fall of Berlin. What most people don't realize, however, is that the photograph isn't capturing the historical moment. Yevgeni Khaldei staged the scene on May 2, 1945 — three days after the Soviets had captured the key seat of Nazi power. (AP Photo/ITAR-TASS, Yevgeny Khaldei, FILE) |
 In this Feb. 1990 file photo veteran photographer Yevgeny Khaldei is shown. It's one of the iconic images of World War II: Soviet soldiers hoisting a red flag on top of the Reichstag after the fall of Berlin. What most people don't realize, however, is that the photograph isn't capturing the historical moment. Yevgeni Khaldei staged the scene on May 2, 1945 — three days after the Soviets had captured the key seat of Nazi power. (AP Photo/ITAR-TASS, file) |
Que the Arab lady and the “Bomb Magnet”.
No, not staged. A small flag was raised first, and later a larger flag was carried up and raised. A photographer was present at both raisings, and a movie cameraman was also present at the second raising. As the second flag was going up the movie camera captured just some Marines struggling to get the steel pipe raised upright, and photographer Joe Rosenthal almost missed it. He saw the flag going up out of the corner of his eye and turned to snap a quick picture in the middle of it. He later transmitted his pictures stateside by shortwave radio facsimile transmission and his editors were stunned by the symbolic picture they saw. Rosenthal didn't even know what he had done at the time. It was just another combat picture out of hundreds taken.
First flag:
Second flag:
I always thought there was something funny about that picture...
Where's Lootie carrying off the German beer?
Good one!
Check the bottom right corner.
It must have been a heck of a haul carrying that beer box from New Orleans to Berlin!!!!!
“Isn’t the well know Iwo Jima photo also staged, or is that another rumor?”
Yes it was staged.
Joe Rosenthal had the men raise the pole with the flag several times before he got the shot with which he was satisfied.
Actually, those looks like some Havana apartments in the background.
I’m not kidding.
“No, not staged. A small flag was raised first, and later a larger flag was carried up and raised. A photographer was present at both raisings, etc.”
I concede to your account.
Yours is correct.
I believe this would be an “All your Reichstag are belong to us” moment.
The Truth About That Flag On Suribachi!
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/flagwtc.html
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/flagwtc.html
Wasn’t really staged, the general ordered a bigger flag, since the peak was visible from nearly every point on the island.
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