Irina Tevdoradze profiles one of Weimar Berlin’s most important photographers…
Editorial note: this article does not contain any of Willy Römer’s photographs due to copyright restrictions and associated usage fees that are sadly outside of our budget. The images included here are not by Römer and are intended to serve as context for the time period and events discussed. We have, however, included links to many of Römer’s original images via the institution that owns them and other websites.
Willy Hermann Robert Römer was born in Berlin on New Year’s Eve, 1887 as the fourth child of master tailor Jacob Römer and his wife. Not much about his childhood is known, but he took up photography at an impressively young age; by 1903, at the age of 15, he was already serving an apprenticeship at the Berliner Illustrationsgesellschaft (Berlin Illustration Society).
This company, founded just prior in 1900, was the very first press photography association in the city. It was a formative time in general for both the newspaper and photography industries, with new technologies allowing photographs to be printed along with texts for mass circulation for the first time. Although the term “illustration” was still used, it wasn’t long before the new professional title of press photographer emerged.
The company, which was located conveniently close to the Anhalter Bahnhof train station on Königgrätzer Strasse 62 (now Stresemannstrasse), was founded by three former schoolfriends: Karl Delius, the artistic director of the agency; Martin Gordan, the commercial director; and Heinrich Sanden who, as the son of a wealthy shoe merchant, seems to have been the financial backer.
Delius had initially studied painting and photography at the Berlin Academy of Arts, and it was through his mentorship that the teenage Römer—along with other young enthusiasts such as Walter Bernstein—learned his craft. According to the introduction to the 2012 book Willy Römer, Berlin in den Weltstadtjahren (“Berlin during its World City Years”), written by the book’s editor Enno Kaufhold, Römer was photographing ppretty much from the outset, with negative plates discovered in his collection from as early as 1903-1904.
Interestingly, these older negatives show that Römer already had a personal interest in photographing the city and its people outside of any official news or journalistic assignments. This showcase of Römer’s winter-themed photos from Berlin features several such images from the early 1900s, including a man travelling to work on skis, an ice-sailing event at Müggelsee and children sledging at Gendarmenmarkt (both around 1906). A fabulous 1904 image entitled “Scherenschleifer auf der Straße – bewundert von den Kindern” also provides an example of his early preoccupations and his style.
Capturing life in the city wit…