Römer, Willy (1887-1979)

Römer, Willy

PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER (GERMANY)

BORN 31 Dec 1887, Berlin - DIED 26 Oct 1979, Berlin
GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Städtischer Friedhof Wilmersdorf, Berliner Straße 81-103 (Columbarium, Raum 20, Wand D, 1-2)

Willy Römer was the son of a tailor. In 1903 he started an apprenticeship at the first German press agency Berlin Illustrations-Gesellschaft. He worked in Berlin and Paris and was trained as a photographer. From 1915 to 1918 he was in the army and he was sent to Russia, Poland and Flanders. After the war he took over a company named "Photothek" and changed its name to Photothek Römer & Bernstein after Walter Bernstein joined him. His agency was very successful during the Weimar Republic.

After the nazis came to power things went downhill because Bernstein was Jewish. During the Second World War he was forced to work for the party paper of NSDAP in Posen. In 1945 he returned to Berlin where he photographed the ruins. After the war he was less successful and he concentrated on his archive that had survived the war and gave a good impression of life in Berlin between 1905 and 1935. He died in 1979 in Berlin and his work was rediscovered in the 1980s when Dirk Nishen published part of it.

Images

The urn of Willy Römer at the Städtischer Friedhof Wilmersdorf, Berlin.
Picture by Androom (26 Jan 2008)