Hans Namuth and Georg Reisner: Spanish journal 1936. Photographs and texts from the first months of the Civil War
On July 18, 1936, the young photographers Hans Namuth and Georg Reisner arrived in Barcelona to document the Workers’ Olympiad for a magazine. One day later, the first shots were fired—the Spanish Civil War had begun. This catalogue was edited by Diethart Kerbs and published by Dirk Nishen Verlag on the occasion of the third exhibition of the Fotografie work group. It tells the story of the two men’s experience in the war, presenting their pictures from 1936: armed farmers, women Republican soldiers on the Estremadura front, barricades protecting Madrid, burning church furnishings, and street fighting in Toledo. The book ends with excerpts from Hans Namuth’s journal: “Around five in the morning we were at army headquarters in Talavera and half an hour later we were at the front. We were told that resistance to the rebels advance is weak. Oropesa has fallen—five days ago we had a peaceful lunch there, now it’s just a heap of rubble.”

Ed.: Diethart Kerbs