Krupp Historical Archive makes 60,000 digitized photographs from the Krupp industrial photography collection available online
The Krupp Historical Archive is making approximately 60,000 photographs from the Krupp industrial photography collection, covering the period from 1945 to 1960, available online. They can now be accessed by the broader public via the portal archive.nrw.de. The images originate from a collection comprising a total of 600,000 motifs on around 100,000 negative film strips dating from the post-war years up to 1999. The collection was systematically digitized with funding from the “Neustart Kultur” programme of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the digital programme “WissensWandel” and is now being published online step by step.
The image content is diverse: industrial facilities, products and employees, the company’s international activities, trade fairs and exhibitions, as well as facilities of corporate social policy are documented, as are visits by national and international politicians, heads of state, entrepreneurs, scientists, and artists to Villa Hügel, the residence of the Krupp family. The photographs thus offer deep insights into the history and communications strategy of the Krupp company, as well as into the economic and political interconnections in the Federal Republic of Germany. They also provide points of reference for current research discourses, including issues such as post-colonialism, social questions, or gender perspectives. Moreover, the collection constitutes an important source for the study of the history of photography: the working methods of the works photographers, serial processes, and the company’s internal selection of motifs can be traced through the material.
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