Irina Tevdoradze on the life and work of one of Berlin’s most important architectural photographers…
When Theodor Max Missmann was born in Berlin-Kreuzberg in 1874, Berlin was already home to several prominent photographers; these included Friedrich Albert Schwartz, Hermann Rückwardt and Georg Bartels.
Schwartz, who opened his studio on Friedrichstraße around 1860, documented key developments such as the construction of the Anhalter Bahnhof and the Berlin light rail system, as well as disappearing historic structures. Rückwardt, who had also been documenting Berlin since the later 1860s, tended to focus on newer buildings, while Bartels’ work extended to portraying the working people of the era.
These photographers captured the city as it transitioned from a gradually-evolving Prussian capital to the much more accelerated centre of a united Germany following unification in 1871. Missmann, who was born in Skalitzer Straße, thus had a local foundation and tradition to engage with and build on when he decided to join the photographic fray.
His family hopped around Kreuzberg for most of his younger life, from Skalitzer Straße to Mariannenstraße and back again, eventually settling at Kottbusser Ufer 57; his only detour was to Charlottenburg, although it didn’t last long.
At the age of 21, he began an apprenticeship at the Zander & Labisch photo studio on Mohrenstraße, opening his first studio in his father’s watchmaking workshop in 1903—one of 233 registered photo studios in the capital at that time, an astonishing amount considering photography was still a relatively new and expensive technology.
…