Fred Stein // Der Mensch im Fokus - Fred Stein und der Spanische Bürgerkrieg

The Leipzig City History Museum and the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library are paying tribute to the photographer Fred Stein with two exhibitions and an accompanying program of events as part of the Year of Jewish Culture in Saxony(TACHELES 2026).

Fred Stein (1909-1967) was born in Dresden, studied law and passed his first state law examination in Leipzig in 1930. After the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933, he was dismissed from the judiciary as a Jew and socialist shortly before completing his legal clerkship. He fled to Paris with his wife Lilo, where he gained great renown as a press and portrait photographer. In 1941, Fred Stein emigrated to New York, where he continued his career as a photographer. Today, Fred Stein is considered a pioneer of the 35mm camera.

His photography was always political and social. His humanist convictions are reflected in his pictures of children who had fled to France to escape the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. They were his photographic contribution to the resistance against fascism and National Socialism, while Stein's friends Gerda Taro and Robert Capa were photographing at the front.

With his street photography, Fred Stein captured everyday life and the intercultural diversity in the places of his exile. His numerous portraits of Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein and Marlene Dietrich, among others, made him a documentarian of German-speaking emigration.

The exhibition "Out of Exile. The Photography of Fred Stein" (April 1 to July 4, 2026) at the German National Library shows the life and work of the photographer in exile. The exhibition "Fred Stein and the Spanish Civil War" (April 1 to July 31, 2026) at the Capa House shows photos of children who fled and portraits of Gerda Taro in Paris 90 years after the start of the Spanish Civil War. Guided tours and film lectures with film director Peter Stein, who will talk about his father, as well as a reading with historian and Stein biographer Prof. Dr. Daniel Siemens will accompany the exhibitions.

A cooperation between the German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library and the Leipzig City History Museum, in collaboration with the Fred Stein Archive and the Schaubühne Lindenfels.