Erwin Quedenfeldt - Photographs of the Lower Rhine 1905-1915
The Erwin Quedenfeldt (1869-1948) collection, a German photo chemist, photographer and inventor with a doctorate in photography, comprises more than 1600 photographs of the Lower Rhine from the period 1905 to 1915. From Aachen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Kleve to Zons - almost every place is represented in his photo documentation. Quedenfeldt's focus was on the old Lower Rhine secular buildings from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods. Not only the castles, palaces and residences of the Rhenish nobility, but above all the bourgeois houses in the towns, the farmhouses and the Lower Rhine landscape he captured in photographs during his wanderings. The collection also offers unique insights into everyday life on the Lower Rhine more than 100 years ago. All photographs have been digitised and can be found in ULB's Digital Collections.
In 1903, Quedenfeldt founded the Düsseldorfer Fotoschule, which he directed until 1921. He published his photographs of the Lower Rhine from 1909 to 1915 under the titles Baukunst am Niederrhein and Einzelbilder vom Niederrhein in catalogues and by subscription in self-publishing. He left a complete set of his bromide silver pictures mounted on cardboard to the former Düsseldorf State and City Library, which was taken over by the University of Düsseldorf in 1970.
Quedenfeldt also took photographs on behalf of companies and architects. For example, he supplied the photographs of the Henkel company’s 1916 commemorative publication, documenting not only production facilities and laboratories but also the extensive welfare facilities (baths, playgrounds, library, military hospital).
He maintained close relations with the contemporary artists Otto Pankok and Gert Wollheim as well as with the founder of modern industrial design Peter Behrens. After World War I, he belonged to the radical left-wing "Aktivistenbund 1919", co-founded politically by Adolf Uzarski, which cooperated with the artists group of the "Junge Rheinland" and the "Anacho-Syndicalists". Quedenfeldt then turned to Expressionism and became a pioneer of abstract photography or so-called light painting, which he wanted to be understood as an expression of life’s soul, of visions and feelings. With his work "Lichtzeichnungen" (Light Drawings), self-published in 1919, he expressly turned away from - as he emphasised in the preface - "spirit-killing naturalism". In the preface, he demands that the photographer "penetrate the spirit into the essence of the objects". Around 1910, Quedenfeldt invented the photomechanical Erwinotype art printing process, patented in his name.
Quedenfeldt left Düsseldorf in 1923 and worked with Heribert Schiebert in Vienna. He died in 1948 in Bischofswiesen near Berchtesgarden.
Erwin Quedenfeldt: Einzelbilder vom Niederrhein zur Pflege der Heimatkunst. Düsseldorf. 4 Serien 1909-1915.
Signatur: K 347
Digitalisat: http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/5579929
Erwin Quedenfeldt: Aus dem alten Düsseldorf. Vierzig malerische Ansichten nach Original-Gummidrucken. Düsseldorf 1907.
Signatur: K310, DGV1249
Digitalisat: https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:1-512703
Zur Geschichte der Preußischen Verwaltung im Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf.Festschrift zur Einweihung des neuen Regierungsgebäudes, Düsseldorf 19. Oktober 1911, mit Beiträgen von Adolf Bammel und Traugott von Saltzwedel, Fotografien Erwin Quedenfeldt Düsseldorf 1912
Signatur: DBF1093 (4)
Digitalisat: https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:466:1-55577
Fritz August Breuhaus: Landhäuser und Innenräume. Künstlerische Aufnahmen von Dr. Erwin Quedenfeldt. Düsseldorf 1911.
Signatur: KW 1392
(auch im Digitalen Lesesaal der ULB elektronisch verfügbar bzw. am Elektronischen Leseplatz nutzbar)
Henkel, Fritz: Vierzig Jahre zielbewußter Arbeit der Firma Henkel Cie, Düsseldorf, Fabrik chemischer Produkte 1876-1916. Düsseldorf 1916. Fotografien von Erwin Quedenfeldt
Signatur: HuG 843 (4)
Digitalisat: https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:1-510341
Erwin Quedenfeldt: Lichtzeichnungen. Düsseldorf 1919
Signatur: KW 1933(2)
Digitalisat: http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/urn/urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:1-512718
Werner Jansen: Der schöne Niederrhein. Mit zahlr. Fotografien auf Tafeln von Erwin Quedenfeldt.
Signatur: VLB-9-280(4), GUST 1964
Digitalisat: http://www.ub.uni-koeln.de/permalink/2021/01/katkey:4584883
- Heidtmann, Frank: Kunstphotographische Edeldruckverfahren heute. Berlin Verlag Arno Spitz, Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-87061-183-9. (Umfangreiches Verzeichnis von Text- und Bildveröffentlichungen Quedenfeldts in Fußnote 41 zu Abschnitten 3.5 und 3.6)
- Erwin Quedenfeldt: 1869 - 1948. [Ausstellungskatalog zu: Fotografische Sammlung im Museum Folkwang Essen, 20.6. - 4.8.1985] Essen 1985
- Kemp, Cornelia, et al. Das Zweite Gesicht: Metamorphosen des Fotografischen Porträts ; The Other Face : Metamorphoses of the Photographic Portrait. München Berlin London New York: Prestel, 2002. Katalog zur Ausstellung im Deutschen Museum in München 8.5. - 11.8.2002
- Sachsse, Rolf: Fotografie. Vom technischen Bildmittel zur Krise der Repräsentation. Deubner-Verlag, Köln 2003, ISBN 3-937111-04-2. (Fotogeschichtliche Einordnung.)
- Siebert, Irmgard (Hrsg.): Am Niederrhein. Fotografien von Erwin Quedenfeldt vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg. Köln 2018