Im Archiv Wendling befindet sich der fotografische Nachlass von Herbert Wendling mit historischen Aufnahmen aus dem München der 1930er bis 1960er Jahren.
In der Stadt – Brückenfiguren – Herbergshäuser – Drittes Reich – Kriegsschäden – Personen – Kinder – Oktoberfest – Blumen
Die Aufnahmen liegen als als Negative, Dias, Papierabzüge oder auf Film vor. Ein Großteil der Fotos ist zwischenzeitlich digital erfaßt und wird sukzessive aufbereitet und dem Editions-/Galerie-Bestand zugeführt.
Authentizität ist das Credo bei der Aufarbeitung der Fotografien. Es steht nicht der Hochglanzeffekt im Fokus, man soll und darf den Bildern ihr Alter ansehen.
Nach der Digitalisierung müssen die Fotografien vor einer weiteren Nutzung mit Mitteln der Bildbearbeitung aufbereitet werden. Dabei werden der Kontrast, die Schärfe und Tonwerte korrigiert und größere Beschädigungen repariert.
Kratzer, Flecken etc. bleiben großteils erhalten um möglichst nahe am aktuellen Originalzustand zu bleiben.
So entstehen trotz der Überarbeitung keine perfekten, sterilen Hochglanzbilder sondern Fotografien denen man ihr Alter auch ansieht.
Die Beispielbilder rechts zeigen den Unterschied zwischen dem Scan des Negativs und dem aufbereiteten Foto.
Alle Motive können auch für eine kommerzielle Nutzung lizensiert werden.
z.B. für Buchproduktionen, Presseberichte, Magazine, Postkarten- / Kalenderproduktionen, Onlinepublikationen, Film und Präsentationen in öffentlich zugänglichen Räumen etc.
Bitte fordern Sie Ihr individuelles Lizenzangebot über unser Kontaktfomular an.
Im Familienbesitz befinden sich noch weitere Bestände historischer Fotografien.
Z.B. Fotografien des Hofphotografen H. Traut (München) von den Passionsspielen in Oberammergau – von 1922. Hierbei handelt es sich um original Papierabzüge von 1922. Die Fotoserie wurde zur Pressearbeit der Passionsspiele, Postkarten und für eine Buchproduktion in Auftrag gegeben.
Fritz Grabsdorf, der Uronkel von Gerhard Grabsdorf, war zu dieser Zeil bei H. Traut in der Lehre als Fotograf.
Herbert Wendling wurde 1902 in Weinheim an der Bergstraße geboren. Im Alter von zwölf Jahren kam er nach München, als sein Vater eine Anstellung als Eisendreher in München-Moosach annahm. Bis zu seinem Tod 1970, kurz nach seinem zweiten Schlaganfall, blieb München seine Heimat.
Die Mutter starb früh und der Vater heiratete erneut. So wuchs Herbert Wendling mit vier leiblichen Geschwistern und drei Halbgeschwistern auf. Schon in jungen Jahren erkrankte er schwer an Diabetes und musste mehrmals täglich Insulin spritzen. Während seiner Schulzeit, er besuchte die Simmernschule in Schwabing, wohnte die Familie in der Unertlstraße. Die Eltern zogen später nach Moosach in die Triebstraße. Ob er dort auch wohnte, ist nicht mehr bekannt. Nach seinem Schulabschluss absolvierte Herbert Wendling eine Kaufmannslehre und entdeckte früh seine Leidenschaft für die Fotografie – zunächst nur als Hobby.
Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs war er etwa fünf Jahre für BMW tätig, zunächst dienstverpflichtet als Kontrolleur für Flugzeugtriebwerke, später wurde er als Fotograf übernommen. Eine weitere Anstellung als Werksfotograf bei der Firma Hurt folgte.
Nach Kriegsende fotografierte er ab September 1946 im Rahmen der Kennkartenaktion für das Bayerische Staatsministerium und bereiste zur Anfertigung von Lichtbildern Gemeinden in ganz Bayern. Ohne offizielle Ausbildung zum Fotografen und ohne die Mittel für eine professionelle Kameraausstattung ermöglichte es ihm erst diese Anstellung, sich alle gewünschten Materialien für seine fotografische Arbeit zu leisten. Ende der 40er Jahre wurde ihm von der Handwerkskammer erlaubt, die Berufsbezeichnung „Fotograf “ zu führen. Ab den 1950er Jahren bot Herbert Wendling verschiedene Dienstleistungen rund um die Fotografie an, z. B. kolorierte Semi-Emaille Platten, passend als Einlagen für Broschen, Medaillons oder Krawattennadeln. Auch als Porträtfotograf hatte er ein Einkommen.
Gerhard Grabsdorf machte sich in den letzten Jahren auf die Suche nach Orten und Plätzten, die schon für seinen Großvater Herbert Wendling so besonders waren, dass er sie fotografisch festhielt.
Mit Fotografien von Herbert Wendling & Gehard Grabsdorf
Ein Spaziergang durch Stadt und Zeit
Fotografien von Herbert Wendling
Herausgeber Gehard Grabsdorf; Volk Verlag
The Archive Stock
In the city - Bridge figures - Hostel houses - Third Reich - War damage - People - Children - Oktoberfest - Flowers
The photographs are available as negatives, slides, paper prints or on film. A large part of the photos has been digitally recorded in the meantime and will be successively processed and added to the edition/gallery stock.
From the archive to the gallery and edition
Authenticity is the credo in the processing of the photographs. The focus is not on the glossy effect, one should and may see the age of the pictures.
After digitization, the photographs must be processed using image processing methods before they can be used again. Contrast, sharpness and tonal values are corrected and larger damages are repaired.
Scratches, stains, etc. are largely preserved in order to remain as close as possible to the current original condition.
Thus, despite the reworking, no perfect, sterile glossy images are created, but photographs that also show their age.
The sample images on the right show the difference between the scan of the negative and the processed photo.
Use / Licenses
All motifs can also be licensed for commercial use.
E.g. for book productions, press reports, magazines, postcard / calendar productions, online publications, film and presentations in publicly accessible spaces, etc.
Please request your individual license offer via our contact form.
Other archive contents
In the family possession there are other stocks of historical photographs.
For example, photographs by the court photographer H. Traut (Munich) of the Passion Play in Oberammergau - from 1922. These are original paper prints from 1922. The photo series was commissioned for press work for the Passion Play, postcards and for a book production. Fritz Grabsdorf, the great-grandson of Gerhard Grabsdorf, was at this time apprenticed to H. Traut as a photographer.
Herbert Wendling
Vita
Herbert Wendling was born in Weinheim an der Bergstrasse in 1902. He came to Munich at the age of twelve when his father took a job as an iron lathe operator in Munich-Moosach. Munich remained his home until his death in 1970, shortly after his second stroke.
His mother died early and his father remarried. Thus, Herbert Wendling grew up with four biological siblings and three half-siblings. He became seriously ill with diabetes at a young age and had to inject insulin several times a day. During his school years, when he attended the Simmernschule in Schwabing, the family lived in Unertlstraße. The parents later moved to Triebstraße in Moosach. Whether he also lived there is no longer known. After graduating from school, Herbert Wendling completed an apprenticeship as a merchant and discovered his passion for photography early on - initially only as a hobby.
During the Second World War, he worked for BMW for about five years, initially as a service inspector for aircraft engines, and later as a photographer. A further employment as a factory photographer at the Hurt company followed.
After the end of the war, he took photographs for the Bavarian State Ministry from September 1946 as part of the identity card campaign and traveled to communities throughout Bavaria to take photographs. Without official training as a photographer and without the means for professional camera equipment, only this employment enabled him to afford all the desired materials for his photographic work. At the end of the 1940s, he was allowed by the Chamber of Crafts to use the professional title "photographer ". From the 1950s on, Herbert Wendling offered various services related to photography, such as colored semi-enamel plates, suitable as inlays for brooches, medallions or tie pins. He also had an income as a portrait photographer.
Through his son-in-law, who was a civilian employee of the U.S. Army, he was able to establish good contacts with the American GIs, who were happy to have their pictures taken by him; he received a beautiful ham from one of the U.S. Americans as a thank-you - unfortunately, it was covered with a sugar crust and inedible for German palates. Herbert Wendling also reproduced old photos of fallen soldiers of World War II, often for the commemorative plaques of Bavarian communities. He was one of the first to photograph in color, soon especially in numerous schools (class photos).
In addition to his forays through Munich - on foot or by bicycle - Herbert Wendling often drove across the country with his wife on a motorcycle, later with the Goggomobil. If a special motif caught his eye, it could happen that he stopped in the middle of the highway, took out his camera and tripod and took some pictures of the landscape. Privately, he was very interested in stereo photography and even produced some animated films.
His work in the darkroom was hindered by his deteriorating eyesight as he grew older, so he assisted his wife in the production of jackets and sweaters on the knitting machine, thus helping to provide for his family. During the census of 1961 he worked in the National Statistical Office. He was able to sell two of his photo series - about the zoo and about the Munich fountains - to a publishing house for publication, although unfortunately it is no longer known in which publications his works were published.
Frequent changes of residence during the Second World War took the still young family to Trudering and probably also to Bogenhausen, where one of Herbert Wendling's daughters attended the Gebeleschule at Herkomerplatz for a while. The last residence was at Aßlinger Straße 8 in Ramersdorf.
In the course of his working life, Herbert Wendling examined many of his photographs only as film in the darkroom, without ever developing them. This was due not only to the shortage of materials during the war and post-war years, but also to his limited financial means throughout his life. With eleven children at last count, the family led a simple and deprived life. Feeding a family of this size was not easy throughout his life as a photographer.
The city and its streets were one of Herbert Wendling's favorite subjects. On his tours through Munich's neighborhoods, he photographed a wide variety of buildings, squares, parks and the life that took place there. In the process, he created snapshots of the city in both the pre- and post-war periods up to the end of the 1960s. Taken together, they show the fascinating transformation of Munich over the decades. It also becomes clear that the "good old days" often bear this name unjustly: Herbert Wendling's pictures, for example of the Au, show the poorest conditions; the houses look run-down, their inhabitants do the laundry in the Auermühlbach.
Virtually no information has survived to tell us exactly when the photographs were taken, hardly any information about the exact locations or other helpful notes. If Herbert Wendling noted something about a picture, then usually only information about the camera, lens and exposure time. Therefore, the memories that his photographs awaken in visitors to today's exhibitions are of particular interest. Often they are stories about their family and childhood, which older viewers think back to with nostalgia, e.g. the unsupervised and free playing on the rubble plots after the war; more than just an "adventure playground" for the children and young people of the time, not only because of scattered ammunition remnants. Some tell of pubs across the street where they fetched beer for their father, of the street where their aunt lived, where their first apartment was or where they played as children, of the grocer on the corner who always gave away sweets, of their grandfather and uncle who lived and worked in one of the hostels in the Au.
Independent of the age of the observer, however, is the vague feeling that Munich - despite the frequently documented barrenness of everyday life in the city - has not taken the path to the better in its development. The goal of the car-oriented city from the post-war years and the modern-day surrender of many points of urban planning to investors, together with the associated much-mentioned gentrification, are painfully perceived and lamented by a majority. Only the extensive construction measures for the 1972 Olympic Games are still viewed positively.
Source: Illustrated Book "Munich 1930 - 1960," published in 2020 by Volk Verlag, Munich.