Born January 29, 1897—according to some sources November 20, 1897—in Posen-Wilda; died July 31, 1985, in Wetzlar) was a German-Dutch photographer, war correspondent, and hotel manager.

Life and Work

Born Germaine Louise Krull in what was then the Prussian province of Posen, she moved with her mother to the Schwabing district of Munich in 1912. In 1915, she enrolled at the Teaching and Research Institute for Photography, Chemistry, Collotype Printing, and Engraving in Munich. During the First World War, she opened her first photography studio in 1917. Around the time of the November Revolution, she produced her famous portrait of Kurt Eisner. Her association with communist revolutionaries involved in the Bavarian Soviet Republic led to her expulsion from Bavaria in 1920.

After periods spent in various locations, including post-revolutionary Moscow—where she was arrested by the secret police and subjected to a mock execution—Krull returned to Germany. In 1923, she co-founded the Kara Kunstdruckverlag publishing house in Berlin with Kurt Hübschmann and the businessman Hermann Basler. She also lived intermittently in Amsterdam and later predominantly in Paris. There, she fell in love with a woman named Elsa and later married the Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens on April 2, 1927, after Elsa had left Paris.

Krull’s photographic work focused primarily on experimental nude photography and commercial photography. She published widely in magazines such as Voilà, Bifur, and VU. Her first book, Métal, published in 1928, explored steel structures and the visual language of the technological revolution. In Paris, she maintained close relationships with leading artists and photographers including Man Ray, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Eli Lotar, and André Kertész.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Krull lived for periods in Brazil and Africa, where she worked for the Free France organization. In 1946, she became one of the first female war correspondents to travel to Indochina. Between 1947 and 1966, she served as manager of the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. She later moved to India. Throughout her life, Krull emphasized personal independence and lived as a self-described “citizen of the world” across three continents.

Artistically, Germaine Krull is associated with the “New Vision” movement initiated by the Bauhaus. Her photographic estate is managed by the Museum Folkwang in Essen.

Reference List

Germaine Krull. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 19, 2026, from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germaine_Krull