Even today, 25 years after the
reunification of Germany, relatively little is known about photographers who
worked in the former East Germany. One
of those photographers is Klaus Ender.
Klaus Ender was born in Berlin in 1939. In 1962 he moved to the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea and fell in love with it. He was a passionate amateur photographer and was
the only East German amateur who managed to publish in major journals such as Das
Magazin (The Magazine) and Eulenspiegel and then turn his hobby into a profession.
On 10 May 1966 he began his work as a freelance nude and landscape
photographer. After only a few years he became one of the top East German
photographers and published with more than 50 publishers. In 1972 he left Rügen,
because of political pressures and moved to Potsdam.
He became a commercial photographer and
used his free time to pursue his artistic photography. In 1981 he left the GDR and moved to Austria,
where he started over again, penniless and at ground zero. After only a few years, in 1989, he finally
became known internationally.
Companies like Leica, Minox, Zeiss,
Hama, B + W, Metz, among others used his photographs for their advertising.
It wasn’t until 1996 that he was able to
return to the island of Rügen where he started his career and where he
celebrated his 45th anniversary as a professional photographer.
Klaus Ender is one of the few East
German photographers who also had an impressive international career.
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