{"id":31614,"date":"2026-07-14T09:39:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/?post_type=artist&#038;p=31614"},"modified":"2026-07-14T09:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:59:07","slug":"elsa-thiemann","status":"publish","type":"artist","link":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/discover\/artist\/elsa-thiemann\/","title":{"rendered":"Elsa Thiemann"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class='wp-block-ho-pattern header-text' data-pattern='ho\/header-kunstler'>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ho-div\">\n\n<div  class='color-bg-highlight color-fg-highlight header-space header-height-read-only padding-bottom-6'>\n\n<div  class='container-fluid cf-gutter-5 cf-side-5'>\n\n<div  class='row'>\n\n<div  class='col col-xs-12 col-md-offset-1 col-md-7'>\n\n<div  class='margin-bottom-3'><div class=\"wp-block-ho-slot \"><div class=\"margin-bottom-3\">\n\t<swup-back>Back<\/swup-back>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div  class='row'>\n\n<div  class='col col-xs-12 col-md-offset-1 col-md-7'>\n\n<div  class='margin-bottom-7'>\n<h1 class='ho-sd-h2' style=\"white-space: normal;\">Elsa Thiemann<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div  class='row'>\n\n<div  class='col col-xs-12 text-align-center col-md-offset-1 col-md-3'>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ho-div\">\t<div class=\"wp-block-ho-lane-wrapper\" data-orientation=\"horizontal\" data-lane-item-count=\"3\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-fluid header-biography-list  cf-gutter-1 cf-side-1\">\n\t\t\t<ul class=\"wp-block wp-block-ho-grid row\">\n\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"wp-block-ho-lane-item col col-xs-12\">\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ho-div\">\t<p class='ho-sd-metadata'>Photographer and secretary<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n\n\n<li class=\"wp-block-ho-lane-item col col-xs-12\">\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ho-div\">\t<p class='ho-sd-metadata'>born on 7 February 1910 in Toru\u0144<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n\n\n<li class=\"wp-block-ho-lane-item col col-xs-12\">\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ho-div\">\t<p class='ho-sd-metadata'>died on 15 November 1981 in Hamburg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div  class='col col-xs-12 col-md-3 col-md-offset-5 ho-pattern-optional-image'>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ho-div\"><figure itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" class=\"lazy-media-inline \" role=\"group\" aria-describedby=\"media_enN14K\">\n<script type=\"application\/json\">{\n\"id\" : 31755,\n\"sizes\" : {\"medium\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-300x296.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":296,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":15185},\"large\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-1024x1011.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":1011,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":100891},\"medium_large\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-768x758.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":758,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":62716},\"1536x1536\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-1536x1516.jpg\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":1516,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":203082},\"2048x2048\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-2048x2022.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":2022,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":332254},\"small\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-440x434.jpg\",\"width\":440,\"height\":434,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":26796},\"semi\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-580x573.jpg\",\"width\":580,\"height\":573,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":40484},\"mobile\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-720x711.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":711,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":56547},\"hd\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-1280x1264.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":1264,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":147232},\"full\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann-1920x1895.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1895,\"mime-type\":\"image\\\/jpeg\",\"filesize\":298052},\"original\":{\"file\":\"bha26_portrait_elsa-thiemann.jpg\",\"width\":2262,\"height\":2233}},\n\"alt\" : \"A woman in a plaid dress photographs with an old camera, the lens hidden under a black cloth.\",\n\"path\" : \"\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/\",\n\"video\" : null,\n\"autoplay\" : null,\n\"youtube\" : null,\n\"youtubelabel\" : \"play\",\n\"brightness\" : 100,\n\"crop\" : {\"x\":0.5,\"y\":0.5},\n\"background\" : true,\n\"scale\" : 1,\n\"zoom\" : false,\n\"annotations\" : null}<\/script>\n<div class=\"height-container \" style=\"padding-bottom:120%;   \">\n\t<div class=\"height-container-contents lazy-media-contents\">\n\t\n\t<div class=\"lazy-media-preview\" style=\"background-image: url('data:image\/jpeg;base64,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'); background-position: 50% 50%; height: 100%; width: 100%;\"><\/div>\n\n\t\t<lazy-media-inline inline-template>\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t<lazy-media :inline=\"true\" :alt=\"alt\" :sizes=\"sizes\" :scale=\"scale\" :zoom=\"zoom\" :brightness=\"brightness\" :path=\"path\" :video=\"video\" :autoplay=\"autoplay\" :youtube=\"youtube\" :crop=\"crop\" :youtubelabel=\"youtubelabel\" :annotations=\"annotations\" :background=\"background\" v-if=\"sizes\"><\/lazy-media>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/lazy-media-inline>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div  class='margin-bottom-7'>\n\n<div  class='container-fluid cf-gutter-5 cf-side-5  ho-pattern-optional-image'>\n\n<div  class='row'>\n\n<div  class='col col-md-6 col-xs-12 col-md-offset-6'>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ho-div\"><figcaption id=\"media_enN14K\">\n\t<div class=\"figcaption-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"lazy-media-image-label\">Hans Thiemann, Portrait of Elsa Thiemann with folding camera, 1930er-Jahre<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"lazy-media-image-description\">Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin \u00a9 Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div  class='margin-bottom-7'>\n\n<div  class='container-fluid cf-gutter-5 cf-side-5'>\n\n<div  class='row'>\n\n<div  class='col col-xs-12 col-md-4'><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div  class='col col-md-6 col-xs-12 col-md-offset-2'>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ho-div\">\t<p class='ho-sd-body'>Elsa Thiemann, n\u00e9e Franke, was born in Toru\u0144, then West Prussia, on 7 February 1910. In 1927 she began studying applied art at Berlin-Charlottenburg\u2019s United State Schools for Fine and Applied Arts. In 1929 she transferred to the Bauhaus in Dessau. After her preliminary training, she studied in Joost Schmidt\u2019s advertising workshop and, from the summer of 1930, in Walter Peterhans\u2019s photography class. In 1931 she completed her studies with a Bauhaus diploma. From then on, Thiemann worked in Berlin as a freelance photojournalist and captured life in the city. In 1944 she accepted a position as a secretary in the Berlin editorial office of the Hoffmann und Campe publishing house. After the war she resumed her work as an independent photojournalist. She used her photographs to document the transformation of the German capital: from the ruins of a devastated Berlin after 1945 to the renewed flourishing of urban life in the West Berlin of the 1950s. She also created numerous portraits of artists. In 1947 she married the painter Hans Thiemann, whom she knew from their time at the Bauhaus. When the couple moved to Hamburg in 1960, Elsa Thiemann stopped working as a professional photographer and began documenting the work of her husband. After his death in 1977, she managed his estate while also tending to her own photo archive. Elsa Thiemann died in Hamburg on 15 November 1981.<br><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elsa Thiemann, n\u00e9e Franke, was born in Toru\u0144, then West Prussia, on 7 February 1910. In 1927 she began studying applied art at Berlin-Charlottenburg\u2019s United State Schools for Fine and Applied Arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":31755,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ho_image_focal_point":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31614","artist","type-artist","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"seo_titel":"","keywords":"","noindex":false,"redirect":"","short_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist\/31614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/artist"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist\/31614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31784,"href":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist\/31614\/revisions\/31784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bauhaus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}