DRESDEN AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR - destroyed by the bombs of the allies. IMPORTANT GERMAN PHOTOBOOK: Thomas Wiegand, Manfred Heiting, "Deutschland im Fotobuch", page 382/383. Scarce first printing (not to mix with later editions). Richard Peter (1895-1977) was a German press photographer and photojournalist. His photographs of Dresden immediately after the end of the Second World War, including the view from the town hall tower to the south, made him famous. IF YOU WIN MORE THAN 1 OF MY BOOKS IN THIS AUCTION, YOU WILL PAY ONLY 1 X SHIPPING COSTS - WORLDWIDE. Dresdener Verlagsgesellschaft, Dresden. 1949. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. 245 x 275 cm. 132 pages. 104 photos. Photos: Richard Peter. Text: Max Zimmering. Text in German. Condition: Book inside fresh and flawless; clean with no marks and with no foxing. Outside front and spine fresh and lightly used only, rear side stronger used. No jacket. Overall very good condition. Highly impressive, important German photobook by Richard Peter - in the scarce first printing. "Richard Peter spent his childhood in Klein Jenkwitz. He worked as a blacksmith and a miner. He took part in the First World War as a soldier. After the war, he lived in Halle (Saale), where he joined the labour movement, first becoming a member of the USPD and then the German Communist Party in 1920. Because of his participation in the uprisings in Leuna, he first fled to Vienna, and shortly afterwards Dresden became his new adopted home. In the 1920s, he published numerous photographs that appeared in advertising magazines and monthly newspapers. However, he saw himself primarily as a worker photographer and photographed pickets and strike slogans, conditions in factory halls (mainly with a hidden camera), as well as the living conditions of working families (including child labour in the home industry). These mainly appeared in the AIZ. At the end of the 1920s, he went to Argentina, which he left again in 1929 due to a lack of economic success. In 1930, he travelled to Scandinavia for almost a year. The photo reportages he produced in both cases were also published. In 1933, after the NSDAP seized power, he was banned from working as a press photographer, which was lifted again in 1939. From 1933, he smuggled photographs of the persecution of Jews and attacks on Jewish businesses and institutions to the AIZ, which was now produced in exile in Prague. Nevertheless, he was able to continue taking photos as an advertising photographer for various companies, which were published in Dresden newspapers and magazines. He was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1939/40 and from 1943. View from the town hall tower to the south, taken in autumn 1945 Richard Peter returned from captivity to his adopted home of Dresden in September 1945 and photographed the city destroyed by the air raids on Dresden and its reconstruction. His photographs were first published in 1950 in Dresden, eine Kamera klagt an. He was head of the KPD picture centre and then editor-in-chief of the magazine Zeit im Bild and regional editor of the newspaper Der freie Bauer. In 1949, Richard Peter was expelled from the Socialist Unity Party of Germany for ‘behaviour detrimental to the party’. This was due to his efforts to investigate a case of corruption involving the mayor of Weixdorf, a municipality north of Dresden. From the mid-1950s, he worked increasingly as a freelance artist for publishing houses and advertising until his death in 1977 and achieved international recognition. Richard Peter died in Dresden and was buried in the Heidefriedhof cemetery. Richard Peter had a son, Richard Peter Jr. (1915-1978), who also became known as a photographer." (Wikipedia)