Albrecht Becker: Film History Series

Photographer Unknown, “Albrecht Becker”, circa 1930, Vintage Bromide Print

Born in 1906 at Thale, a town in Imperial Germany, Albrecht Becker was a German photographer, actor, and film production designer. Imprisoned in 1935 by the National Socialist regime on the charge of homosexuality, he was one of the few Germans to survive the Second World War and present testimony as a gay man for the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive. 

The youngest of three sons born to a baker, Albrecht Becker was encouraged by his father towards a career in textiles. He studied through an apprenticeship in Thale and, upon graduation at the age of eighteen, moved to Würzburg where he could live more freely as a gay man. Although Paragraph 175 of the German code had been active since 1871, this code outlawing homosexual acts between men was not consistently enforced at this time. Becker began work in Würzburg as a department store sales clerk but, after showing talent as a window display designer, the store made arrangements for his studies at a design school in Munich. 

Becoming financially secure at the store, Becker bought his first Leica camera and saved money for trips outside of Germany. He traveled with his camera to Spain and later to Italy where he met Wenderer Brown, an American of the same age. During a trip to France, Becker met Brown in Paris where they were able to see both Maurice Chevalier and Josephine Baker on stage. Although the distance between their homes hindered regular meetings, their romantic friendship turned out to be fortuitous as Becker sent all the photos he had taken to Brown at the outset of the Second World War; Brown returned these safely stored photos to Becker in 1945.  

Albrecht Becker’s first long-term relationship was with Joseph Arbert, a professor twenty years his senior, who was Würzburg’s Director of the State Archive. During this ten year relationship, Becker was introduced to the art and literature circles of the city. In August of 1934, he traveled to the United States for a one month visit with his friend Wenderer Brown. Becker, still feeling secure as a gay man in Würzburg,  returned to Germany at the end of his visit. However, the Night of the Long Knives in June of 1934 had changed the atmosphere in Germany. The power struggle between Ernst Röhm,the commander of the Sturmabteilung (SA),  and Adolph Hitler resulted in the murder of hundreds of Hitler’s political enemies including the openly gay Ernst Röhm. As a result of Hitler’s consolidation of power, Nazi Germany became a dangerous environment for homosexuals and others. 

At the beginning of 1935, Becker was summoned to the police station, arrested and three months later tried under Paragraph 175. He did not contest the charges which ironically saved his life, Instead of being sent to the Dachau concentration camp, Becker was sentenced to three years in the Nuremberg prison. After serving his term, he was able to return to his position at the department store in Würzburg. Near the end of the war, he served in the Wehrmacht and was sent to the Russian Front where he served until 1944 in the radio corps at a distance from the front lines. 

Wounded by shrapnel on the army’s retreat through Ukraine, Albrecht Becker was transferred first to Vienna and then back to Germany where the American forces used him as a translator until 1947. After his release, Becker was offered a position with film production designer Herbert Kirchhoff that altered his life forever. After relocating to Hamburg, the two men collaborate on several films with Becker acting as set designer. His work on these films give Becker a place in the industry that eventually allowed him to work on other independent projects, including theater and opera.

Over the course of his career as art director or production designer, Becker worked on over one hundred-twenty productions in film, television episodes and television movies.. Among his early productions were Hungarian director Sándor Szlatinay’s 1951 musical romance “Woe to Him Who Loves”; German director Ulrich Erfurth’s comedies, the 1953 “Not Afraid of Big Animals” and 1954 “Columbus Discovers Kraehwinkel” that starred Charlie Chaplin’s sons, Charles Jr. and Sydney Chaplin; Hungarian director Paul Martin’s 1955 musical comedy “Ball at the Savoy” with stage and film actor Peter W. Staub; and Hungarian director Ákos Ráthonyi’s 1961 comedy cruise film, “Beloved Imposter”, filmed aboard the Hamburg Atlantic Line steamship T.S. Hanseatic.

In his later years, Albrecht Becker devoted himself to his photography and produced artistic images as well as commercial work for magazines and newspapers. While living in Vienna and Freiburg, he exhibited his photography and received private commissions. Becker’s photography cover a wide range of eclectic subjects from ushers at the Vienna Opera and Augustinian monks to Berlin gravediggers and ruins of the razed city of Küstrin in western Poland. 

Becker published his memoir, “Fotos sind Mein Leben (Photos Are My Life) in 1993 through the publisher Rosa Winkel. In 1997, he gave testimony on his life and experiences as a gay man in Germany for the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive. Becker later told of his experiences during World War II for Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s 2000 documentary “Paragraph 175” produced through Channel Four Films. Albrecht Becker died of natural causes in Hamburg, Germany, in 2002 at the age of ninety-five. His private photo collection is now housed in Berlin’s Schwules Museum, founded in 1985 as a home for the history, culture and narratives of the LBGTQ community. 

Notes: The USC Shoah Foundation has an article with two interview clips entitled “Under the Shadow of Paragraph 175: Part 1: Albrecht Becker” located at: https://sfi.usc.edu/news/2015/03/8843-under-shadow-paragraph-175-part-1-albrecht-becker

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s biography on Albrecht Becker can be found at: https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/albrecht-becker/

Top Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Albrecht Becker”, circa 1930s-1940s, Vintage Print

Second Insert Image: Gustav Ucicky, “Zwei Blaue Augen (Two Blue Eyes)”, 1955, Cinematographer Ekkehard Kyrath, Production Design Albrecht Becker, Real-Film GmbH

Third Insert Image: Eugen York, “Die Letzte Nacht (The Last Night)”, 1949, Cinematographer Willy Wintestein, Production Design Assistant Albrecht Becker, Real-Film GmbH

Fourth Insert Image: Hans Deppe, “Die Freunde Meiner Frau (My Wife’s Friends)”, 1949, Cinematography Heinz Schnacketz, Production Design Assistant Albrecht Becker, Real-Film GmbH

Bottom Insert Image: Rinaldo Hopf, “Albrecht Becker and Friend”, circa 1980s-1990s, Color Print