Fred Stein – The Human Being in Focus

The Leipzig City History Museum and the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 of the German National Library are honoring the photographer Fred Stein with two exhibitions and an accompanying program of events as part of the Year of Jewish Culture in Saxony (TACHELES 2026).

His photography was always political and social. His humanist convictions are reflected in his pictures of children who had fled to France from the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. These were his photographic contribution to the resistance against fascism and National Socialism, while Stein's friends Gerda Taro and Robert Capa photographed at the front.

Through his street photography, Fred Stein captured everyday life and intercultural diversity in the places of his exile. His numerous portrait photographs, including those of Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, and Marlene Dietrich, established him as a documentarian of German-speaking emigration.

Ninety years after the start of the Spanish Civil War, the exhibition features photographs of refugee children as well as portraits by Gerda Taro in Paris. Guided tours and film presentations with film director Peter Stein, who will speak about his father, and a reading by historian and Stein biographer Prof. Dr. Daniel Siemens accompany the exhibitions.