Stunning Old Photos of Yugoslavia from the 1920s

Redakcija March 13, 2017

Let photos of Yugoslavia by Kurt Hielscher take you back in time

Kurt Hielscher was a German photographer and he traveled extensively around Europe in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s, and was the author of several successful books with landscape and architecture photographs about Italy, Spain and Germany. Because of his work, he was invited to Belgrade by the government of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

We must note that this was the official name for the first eleven years of its existence, the term “Yugoslavia” was its colloquial name from its origins. In mid-1920s Hielscher travel across the kingdom and create a book with images of the landscape, state and his people.

Portrait of Kurt Hielscher (source: public.beuth-hochschule.de)

In Belgrade he got an interpreter, letters of introduction for easy trespassing at all local authorities and cars were at his disposal. Zeiss-Ikon and Agfa factories gave him outstanding cameras, lenses and photo plates.

He produced 1200 photographs on his journey from the Slovenian Alps to the Bulgarian border. Hielscher chose 191 of them and he explained that he “tried to show the attractive, diverse character of the landscape, the architecture, and way of life of the Yugoslavs… I didn’t want to create a collection of postcards”.

This stunning collection was published in 1926 in Berlin by Verlag Ernst Wasmuth AG. This precious book is long out of print. All photographs are on Agfa Chromo Isorapid plates and here are some of them. For more visit MyCentury_tv or see how original book looks like: debooks4u