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Iconic images and photographers

Collections, archives, photographers

Joe Rosenthal - "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" 1945 The photo "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" 1945 was taken on February 23, 1945 during the battle for the Japanese island in the Pacific (Feb 19 - Mar 26, 1945). Soldiers of the U.S. Marine Corps raised a large U.S. flag on the summit of Mount Suribachi, the highest elevation on the island, replacing a smaller flag erected shortly before that same day. The scene was made famous by a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by photographer Joe Rosenthal, who was commissioned by the Associated Press to cover the Pacific theater of war during World War II. The iconic shot became one of the most famous and widely reproduced war photographs, printed millions of times on posters and sold as postage stamps. In addition, "Raising the Flag" is the template for the United States Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington.

Joe Rosenthal - "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" 1945

Brandt's genuflection (Warsaw Treaty), 1970 On December 7, 1970, Chancellor Brandt and Polish Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz and the respective foreign ministers signed the Warsaw Treaty. The treaty formed the basis for the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic and Poland with simultaneous recognition of the Oder-Neisse line. Before signing the treaty, Brandt laid a wreath at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier and at the Monument to the Victims of the Warsaw Ghetto. The picture of Brandt's genuflection at the Ghetto Memorial is one of the most famous documents of German history.

Brandt's genuflection (Warsaw Treaty), 1970

Image icon from the Vietnam War (01.02.1968) On February 1, 1968, during the Vietnam War, the police chief of Saigon, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, shoots the Vietnamese Vietcong Nguyen Van Lém in front of running cameras of Western reporters. The photograph, taken by U.S. photographer Eddie Adams, who was documenting war events in Vietnam for the Associated Press news agency, was named Press Photograph of the Year for 1968. A year later, Adams received the Pulitzer Prize for photography.

Image icon from the Vietnam War (01.02.1968)

Image icons of federal German history Well-known and famous motifs, which are firmly anchored in the collective memory of the citizens.

Image icons of federal German history

Nick Ut - Photographer of the Napalm Girl The napalm girl Kim Phuc from Vietnam made photo reporter Nick Ut famous. Tens of thousands of other pictures followed during his more than 50 years of work for the Associated Press (AP) agency.

Nick Ut - Photographer of the Napalm Girl

Yevgeny Khaldei - Soviet war photographer Soviet photographer Yevgeny Khaldey worked as a war correspondent for the TASS news agency. Among other things, he documented the advance of the Red Army and the battle for Berlin in April/May 1945 and experienced the Potsdam Conference and the Nuremberg Trials as a photo reporter. His photo of the flag-raising ceremony "On the Berlin Reichstag, May 2, 1945" became world famous.

Yevgeny Khaldei - Soviet war photographer

Photographer Fred Stein Fred Stein was born on July 3, 1909 in Dresden and died on September 27, 1967 in New York. During the Nazi period, the Jewish lawyer and his wife went into exile in Paris, where he discovered photography. His cityscapes of Paris and New York are as fascinating as his many portraits of the greats of his time.

Photographer Fred Stein

Fotograf Volkmar Heinz - GDR photographer Volkmar Heinz reported as a photo reporter for the Leipziger Volkszeitung in GDR times. Zentralbild was able to process his private photo archive from the early 1970s and 1980s. Almost 2000 pictures from the everyday life of GDR citizens can now be found in the Picture Alliance.

Fotograf Volkmar Heinz - GDR photographer