Eva Ernestine was born in Berlin Charlottenburg on 4th August 1989, the youngest of Jewish businessman Albert Graupe and his wife Gertrud’s three children. Her father, who worked as a grain wholesaler and banker on Dorotheenstraße, wanted to see her progress and made sure she got a good education. In fact, Eva had multiple interests, none of which were at the school she was attending, so she left the girls’ high school on Sybelstraße whithout graduating.
She wouldn’t get her school leaving certificate until later, and subsequently went on to complete an apprenticeship as a medical technical assistant at the Lette School, where she also learned about technical scientific photography. In 1929, she received a certificate for having passed her exams from the head of the Lette School’s photographic academy Marie Kundt.
Eva gained her first professional experience while working in forensic medicine, where she would examine tissue changes in corpses, among other things – a job that occasionally made her shudder.
Clouds cast over a carefree life
During a trip around Italy in the early 1930’s Eva met journalist Herbert Kemlein. The enterprising freelancer had a revolutionary spirit and Eva was very impressed by his nonconformist lifestyle. Their occasional encounters developed into a relationship. Despite Eva’s father’s initial concerns, the couple married in the spring of 1933. Soon afterwards, Herbert and Eva Kemlein went on a trip to Greece that lasted several months: They rode a motorbike across the Balkans all the way to Athens, where they both settled down. They led a carefree life under the southern sun. Eva took photographs for travelogues and Herbert wrote features for German newspapers.
Due to fear of Nazi persecution, Eva and Herbert decided to divorce in 1935 – a pure formality. However, the Nazi authorities knew very well, due to being informed by other Germans who were residing in Athens, that the couple was still living together – committing “racial defilement,” as the Nazis called it. They made their money by doing odd jobs, pawning off their belongings and from Eva’s mother, who was a widow at the time. In 1937, they received the unexpected news that they were going to be deported from Greece. They only had 24 hours to leave their adopted homeland and return to Berlin. At that point, Herbert separated from Eva.
Going underground and resistance
Eva Kemlein’s brothers emigrated to South America, however, her mother, who came from a long line of Berliners, refused to leave her hometown. Most of the assets they once owned had been confiscated. To earn a little bit of money, Eva first got a job at Siemens and then with a rag dealer.Meanwhile, the pressure put on the persecuted minorities by the Nazis kept increasing. Jews were becoming more and more isolated and even Eva and her mother were forced to wear the Star of David in public. One day in 1942, Eva arrived home to find her mother gone – deported. When she also received a notice ordering her to be transported to a detention camp, she decided to go underground with her new partner: Werner Stein, an actor, director and author who was 21 years her senior and also from a Jewish background, who, as a socialist and anti-fascist, was against the oppressive regime.
Educated and well-read, he influenced her views on art, theatre and literature. Being a follower of Marxist teachings, he also helped her increase her awareness when it came to politics.
Crossing borders for photography
After the end of the war, Eva Kemlein moved into an apartment in the Wilmersdorf artists’ colony on Breitenbachplatz. One of the few personal possessions she was able to hold on to while living underground was her Leica camera. With this camera, she took photographs of the rubble women, the black market and subjects unique to Berlin for the newly founded Berliner Zeitung newspaper, where she was one of the first staff to be hired. At first, her darkroom was her closet, and then a room close to her apartment. She rode all over the city on her bicycle taking photographs; and every day, she would take her finished pictures from Wilmersdorf to the editorial office in Lichtenberg.
At the start of the “Cold War” between the East and the West, Eva would roam between these two worlds. She lived in West Berlin and worked – even after the wall was erected in 1961 – in East Berlin. As a result, her pictures were boycotted by the West Berlin newspapers and her claim to receive compensation for being a victim of the Nazi regime was rejected. Her salary was paid in East German marks, meaning that she had to do all her shopping in East Berlin and then go through the border control to bring it over to West Berlin.
Berlin stages in the picture
Eva Kemlein was closely connected to the theatre through her partner. She was deeply impressed by the German premiere of Bertolt Brecht’s “Mutter Courage” [Mother Courage] starring Helene Weigel at the Berliner Ensemble and that marked the beginning of her 50-year career as a theatre photographer – always up close and always in black and white.
She photographed Wolfgang Müller and Mary Wigman and created portraits of Tilla Durieux, Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, Louis Armstrong and numerous other prominent artists.
With her camera she captured almost every single performance taking place in East Berlin’s stages. From the 1970’s onwards she was also active in the western part of the city and photographed outstanding productions at the Schiller Theater and the Schaubühne – from the first rehearsals all the way to the premiere. Her love for the theatre was also reciprocated by the actors. Eva Kemlein was equally cherished by both the directors and the actors. Until 2004, she had attended numerous rehearsals. She died in Berlin on 8th August 2004, shortly before her 95th birthday.
The photographer’s estate has been part of the Stadtmuseum Berlin’s theatre collection since 2004. The Stadtmuseum Berlin also holds the exclusive right to her photographs. The archive, which includes over 330,000 negatives, was acquired in 1993 with the financial support of the Preußische Seehandlung Foundation and the pictures taken by Eva Kemlein up until her death were added to the collection in 2004.