Gertrud (Gerty) Simon (1887-1970) was a prolific and successful photographer. Her photographs were presented in a number of exhibitions in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Gerty Simon worked first in Weimar-era Berlin, where it seemed likely from the identity of her subjects that she had connections with the thriving and innovative creative scene of actors, writers, composers, dancers and artists there, as well as with the world of politics. She photographed the likes of singer and actress Lotte Lenya, theatre critic Alfred Kerr and his young daughter Judith, the artist Käthe Kollwitz and Albert Einstein.
In 1933, Gerty Simon and her young son fled the Nazi regime in Germany, leaving behind her husband, studio and career, and they settled in London. Astonishingly quickly, Gerty Simon was able to re-establish her photography studio and create a reputation for photographing people from the most influential circles of British society. Between 1934 and 1937, she photographed amongst many others: Sir Kenneth Clark, Peggy Ashcroft and Aneurin Bevan. Gerty Simon’s work also featured in a number of exhibitions, including London Personalities held at the Storran Gallery in Kensington in 1934. At this time, The Sunday Times described her as “most brilliant and original of Berlin photographs.”
The Wiener Library’s Photo Archivist, Elise Bath who worked on cataloguing and digitising the Gerty Simon collection commented: “The power and significance of the collection was immediately apparent and all the more important as it features individuals from the lost world of Weimar Berlin. While Gerty was able to leave Nazi Germany and build a new and successful life for herself in London, so many others were not.”
Portrait of the Simon family (l-r), Wilhelm, Bernard and Gerty, undated, c. 1930 © The Bernard Simon Estate, Wiener Library Collections