Erich Lessing April 1951. Meeting at the Eiffel Tower. From left to right, German Ambassador Wilhelm HAUSENSTEIN; West-German Chancellor Konrad ADENAUER, visiting Paris as the first German statesman after the wa (...)
r; the French High Commissioner André FRANCOIS-PONCET; German presschief of Mr Adenauer, Mr. VON BRETANO. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing Town of Edirne.
Registration in a Turkish refugee camp.
Based in Bulgaria since the domination of the Ottoman Empire 14th century, the Turkish minority had to leave the country under the communis (...)
t government pressure. Between 1950-51 about 100.000 people fled to Turkey. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing Town of Bonn. The German politician Kurt SCHUMACHER,chairman of the West-German Social-Democratic Party and leader of the parliamentary group. He lost a leg and an arm in World War I and spent yea (...)
rs in Nazi concentration camps.
Here helped by his assistant, Mrs. Annemarie RENGER (later president of the Bundestag). © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing Village of Kalocsa. During Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ) Catholic procession in honor to the Blessed Sacrament. Elderly women praying during an open-air mass.
Under Hungarian Commun (...)
ism, Protestants, Catholics and Jews were fairely free in the exercice of their religion. Some leaders of the churches were imprisoned for subversion. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing Heldenplatz. In Vienna's quadripartite first district.
Army photographers document the monthly change of guard among occupation powers US and Soviet officers. At the end of WWII the Allies : USA, (...)
Great-Britain, France and Soviet Union occupied the country.
In the background, statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy, hero of the wars against the Turks. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing Upper Silesia. Town of Bytom. Coal mines. Woman repairing tracks in the former Hohenzollern-mine.
Upper Silesia was the center of Polish coalmining.
Coal was one of Communist Poland's major expo (...)
rt, miners wages were higher than average.
Most of the miners were Silesians who spoke better German than Polish but had Polish citizenship. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing HUNGARY. Budapest. October-November 1956. Insurrection. Corvin Lane around November 1st, 1956 during the days of the cease-fire. In the foreground, a captured Soviet truck, a BTR-152 APC, on which (...)
a Kossuth coat of arms has been drawn. On the left can be seen the Corvin Cinema, from which the rebel group took their name. The cinema is still in operation today. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing HUNGARY. Budapest. October-November 1956. Insurrection. Corvin Lane around November 1st, 1956 during the days of the cease-fire. In the foreground, a captured Soviet truck, a BTR-152 APC, on which (...)
a Kossuth coat of arms has been drawn. On the left can be seen the Corvin Cinema, from which the rebel group took their name. The cinema is still in operation today. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing Town of Edirne. Turks expelled from Bulgaria arriving by train at Edirne railway station.
Based in Bulgaria since the domination of the Ottoman Empire 14th century, the Turkish minority had to lea (...)
ve the country under the communist government pressure. Between 1950-51 about 100.000 people fled to Turkey. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing SWITZERLAND. Geneva. The Geneva Summit. July 1955.
Soviet Prime Minister Nikolaï A. BOULGANINE, US President Dwight D. EISENHOWER, French Prime Minister Edgar FAURE and British Prime Minister Sir (...)
Anthony EDEN pose for the press in the courtyard of the League of Nations building during the Geneva summit conference. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing Town of Constantine. DE GAULLE's first task as head of governement was to defuse the situation in Algeria. In a four-day visit he tried to calm the Algerian population as well as the French "colons (...)
". General DE GAULLE saluting the guard of honour. 1958. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing HUNGARY. Budapest. October, 1956.
Insurrection. October-November 1956.
Bystanders try to catch the first issue of the new, pro-revolution communist party paper. When Imre Nagy became prime mini (...)
ster in the first days of the Hungarian revolution, the paper was no longer called "Nepszabadsag" (Peoples Freedom), but "Szabad Nep" (The Free People).
The beginning of the deStalinisation period in Hungary favoured the development of an opposition movement, particularly among students and intellectuals. Imre NAGY who was called in as Prime Minister had obtained the demand of Soviet troops being withdrawn. He became submerged by the spread of the insurrectional movement in Budapest and the provinces. Abolishing the 'unique' party system on the 13th October 1956 he demanded Hungary's withdrawal of the Warsaw Pact and neutralicty. Armed insurrection started in the streets on 24th October until the Soviet troops occupied Budapest, on the 1st November 1956. The uprising brought a deathtoll of over 10 000 people. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing FRANCE. Champagne-Ardenne region. Marne. Pleurs. 1960. KROUTCHEV visiting Pleurs's burg.
Village of Pleurs.
Furious over the U-2 plane incident, Soviet Premier Nikita KHRUSHCHEV went on a nosta (...)
lgic tour to the village where his new Minister of defence, Rodion D. MALINOWSKI, spent a few weeks during World War I, while the other participants were waiting for him to start the meeting.
With four powerful strokes, Khrushchev split a tree trunk which barred his way to the village. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing HUNGARY. Insurrection. Budapest. Vaci ut (street). October-November 1956.
The Soviet bookshop "Horizon" is attacked by revolutionaries; books and portraits of hated communist leaders are burnt in (...)
the street. An enthusiast recites poems by Sandor Petöfi, the poet of the Hungarian uprising of 1848. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos
Magnum Collection FRANCE. Paris. 1957. Magnum Photos Meeting. From left to right. Foreground: Inge BONDI, John MORRIS, Barbara MILLER, Cornell CAPA, Rene BURRI, Erich LESSING.
Middle: Michel CHEVALIER. Background: (...)
Elliott ERWITT, Henri CARTIER-BRESSON, Erich HARTMANN, Rosellina BISCHOF, Inge MORATH, Kryn TACONIS, Ernst HAAS, Brian BRAKE. © Magnum Collection | Magnum Photos
Erich Lessing Furious over the U-2 plane incident, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev went on a nostalgic tour to the village of Pleurs where he and his new Minister of defence, Rodion D. Malinowsk, spent a few we (...)
eks during World War I. Meanwhile the other participants were waiting for him to start the meeting. Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. 1960. © Erich Lessing | Magnum Photos