Albrecht Becker (14 November 1906 – 22 April 2002) was a production designer, photographer, and actor, who was imprisoned by the Nazi regime for the charge of homosexuality. Albrecht always had an eye for a bigger life. Exceptionally handsome and a snappy dresser, he attracted attention wherever he went.
Born in Thale, Germany, at eighteen, Becker fell in love at eighteen with an older man, with whom he lived for nearly ten years. He was an actor and production designer, he lived with his partner who was the Director of the State Archive, in Wurzburg. Through him, he met an array of artists and influential people who took him on travels around the world and showed him a life of culture and sophistication.
As an Artist
He was trained as a teacher and shortly devoted himself completely to photography. There was a period of time when he lived in Freiburg and Vienna where he earned his first exhibitions and commissions as well as work for the newspaper and magazines.
During the 1970s he chose a broad range of subjects in regards to his photography which included ushers at the Vienna Opera, monks in an Augustinian monastery, Berlin gravediggers. the overgrown ruins of Kustrin and at the center of his work the human body: which was photographed as a whole or in radical segments.
His photographs would celebrate life as well as mourn at the same time while seeking to simply remember and preserve. He would be remembered as an awkward figure on the artistic landscape and rowdy days while being fully committed to an art form that searched for truthfulness while the caravan of the mainstream masses pass us by.
When asked once about the part played by impermanence in his work, he answered: "That's what makes me do it". Others would say that he photographed with a humility that recognizes the fragility of our very lives and his ultimate goal was to capture the moments that are beyond recapturing.
Wurzburg
This is a small town in the southern state of Bavaria. Also living in Wurzburg was a Jewish wine merchant Dr. Leopold Obermayer. Obermayer complained to the local police department that his mail was being opened prior to him receiving it. The Gestapo at this point decided to further investigate and a number of photographs of young men which were found in his safe. One of those photographs was of Albrecht Becker. When he was brought in for questioning in 1935 on suspicion of violating Paragraph 175, Albrecht declared, "Everybody knows I'm a homosexual." Both Obermayer and Becker were both put on trial. Obermayer was first sent to Dachau where he was tortured and then sent to Mauthausen where he died.
In 1935, he was arrested on suspicion of violating Paragraph 175 and sentenced to three years in prison at Nürnberg. Towards the end of the war, when more soldiers were needed, some gay men were released in order to help the war effort. Albrecht was one of those men.
On his release he joined the German army and served on the Russian front until 1944. He died in Hamburg, Germany. Becker spoke of his experiences during the war in the 2000 documentary Paragraph 175. Asked once about the part he played by impermanence in his artist work, he answered: "That's what makes me do it," He photographs with a humility that recognizes the fragility of our lives, the moments that are beyond recapturing. His pictures celebrate life and death as well as mourning all at the same time. They seek to remember and preserve while being committed to an art form that searches for truthfulness as the caravan of the mainstream that passes him by. (http://www.schwulesmuseum.de/html/au_fr_1_3 mdfkautter-en.htm)