Waffen-SS Kriegsberichter Photographers

In January of 1940, an SS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie (Waffen-SS war reporters company) was established, and its züge (platoons) were attached to the four main Waffen-SS combat formations that fought in the Western Campaign of May and June 1940. These platoons remained with their respective divisions for the Balkans Campaign in the spring of 1941.

By August of 1941, many additional units were fighting as part of the Waffen-SS. As a result, also during August of 1941, the SS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie was expanded to Abteilung (battalion) strength. Waffen-SS expansion continued to grow throughout the war, and in December 1943 the reporters unit again expanded, this time to regimental size. It also received an honorary title at this point, becoming known as SS-Standarte “Kurt Eggers”. It also received a cuff-title bearing the same name. Kurt Eggers was the former editor of the SS magazine Das Schwarz Korps. He was killed in action west of Kharkov while serving with the 5.SS-Division on August 13, 1943.

Gunter d’Alquen commanded the SS-Kriegsberichter unit for its entire existence. He held the Allgemeine-SS rank of Standartenführer and began his Waffen-SS command in 1940 as a Waffen-SS Hauptsturmführer der Reserve. During the course of the war, he was gradually promoted until he became a Waffen-SS Standartenführer der Reserve at his regimental command.

Under d’Alquen was a staff that processed the incoming material, as well as photographers, movie cameramen, writers, broadcaster, and recorders, all who served in the field. The men in the field did their service with the various platoons assigned to the assorted Waffen-SS formations. The reporters generally served with several different platoons during the war, and many news reporters joined during the war’s course. Non-Germans most often served with their own national formations but were sometimes detached to cover a particular campaign and report on it for their home press.

The list below of SS-Kriegsberichter is exclusively photographers. The basis of the list is wartime captions. The photos of the SS-Kriegsberichterwere reproduced in Das Schwarz Korps and in many German newspapers and were usually released to the foreign press as well. The photos used in German newspapers were printed with the photographer’s name somewhere in the article, usually directly below the photo. Many books reproduce these photos, and much knowledge of photographers stems from this.

Many photos released to the foreign press survive as either original photographs or as copies. Most of these photos originally had a caption on the back listing the photographer, the date of release, and some vague details such as “The returned patrol leader makes his report on the northern sector of the Eastern Front,” or something similar. It is important to note that the date of a photo’s release is not the date on which the photo was taken. The time between a photo being shot in the field and it being released to the press varied between a week and three months. Often photos from the same sequence, and taken within moments of each other, were released many days apart.

After studying hundreds of photos and photographers patterns begin to appear. A photo was taken during, ‘…the second week of the great offensive action between Belgorod-Orel,” and released to the press on August 24, 1943can reasonably be supposed to have been taken during the Zitadelle battle. If this photo shows Panzer IVs with the Das Reich Kursk-era unit symbol and is credited to Zschaeckel, it gives a clue that Zschaeckel spent time with that unit. This can then be reinforced if another Zschaeckel photo released at about the same time shows a Das Reich Knight’s Cross winner. Variations on this process were used to establish all of the assignments recorded below.

Finally, issues of a wartime magazine (not Das Schwarz Korps) from a German archive were consulted. These listed the promotions and decorations accumulated by the SS-Kriegsberichter and included every type of reporter. This is where the first names and other personal details of the men below were found.

Already since this list was first posted some new names of photographers have been provided by visitors to this page. Anyone with press release photos or anything to add to the information is welcomed to share the details. This list is far from complete, and this is why it is named the “growing list.” The hope is that it can continue to grow for a long time to come. Thanks for any help!