{"id":13370,"date":"2012-04-16T16:19:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-16T15:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amateurphotographer.co.uk\/uncategorized\/raising-a-flag-over-the-reichstag-by-yevgeny-khaldei-iconic-photograph-13370"},"modified":"2014-10-23T11:29:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T10:29:09","slug":"raising-a-flag-over-the-reichstag-by-yevgeny-khaldei-iconic-photograph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/iconic-images\/raising-a-flag-over-the-reichstag-by-yevgeny-khaldei-iconic-photograph\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising a flag over the Reichstag by Yevgeny Khaldei – Iconic Photograph"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image: Russian soldiers flying the Red Flag, made from
\ntablecloths, over the Reichstag in Berlin, 2 May 1945 \u00a9 Photo by Yevgeny
\n Khaldei\/Getty Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As the Second World War entered its
\n final phase in early 1945, Ukrainian-born Yevgeny Khaldei was working
\nas a staff photographer for the Soviet news agency TASS. He was 28 and
\nhad travelled thousands of miles around Europe with the Russian army
\nsince his country entered the war in 1941.<\/p>\n

Under Stalin’s rule,
\nTASS’s news reporting was carefully manipulated to present a positive
\nimage of the nation to the rest of the world. Khaldei, who had worked
\nfor the agency for ten years, had become highly skilled in creating the
\nrequired pro-Soviet images.<\/p>\n

During the war, his role was to
\nrecord the Red Army’s military successes and he shot dramatic images of
\nmajor battles, including the Siege of Sevastopol (1941-42) and the
\nliberation of cities including Sofia, Belgrade and Vienna from Nazi
\ncontrol. <\/p>\n

In 1945, Allied forces were making significant headway
\nin Europe, and Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin were already planning how
\n Germany would be divided after their victory was complete. On 20 April,
\n the final major battle in Europe began: the Battle of Berlin, in which
\nthe Red Army pressed forward to gain control of the German capital.<\/p>\n

Khaldei
\n documented the Soviet advance against the depleted Nazi forces and,
\nwhen it was becoming clear that the German defeat was approaching, he
\nsaw the opportunity to create a photograph that would symbolise it. <\/p>\n

A
\n few months earlier, the American photographer Joe Rosenthal had
\ncaptured his iconic image of the US victory in the Pacific, \u2018Raising the
\n Flag on Iwo Jima’. Rosenthal’s picture was a great morale-booster for
\nthe American public and had achieved worldwide fame. Khaldei was
\nfamiliar with the image and knew that a similarly important photograph
\ncould be created in the ruins of Berlin.<\/p>\n

However, he faced a
\npractical problem: the Red Army had no flags of a suitable size to make
\nan impact in a photograph, so, as the battle continued, Khaldei returned
\n to Moscow to look for some. This search proved difficult in the limited
\n time available, so he improvised by borrowing three red tablecloths,
\nreputedly from the TASS agency office. To transform the tablecloths into
\n flags, Khaldei’s uncle, a tailor, sewed the Soviet hammer, sickle and
\nstar onto the material. <\/p>\n

Khaldei flew back to Berlin and
\nphotographed the flags after placing them in prominent positions around
\nthe city – one at an airport in front of a Nazi symbol and another on
\ntop of the Brandenberg Gate. The third was saved for the Reichstag, a
\nmajor building that had been constructed in 1894 to house the German
\nparliament. Although it had fallen into disuse after a fire in 1933, it
\nhad a symbolic significance recognised by both sides.<\/p>\n

Fighting to
\n gain control of the building was fierce, but on 30 April 1945, Red Army
\n troops gained the upper hand and placed a Soviet flag on the top.
\nHowever, there was no photographer present to record the event and, in
\nany case, it happened at night. A German soldier removed the flag the
\nnext day, but the Soviets achieved complete control of the Reichstag on 2
\n May.<\/p>\n

\n <\/img>\n <\/p>\n

Image: Another of the many exposures taken by Khaldei
\n following the capture of the Reichstag building on 2 May 1945 \u00a9 Yevgeny
\n Khaldei\/Corbis<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This was the cue for Khaldei to set up
\nhis picture. He asked some soldier colleagues to hoist the flag on top
\nof the building with the ruins of Berlin in the background and, with his
\n Leica, shot several images from different angles. From the 36 exposures
\n he shot that day, one stood out as having the necessary epic qualities
\nto encapsulate the German defeat. <\/p>\n

It showed a soldier hoisting
\nthe flag on a makeshift flagpole over the edge of the building and an
\narmy colleague standing below. On the right of the frame were ornate
\nsculptures of German heroic figures, while the background scene showed
\nBerlin in ruins with smoke rising into the sky. In a later version of
\nthe image, Khaldei printed in some additional dark smoke clouds to
\nincrease the scene’s drama.<\/p>\n

Another detail had to be changed
\nbefore the image was published. Khaldei hadn’t noticed that the soldier
\nplaced lower in the frame was wearing a watch on each wrist. Khaldei
\nlater recalled the TASS’s editor saying, \u2018This is a looter… a true
\nSoviet soldier does not loot. You fix it quick, take it off the
\nnegative.’ Khaldei accordingly removed the watch on the soldier’s right
\nwrist.<\/p>\n

The photograph was published for the first time in Russian
\n magazine Ogonyok on 13 May 1945 and subsequently became one of the most
\n famous and frequently published images to emerge from the Second World
\nWar. Khaldei, who went on to photograph the Nuremberg Trials and later
\nbecame a long-serving staff photographer on Soviet newspaper Pravda, was
\n not credited as the photographer who created the Reichstag image until
\nthe early 1990s. He enjoyed a brief period of international fame before
\nhis death in 1997, aged 80.<\/p>\n

Khaldei’s \u2018Raising a Flag over the
\nReichstag’ (like Rosenthal’s earlier flag-raising image) is part
\ndocumentary, part propaganda: a staged reconstruction of an actual
\nevent, arranged for maximum effect by the photographer. Nevertheless,
\nits strong composition, dramatic content and symbolic significance
\ncombine to make it a truly iconic image.
\n<\/img><\/p>\n

\n
\n Image: Yevgeny Khaldei, photographed in Moscow, Russia, c1989 \u00a9 Yevgeny Khaldei\/Corbis<\/strong>
\n <\/em>\n <\/p>\n

Events of 1945<\/h2>\n