Schostal

Schostal Photo Agency

Company type	Private
Industry	Photography, Press agency
Founded	1929
Founder	Robert F. Schostal, Walter Schostal
Defunct	1948
Headquarters	Vienna , Austria
Area served	Austria, Europe (including Paris, Milan, Berlin, Stockholm)
Products	Photographic content for print publications (culture, fashion, glamour)

Schostal Photo Agency () was an Austrian press photography firm established by Robert F. Schostal.

Photographers

The agency represented a roster of 408 photographers, including prominent figures such as Trude Fleischmann, Kitty Hoffmann, Dr , Karel Hájek, Imre von Santho, Heinrich Hoffmann, Georges Sand, Willem van de Poll, Bert Longworth, Germaine Krull, Yva, Madame d'Ora, and Lotte Jacobi. For numerous Jewish photographers, Schostal stood out as one of the rare agencies that circumvented the employment restrictions imposed by the Nazi Reich Chamber of Culture.

History

Established in 1929 by the brothers Robert and Walter Schostal, the Schostal Photo Agency sought to create and distribute photographic content both domestically and abroad. Their family had earlier experience in photographic sales through their aunt Regine Mattersdorf’s Magazin Metropol in Vienna, which Robert and Walter assumed control of in 1925, renaming it Vienna Photo Kurier.

With a collection exceeding one million images covering various themes, Agentur Schostal was a dominant agency during the 1920s and 1930s. Based in Vienna’s Wieden district, it maintained branches in key European cities such as Paris, Milan, Berlin, and Stockholm.

Its main clientele consisted of print publications including Austrian magazines like Die Dame, Die Woche, and Uhu, alongside Moderne Welt, Die Bühne, Wiener Salonblatt, and Wiener Magazin. Schostal specialized in providing images related to culture, fashion, and glamour. Beginning in 1929, it acted as the Austrian representative for the Keystone Press Agency (London, New York). During the 1930s, leading Italian periodicals such as Lei, Natura, Excelsior, Eva, and La Rivista Illustrata del Popolo d’Italia published photographs by Paul Wolff distributed through Schostal.

After Austria’s annexation by Germany in March 1938, Robert Schostal tried to escape to Paris but was detained in Klagenfurt. Following intervention from Studio Madame d'Ora, he was released and obtained visas for himself and his mother to enter France; eventually, he emigrated to the United States. Walter continued managing international clients from the Paris office until its closure in 1939 due to wartime conditions; by 1941, the family had reunited in New York.

In Vienna, Walter’s close relationship with Nazi Reichspressekammer official Friedrich Gondosch allowed Gondosch to take control of the agency. The archive was then utilized for propaganda purposes under the label "Wien Bild" with the slogan P.P.P. Photos für Presse und Propaganda ('PPP photos for press and propaganda').

Following World War II, under Soviet administration, the agency ceased operations in 1948. Robert attempted unsuccessfully from the United States to recover the archive. Some photographs were concealed in a basement, while Friedrich Gondosch vanished, presumably to avoid consequences.

Rediscovery

In 1992, a Swiss art dealer came across roughly 130,000 well-maintained photographs bearing the Schostal Agency stamp, more than four decades after the agency had closed in 1948. Segments of this archive were subsequently sold or auctioned to various institutions: for instance, the German Historical Museum purchased 40,000 images in 1995, the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts acquired 350 fashion-related photographs, and additional items were obtained by the Austrian National Library.

Individual Schostal prints have sporadically surfaced at art auctions over time. However, the bulk of the collection—exceeding 300,000 photographs—is preserved by the IMAGNO Brandstätter Institute, established by Austrian publisher Christian Brandstätter. The method through which IMAGNO amassed a quantity surpassing the initially found 130,000 remains uncertain.

In 2008, an anonymous benefactor donated 5,066 gelatin silver prints along with associated materials dating from 1927 to 1945 to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

External links

• Agentur Schostal entry at the Deutschen Historischen Museum
• IMAGNO brandstätter images
• Menschen, Orte, Zeiten: Fotografie am Deutschen Historischen Museum
• Deutsches Historisches Museum press material