From 1951 to 1991, the well-known photojournalist Marga Kingler took photographs for the most important newspaper in the Ruhr region, the newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. For four decades, she captured important national and, above all, local events with her camera and thus played a decisive role in shaping the visual perception of this period.

The Ruhr Museum, which is in possession of Marga Kingler's photographic estate with over 150,000 negatives, is now offering insights into the life's work and the working world of the legendary photographer for the first time. At the same time, this is the first time that only press photographs have been presented in an exhibition at the Ruhr Museum. "There has never before been an exhibition that provides an overview of the entire oeuvre of Marga Kingler, a photographer known not only for her long creative career but also for the quality of her images," says Ruhr Museum Director Prof. Heinrich Theodor Grütter. "In addition, the exhibition once again provides a new insight into the Ruhr Museum's immense and growing photo archive with over four million photographs," continues Prof. Grütter.

In 2010, the Ruhr Museum began a series on classics of Ruhr area photography with Heinrich Hauser's "Schwarzes Revier", which continued with "Chargesheimer. The Discovery of the Ruhr" (2014/15), "Erich Grisar. Ruhr Area Photographs 1928 - 1933" (2016) and "Josef Stoffels. Steinkohlenzechen - Fotografien aus dem Ruhrgebiet" (2018) and finally continued with "Albert Renger-Patzsch. Die Ruhrgebietsfotografien" (2018/19) was the culmination and provisional conclusion.

"On the road with Marga Kingler. Press Photographer in the Ruhr" now expands the spectrum of photography from the Ruhr region both thematically and formally and shows the immense breadth and diversity of the Ruhr Museum's photographic collection. In addition, the new special exhibition underlines the importance of photography in the Ruhr region and especially in Essen, where several renowned institutions such as the Museum Folkwang, the Krupp Historical Archive, the Folkwang University of the Arts and the Ruhr Museum have joined forces to form the Center for Photography Essen.

The gallery exhibition shows over 250 photographs taken during Marga Kingler's 40 years as a photojournalist for the local section of Essen's WAZ newspaper. At the center of the exhibition are 42 photographs of local and national events from the years 1951 to 1991 under the title 40 Years of Contemporary History. The photographs reflect the social changes of the post-war period, the years of the economic miracle, the times of protest in the Federal Republic up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification. Some of Marga Kingler's press photographs are of supra-regional significance and tell the story of the Federal Republic of Germany. These include important events in contemporary history, such as the severe storm surge in Hamburg, the state visit of then US President John F. Kennedy to Cologne and the Rhine-Ruhr Easter March. These images pay tribute to the historical significance of Marga Kingler's photographic testimony.

The chapter on local events shows shots taken in everyday local journalism. From politics to schools, culture, sport and business to social events. They take visitors to the appointments and motifs of a local press photographer: pictures of accidents, police and fire department operations or the events surrounding local politics have a hard news core. Trade fairs, product presentations and sales are also included from the city's economic life. The life of urban society is presented in clubs, at fairs, carnival parades, cultural events and annual festivals such as Christmas and Easter. There are recurring themes in which Marga Kingler uses a formal language that is typical of local press photography: handing over cheques, shaking hands with politicians or signing contracts.

Marga Kingler has also photographed extensive series of pictures, of which only a few were printed in the newspaper. Four of her reportages from different years, which appeared in the WAZ sections "Aus dem Westen", "Bunte Blätter" and in the local section, were selected for the exhibition and newly compiled with partly unpublished motifs.

With biographical images and a never-before-seen interview film, a comprehensive picture of Marga Kingler's diverse press work and a panorama of four decades of Ruhr region history is created. "The photographs on display bring back to life a long-gone world that only exists in our memories. At the same time, some of the photographs on display are strangely familiar to us because they have been repeatedly printed in historical anthologies and presentations, in photo books and exhibitions, but also in retrospectives in the WAZ or other Funke Mediengruppe newspapers and have acquired an iconic character, as it were, not only for Essen's city history. It is no coincidence that certain of Kingler's photographs are among the most sought-after in the Ruhr Museum's photo archive," says Prof. Heinrich Theodor Grütter.

Marga Kingler enjoys a legendary reputation as a press photographer in Essen and the Ruhr region. She worked for the WAZ for 40 years - first as a photo lab assistant and very soon as a press photographer for the Essen local news. She managed to assert herself in a male-dominated professional world. Stefanie Grebe, Head of the Photographic Collection at the Ruhr Museum, underlines this: "Marga Kingler is a unique example of a photographer who held her own in the male-dominated press photography sector since the post-war period for 40 years in the local editorial department of the WAZ and made a name for herself."

The photographer had very good communication skills and was perceived as extremely lively. Contemporary witnesses describe her as an impressive personality, self-confident, assertive, skilled in dealing with people, occasionally sharp-tongued, charming and always elegantly dressed, well made up and coiffed. These personality traits defined her entire career and found their way into the way she photographed. She showed herself to be active and strong in staging, intervening courageously in the scene to be photographed and constructing a picture within the tight corset of the schedule - usually with the enthusiastic participation of those involved.

In the course of her working life, Marga Kingler photographed topics and events from all areas of society. Her photographs were mainly published in the local section, but also in other sections such as "Sport", "Bunte Blätter", "Reisen", "Kultur", the reportage page "Aus dem Westen" or on front pages. Although Marga Kingler's editorial schedule dictated what she had to photograph, she increasingly managed to occupy her own fields of interest. These included culture and fashion, sport, atmospheric images and city life. She always had her eye on people and their everyday lives.
 

"On the road with Marga Kingler" is the start of a three-part series on women photographers who have worked and are still working in the Ruhr region. Their work has played a key role in shaping the history of photography in the Ruhr region. In 2025 and 2026, Marga Kingler will be followed by two exhibitions on the important photographers Ruth Hallensleben, who took photographs in the decades before and during Marga Kingler, and Brigitte Kraemer, who took photographs in the decades after her. "We are thus looking back on a century of female photographers in the Ruhr region," says Prof. Heinrich Theodor Grütter.

Immediately after leaving the WAZ at the end of 1991, Marga Kingler offered her archive to the museum for purchase. With funds from the city of Essen and the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, the approximately 150,000 35mm and 10,500 medium format negatives, 800 slides and 2,040 black and white prints (from the 1970s and 1980s) were purchased in 1992. The collection was then transferred to the Ruhr Museum by 1996. Many thanks are therefore due to the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and its then chairman Berthold Beitz, who made the purchase of Marga Kingler's photographs possible in the first place with a not inconsiderable sum.

A varied accompanying program will take place during the exhibition. In addition to guided tours, it includes informative excursions during which guests, like former local reporter Marga Kingler, discover the neighborhood and the people around Zollverein. In addition, an exciting series of lectures sheds light on the topic of press photography from different perspectives. A workshop for adults and an exhibition rally for families with children round off the offer.

You can also find all dates in our calendar or in the

flyer (PDF)

During a tour of the exhibition for teachers, staff from both the exhibition team and the Education and Outreach department will explain the concept, themes and guided tours for school classes.
During the guided tours for school classes, background information on the historical contexts of individual photographs and biographical information on the remarkable photographer Marga Kingler will be discussed in the exhibition. In small groups, the pupils then turn their attention to a selected press photograph with predetermined questions.

The catalog accompanying the exhibition presents the work of press photographer Marga Kingler on 240 pages with over 250 illustrations. The texts in this publication outline the historical, media-scientific and photo-historical contexts within which Marga Kingler's photographic work can be located. Stefanie Grebe first traces the press photographer's career path in order to be able to adequately classify Marga Kingler's photographs. Thomas Morlang then presents Kingler's photographic collection in the Ruhr Museum's photo archive with all its special features. Dr. Thomas Dupke talks about the importance of the "human touch" for the local newspaper WAZ and the history of its expansion from 1948 to 1991 to become a "newspaper giant". It covers the decades during Marga Kingler's work for the company. Contrary to the general belief that Kingler was the only female photojournalist in post-war Essen, and possibly even in the Ruhr region, Giulia Cramm researched other female photographers working in the region at the same time. At the same time, her text addresses the professional history of photojournalism and shows the need for more intensive research into women in the press in the Ruhr region. Dr. Felix Koltermann deals with the recent past and the future of photojournalism. He explores the question of whether photographers in local journalism are a dying model and whether the loss of jobs in local photography can lead to a loss of local visual historiography.

The catalog is published by Klartext Verlag and costs €29.95 and is also available in our store on the 24-meter level. You can find the opening hours here.

ISBN 978-3-8375-2555-7