the authors

Chris Nowotny
Munich photographer and journalist
1928-1989

Born in 1928 in East Prussia, mother of Nikolai A. Behr. Photographer and photojournalist Chris Nowotny completed an apprenticeship in her profession in northern Germany. After a number of years spent working and travelling in Switzerland, Austria and the Black Forest, she gained the title of master photographer at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna.

In a career spanning some 40 years, Nowotny changed her area of specialism several times. She switched from portraits to sports photography, and from travel reports to the theatre. The advertising world eventually also came calling and saw her specialise in photos of children and babies.

Nowotny, who lived in Frankfurt at the time, first visited Munich in 1960 for a photo feature. It was love at first sight. She decided that Munich was the place where she wanted to live and work.

Almost all of her pictures in this book were taken between 1961 and 1965. They show a city that was still punctuated by the wounds of the Second World War, but that was beginning to reap the benefits of the German economic miracle.

Chris Nowotny remained — despite numerous stays abroad — a proud resident of the city of Munich until her death in 1989.