{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}} {{short description|German designer, actor, and photographer}} {{Infobox person | name = Albrecht Becker | image = Albrechtbecker,1930.jpg | caption = Becker {{circa}} 1930 | birth_date = {{birth date|1906|11|14|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Thale]], [[German Empire]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|2002|4|22|1906|11|14|df=y}} | death_place = [[Hamburg]], Germany | occupation = Actor }}

'''Albrecht Becker''' (14 November 1906 – 22 April 2002) was a [[Germans|German]] [[production designer]], [[photographer]], and [[actor]] who was imprisoned by the [[Nazi]] regime for the charge of [[homosexuality]].

==Personal life== Born in [[Thale]], Germany, Becker trained as a teacher. At age eighteen, he began a relationship with the Director of the State Archive in [[Würzburg]], [[Joseph Friedrich Abert]], an older man. The relationship lasted ten years. Through this contact, he met an array of influential and artistic people. He was an actor and production designer.

Later in life, he devoted himself completely to photography. While living in [[Freiburg im Breisgau|Freiburg]] and [[Vienna]], he showed his first exhibitions and earned his first commissions. He supplemented his income by providing photographs for newspapers and magazines.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Holocaust Memorial Day Trust {{!}} Albrecht Becker |url=https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/albrecht-becker/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128082721/https://hmd.org.uk/resource/albrecht-becker/ |archive-date=2019-01-28 |access-date=2019-01-27 |website=Holocaust Memorial Day Trust |language=}}</ref>

==Würzburg== Würzburg is a city in the southern state of [[Bavaria]]. Living in Würzburg in the 1930s was a Jewish wine merchant by the name of Dr Leopold Obermayer, who apparently complained to the local police department that his mail was being opened. The complaint was investigated by the [[Gestapo]], who took the liberty to search Obermayer's home and discovered a number of photographs of young men in his safe. One of these photographs was of Albrecht Becker. Becker was brought in for questioning in 1935 on suspicion of violating [[Paragraph 175]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |last3= |last4= |title=Gay Pride: Albrecht Becker on gay life in 1934 Germany |url=https://sfi.usc.edu/video/gay-pride-albrecht-becker-gay-life-1934-germany |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20260115154256/https://sfi.usc.edu/video/gay-pride-albrecht-becker-gay-life-1934-germany |archive-date=2026-01-15 |access-date=2019-01-27 |website=USC Shoah Foundation |language=}}</ref>

Becker reportedly declared: "Everybody knows I'm a homosexual." Both Obermayer and Becker were put on trial. Becker was sentenced to three years in prison at [[Nürnberg]]. Obermayer was also convicted of violating Paragraph 175, but as a Jew was sent to [[Dachau concentration camp]]. He was tortured there and sent to [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp]], where he died.

Towards the end of the war as the need to replace losses increased Becker was released in order to serve in the [[Wehrmacht]]. He served on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Russian front]] until 1944. Becker spoke of his experiences during the war in the 2000 documentary ''[[Paragraph 175 (film)|Paragraph 175]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |last3= |last4= |title=Albrecht Becker on his arrest |url=https://sfi.usc.edu/video/albrecht-becker-his-arrest |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20260115154443/https://sfi.usc.edu/video/albrecht-becker-his-arrest |archive-date=2026-01-15 |access-date=2019-01-27 |website=USC Shoah Foundation |language=}}</ref>

==Last years== During the 1970s, Becker's photography encompassed an eclectic range of subjects including ushers at the [[Vienna Opera]], monks in an Augustinian monastery, Berlin gravediggers, and the ruins of [[Kostrzyn nad Odrą|Küstrin]]. At the center of his work was the human body. He would photograph it either as a whole or part.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |last3= |last4= |title=Albrecht Becker on post-war silence about the Holocaust |url=https://sfi.usc.edu/video/albrecht-becker-post-war-silence-about-holocaust |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128082948/https://sfi.usc.edu/video/albrecht-becker-post-war-silence-about-holocaust |archive-date=2019-01-28 |access-date=2019-01-27 |website=USC Shoah Foundation |language=}}</ref>

==Death== Becker died of natural causes in [[Hamburg]], Germany in 2002, aged 95.

==Selected filmography== * ''[[Not Afraid of Big Animals]]'' (1953) * ''[[The Flower of Hawaii (1953 film)|The Flower of Hawaii]]'' (1953) * ''[[Columbus Discovers Kraehwinkel]]'' (1954) * ''[[The False Adam]]'' (1955) * ''[[Ball at the Savoy (1955 film)|Ball at the Savoy]]'' (1955) * ''[[Bandits of the Autobahn]]'' (1955) * ''[[Operation Sleeping Bag]]'' (1955) * ''[[Music in the Blood (1955 film)|Music in the Blood]]'' (1955) * ''[[A Heart Returns Home]]'' (1956) * ''[[Heart Without Mercy]]'' (1958) * ''[[Pension Schöller (1960 film)|Pension Schöller]]'' (1960) * ''[[Beloved Impostor (1961 film)|Beloved Impostor]]'' (1961) * ''[[Pichler's Books Are Not in Order]]'' (1961) * ''[[The Constant Wife (film)|The Constant Wife]]'' (1962)

==See also== * [[Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust]]

==References== * {{cite web|url=http://www.revue-quasimodo.org/PDFs/7%20-%20Becker%20Albrecht%20Tatouage%20.pdf|title=Becker, le marqué|language=French|accessdate=19 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716101623/http://www.revue-quasimodo.org/PDFs/7%20-%20Becker%20Albrecht%20Tatouage%20.pdf|archive-date=16 July 2011|url-status=dead}} * [http://www.rosavonpraunheim.de/ Rosa von Praunheim filmography] (in German). Retrieved 19 December 2010. <references />

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0065333}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Germany|LGBTQ}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Albrecht}} [[Category:1906 births]] [[Category:2002 deaths]] [[Category:German gay actors]] [[Category:German gay artists]] [[Category:German production designers]] [[Category:German male film actors]] [[Category:German male television actors]] [[Category:Photographers from Saxony-Anhalt]] [[Category:German prisoners and detainees]] [[Category:German LGBTQ photographers]] [[Category:Gay photographers]] [[Category:LGBTQ designers]] [[Category:People convicted under Germany's Paragraph 175]] [[Category:People from Thale]] [[Category:People from the Province of Saxony]] [[Category:20th-century German LGBTQ people]] [[Category:Male actors from Saxony-Anhalt]]