© Erbengemeinschaft Arno Fischer

Sibylle Bergemann

Biography

Timeframe Activities
1941 Born in Berlin on 29 August as Sibylle Emma Luise Pohl.
1958 Starts training for a clerical profession, then works for eight years as a secretary in various offices and factories; from 1965, works for the monthly Das Magazin.
from 1966 Though not enrolled, Bergemann occasionally attends photography classes given by Arno Fischer at the School of Fine and Applied Arts in Weissensee (now weissensee kunsthochschule berlin).
from 1967 Bergemann's first commissions for 'Sonntag', a weekly newspaper with a focus on art and literature, launch her freelance career as a photographer.
1967–1975
 Together with Arno Fischer, she runs the 'Club Junger Meister' under the aegis of the Berlin County Photography Commission.
1968 Exhibition in Berlin City Library with Arno Fischer, Elisabeth Meinke, Brigitte Voigt and Michael Weidt; Bergemann shows photographs from her series 'Fenster' ('Windows').
1969 Sibylle Bergemann, Arno Fischer, Elisabeth Meinke, Roger Melis, Brigitte Voigt and Michael Weidt form a loose alliance called 'Gruppe Direkt', so that they can take part in the international photography exhibition Interklub 69 at the Kulturhaus in Potsdam.
1970–1995 Works as a fashion and portrait photographer for 'Sibylle', the 'magazine for fashion and culture'.
1972 Joins the German League of Culture as a picture journalist.
1973 In addition to their flat on Hannoversche Strasse, Bergemann and Arno Fischer rent three rooms in Schloss Hoppenrade, a manor house in Brandenburg (until 1979).
1975–1986 Bergemann is commissioned by the East German Ministry of Culture to 'document the genesis of the Marx-Engels Monument', recording the process with her camera over a period of eleven years; the series Das Denkmal ('The Monument') will be one of her most important works.
1976-2004 Together with Arno Fischer and daughter Frieda, she moves into a spacious pre-war apartment at Schiffbauerdamm 12 in the borough of Mitte; like Hannoversche Strasse and Schloss Hoppenrade, 'Schiff’damm' becomes a base for a vibrant national and international community of photographers and for a school of photography.
1978 On 27 September she is admitted to the Association of Fine Artists (VBK) of the GDR as a photographer in the Applied Graphics section.
1987 Publication of her first monographic catalogue, Immer derselbe Himmel, to accompany her exhibition at the Johannes R. Becher Club in Berlin.
1987-1990 Bergemann observes with her camera as Heiner Müller directs Der Lohndrücker (1988), Hamlet (1990) and Die Hamletmaschine (1990) at the Deutsches Theater.
1990 Together with Harald Hauswald, Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler, Jens Rötzsch, Thomas Sandberg and Harf Zimmermann, she establishes 'Ostkreuz – Agentur der Fotografen'.
from 1990 Bergemann receives commissions from newspapers and magazines such as 'Geo', 'Die Zeit', 'Spiegel', 'Stern' and 'The New York Times Magazine'.
from 1994 Member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin.
from 1995 Bergemann receives various grants and awards, including a bursary from the Körber-Stiftung, Hamburg, in 1995, and from the Senate Department for Higher Education, Research and Culture, Berlin, in 1997.
1997-2009 With her camera, Bergemann observes productions by Theater RambaZamba, including Woyzeck(en) – nach dem Fragment von Büchner (1997), Medea – der tödliche Wettbewerb (1997) and Mongopolis – Fisch oder Ente (2003).
1997-2009 Beginning of a long-lasting partnership with Geo, resulting by 2009 in twenty photographic suites (Geo Special, Geo Wissen).
2005-2010 Bergemann teaches first at the Fotografie am Schiffbauerdamm school, later at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie.
2010 Sibylle Bergemann dies at the age of sixty-nine on 1 November in Margaretenhof.