A German photographer's unique images of the Spanish Civil War
To escape from Nazi Germany, Walter Reuter moved to Spain in 1933. There, he documented the civil war from start to finish. Thousands of the images he captured were discovered only in 2016 and are still being studied.
The war photographer
Unlike other photographers, who covered the Spanish Civil War only sporadically, Berlin-born Walter Reuter documented it in its entirety, from 1936-1939. The war pitted General Francisco Franco's Nationalists against the left-leaning Popular Front. When the last anti-Franco bastion fell, Reuter escaped to France.
Destruction in Madrid
This photo by Reuter from 1936 shows buildings in the capital, Madrid, that were destroyed in a bombardment by Franco's army. The poster on the wall reads, "Fascism passed through here!"
Laughter amid the pain
A portrait of a member of the Unified Socialist Youth in Madrid in 1936. After Franco's Nationalists won the civil war, many members of the socialist organization fled the country. Those who stayed faced repression under Franco's dictatorship.
War in the sky
The Spanish Civil War was not fought only on land Here, a crowd of people watches an aerial combat in the sky over the southeastern city of Valencia in 1937.
Images of illness
Reuter did not just photograph scenes of war. Here, he took a portrait of a man with leprosy in Fontilles in 1937.
The defenders of Madrid
Much of military conflict consists in waiting. Here, a group of militia members sits in expectation of an attack by Francoist armies in Madrid in 1936.
The faces behind the tanks
A group of tank drivers of the People's Army of the Republic on the Segre Front in the summer of 1938. But any optimism that these smiles could suggest was misplaced: The army surrendered to Franco's victorious troops under a year later.