Fritz W. Neugass (pseudonyms François Neuville and Friedrich Brenatano) was born on the 28th of March 1899 in Mannheim, Baden, Germany to a Protestant-Jewish family. In 1917, he finished school in Mannheim with an end examination (an "Arbitur"), which granted him permission to study at a university. During this time, Neugass was briefly a member of the Wandervogel movement. The following year, Neugass volunteered to serve in the Army. His military career was quickly ended when he was buried in rubble after an engagement with the enemy. Neugass spent the rest of the war in an army hospital, and then as a censor for the post office.

From 1919 to 1924, Neugass was a student of Art and Archeology in Heidelberg (1919-1920), Munich (1920), Berlin (1920-1921), and Bonn (1922-1923). He received his Ph.D. in Heidelberg in 1924. Neugass' dissertation discussed Gothic pews, and was printed in Strassburg within a series of art historical studies. Shortly thereafter, Neugass found employment as a lab assistant at the German Archeological Institute in Rome, and at the German Institute for history in Florence. During this time, he participated in many archeological excavations in Italy.

Neugass spent the years 1926 to 1939 as a resident of Paris, where he worked as an art correspondent for German and Swiss newspapers and art magazines, such as Berliner Tageblatt, Vossische Zeitung, Weltkunst, and others. After 1933, his work was no longer accepted in Germany. This led Neugass to work for various American, British, and French periodicals. He often used the pseudonyms François Neuville and Friedrich Brenatano at this time. Much of Neugass' time was spent in the nations around the Mediterranean, where he took a large number of photographs.

In 1939, French authorities labeled Neugass an "enemy alien" and interned him in Antibes and in Les Milles. Neugass later wrote a novel about his experiences in the French detention camps. In 1940, he arrived in Free France (Cannes), and applied unsuccessfully for an American visa through the Emergency Rescue Commission of Varian Fry. Nevertheless, Neugass managed to emigrate to the United states via Casablanca in December 1941 just before a Vichy court found Neugass guilty of "enemy propaganda".

Shortly after his arrival in the U.S., Neugass worked as a swimming instructor and as a nurse. He made various unsuccessful applications to join the U.S. Army or to work in the war industry. While taking night-classes to learn blueprint drawing, Neugass performed volunteer work for the Red Cross of New York City. Not long before the end of the War, Neugass joined the New York City Patrol Corps. He also worked with the Volunteer Service Photographers (who aided paraplegic G.I.'s with photography).

In 1944, Neugass married Lotte Labus, who had earned her own Ph.D in Berlin. Labus and Neugass had met in the U.S. When the War ended, Neugass became a free-lance photographer. He published photos and articles in American and European photo magazines, such as Aufbau, New Yorker, New Yorker Staats- Zeitung und Herold, and Art News. He became a member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, and had an exhibition of his work at the Village Camera Club. In 1954, the American Museum of Natural History held an exhibit of several dozen photographs that Neugass had taken in Mexico the previous year.

After 1947, Neugass re-established contact with various German newspapers and magazines, and became a correspondent on the subjects of art, architecture, the art market, and photography. He later became a permanent contributor to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Handelsblatt, and other European art and photography magazines. Neugass often wrote for the American art magazine Art Voices.

In January 1979, Neugass was forced to turn down an offer to act as the American editor for a new German magazine (Art) due to poor health. He passed away in June. A memorial exhibit of Neugass' work was held on the 15th of October 1979 at the Goethe House of New York City.

Exhibits of photography by Fritz Neugass:

1954: American Museum of Natural History exhibit of photographs that were taken by Fritz Neugass in Mexico in 1953.

1959 (July-August): Chautauqua Art Association Gallery exhibit of photographs by Fritz Neugass.

(ca. 1959): Village Camera Club exhibit of photographs that were taken by Fritz Neugass in New York City and in Europe.

1979 (October 15): Goethe House of New York City memorial exhibit of photographs by Fritz Neugass.

Sources

Roder, Werner. International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Émigrés (New York: Gale Research Company, 1980): 854.

Telephone interview with Mrs. Lotte Neugass, 8 June 1990.