Deutsche Fotothek

The library's main task is to supply educational institutions in Saxony with teaching materials, such as photographs, slides, and films.

The Landesbildstelle was a picture archive and photo workshop located in the Ehrlichstraße 1 vocational school in Dresden, Germany.

In 1950, the picture archive and photo workshop were spun off from the Landesbildstelle and renamed the Landesbildarchiv, which was assigned to the Landesamt für Volkskunde und Denkmalpflege (State Office for Folklore and Monument Preservation) as the Landesfotothek.

The main tasks of the photo library were to collect, preserve, maintain, and make the holdings available for scholarly research and work.

In terms of content, the focus of the collections shifted towards social documentary and reportage photography, in line with current cultural policy.

The Ständehaus was assigned to the Dresden Higher Regional Court, and the Landesfotothek moved to rooms on Bautzner Straße 19.

In addition to its own photographs, a large part of the holdings come from the collections of institutions, companies and, above all, from estates and bequests, for example of Christian von Alvensleben, Christian Borchert, Ermenegildo Antonio Donadini, Fritz Eschen, Erwin Fieger, Germin, Walter Hahn, Konrad Helbig, Erich Höhne, Paul W. John, Martin Langer, Rudi Meisel, Richard Peter, Abraham Pisarek, Roger Rössing, Wolfgang G. Schröter, Jacques Schumacher, Ingolf Thiel, Reinhart Wolf and Paul Wolff.

Collections in the Deutsche Fotothek: In addition to the usual on-site use, a large part of the photographs, as of April 2022 about 2,200,000 images from 90 institutions, can be searched online.