Kurt Szafranski, in exile Safranski, (17 October 1890[1] – 1 March 1964) was a German-American draftsman, journalist and managing director.

In Germany, he illustrated Kurt Tucholsky's Rheinsberg in 1912, and was managing director of the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung (BIZ).

Born in Berlin, Szafranski was a friend of the writer Kurt Tucholsky, whose first literary work, Rheinsberg, he illustrated in 1912.

[1] In the 1920s, he was managing director of the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung (BIZ), where he established high artistic standards; the magazine, published by Ullstein Verlag, was in 1933 the largest weekly in Europe with a circulation of nearly two million.

[1] With Kurt Kornfeld and Ernest Mayer, who also came from Berlin, he founded the well-known photo agency Black Star.