Hans Ertl; Called ‘Hitler’s Photographer’

Hans Ertl, 93, known in his adopted country of Bolivia as “Hitler’s photographer.” The German lensman admitted to Bolivian media late in his life that he had been close to Adolf Hitler and had photographed him, but insisted he was never a member of the Nazi party. Ertl also photographed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. But Ertl considered his most important work what he did for Nazi-era propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Ertl moved to Bolivia in 1950 after spending a few years in Chile, and became known for photographing Jesuit missions, 19th century temples and villages built by Jesuit priests. He also turned his farm, La Dolorida, 500 miles southeast of La Paz, into a nature preserve. Although he had no wish to return to Germany, Ertl had asked his daughter to send him a bag of German soil so that at death he could “sleep in Bolivia, but on dust from my fatherland.” On Oct. 23 at his farm in Bolivia.