Helmuth Ellgaard

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Helmuth Ellgaard (3 March 1913 – 22 April 1980) was a German illustrator, artist and journalist. He was born in Hadersleben, Germany (now Haderslev, Denmark). In 1928 his family moved to Kiel. He developed an interest in drawing and studied at the Kiel Art Academy in 1934 while working as a news illustrator. He specialized in fast charcoal sketches. In 1938 he married and moved to Berlin. When World War II began, he became a war correspondent and served as a lieutenant in the Luftwaffe, reporting on battles including the Battle of Britain in 1940. His drawings were published in Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. He had two sons, Peter (born 1940) and Holger (born 1943). After the war he helped start the illustrated magazine Revue in Munich and worked there as an image editor and news illustrator. From 1953 his work appeared in color. In 1956 he moved to Hamburg to work independently, drawing books and doing advertising. Between 1954 and 1961 he illustrated many film posters, most notably the 1959 poster for the anti-war film Die Brücke. He died of a heart attack in Kiel in 1980 at the age of 67. In 2003 his sons donated much of his work to the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn.