The Alps in panorama

Rudolf Rother was born in Munich in 1927. After the war and French captivity, he began an apprenticeship as a typesetter and publishing salesman. From 1951 to 1953, he attended the master school for Germany's printers in Munich. His years of wandering took him to Frankfurt, Zurich, Düsseldorf, New York, and Springfield, Illinois. When he returned to West Germany in 1956, he joined the mountain publishing house Rudolf Rother, which had been founded by his father in 1920, and he took over the company in 1964. He expanded this business into the leading publisher of German-language alpine literature for summer and winter mountaineering. Rudolf Rother's original enthusiasm for climbing and high-alpine skiing found a happy connection with this professional challenge. Almost every weekend, he climbed the peaks of the Alps. In the early 1960s, he began with panoramic photography. In addition to his alpine gear, he carried a heavy panoramic camera in his backpack. It was often necessary to traverse the same path a second and third time to find the right weather and optimal lighting conditions. Thus, he created a collection of five hundred panoramas in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, initially in black and white, later in color.