In 1918, August Sander meticulously photographed the defeated citizenry of Germany who needed photo identification cards for the occupying forces. By 1929, he had photographed all classes and types of people. Sander soon came under the influence of modern art and its intellectual practitioners whom he befriended in Cologne. Through his discussions with them, he came to understand the importance of his portrait work and was encouraged to continue. He produced the first volume of an extended series he hoped would provide an exhaustive catalog, but in the 1930s his work fell into disfavor and was banned by the Nazis.

The photography of August Sander comprises an extraordinary human document. This volume of the Masters of Photography series, which includes forty-three portraits of a cross section of German society, from pastry chefs to industrialists, is a provocative glance at the Weimar Republic.