Reinhold Gräf (born 1889) was a German police photographer who served in the Berlin Police during the Weimar era.
Biography[]
Reinhold Gräf was born in Domersleben, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany; in a village of 68 people, he purported to be related to around half of them. Gräf later moved to Berlin at the age of 14 in search of work, selling newspapers in the city and often working as a drag performer at the Hollander club before joining the Berlin Police as a photographer. Inspector Ernst Gennat picked Gräf up off the street and ensured that he finished his apprenticeship at the Pelkmann photo studio before giving him the opportunity to work for him as the first photographer in the homicide department. Gräf worked closely with inspector Gereon Rath during his 1929 investigation into photos meant to blackmail Lord Mayor of Cologne Konrad Adenauer. Gräf also once met Rath while in drag at the Hollander club, where Rath and Charlotte Ritter were searching for Ilya Trechkov. Gräf became one of Rath's closest friends on the force, accompanying him on a mission to photograph the Lipetsk fighter-pilot school and working with him to investigate the murders of Betty Winter, Felix Krempin, and Tilly Brooks. During a meeting with Rath at a bar, Gräf told him about how Gennat had helped him find legitimate work, and he also said that his "nocturnal life" (as Rath called it) was one and the same as his daytime life.