Titzenthaler was born in
Ljubljana, Crown land of
Carniola, the son of the
Grand Duchy of Oldenburg Court photographer Franz Hermann Titzenthaler from his second marriage to Hermine née Haugk. From 1886 to 1889, he completed an apprenticeship as a photographer with
Karl Friedrich Wunder in Hanover. After stays in Oldenburg, Hanover, Berchtesgaden, Leipzig, Lausanne and Königsberg, he finally moved to Berlin in 1896, where he took up a position as a photographer with the
Zander & Labisch company, working mainly for the
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. In 1897, he set up his own
photo studio and soon became one of the first German
commercial photographers, whose clients included important Berlin companies. From 1901 he was a member of the
Freie Photographische Vereinigung zu Berlin and from 1907 to 1911 chairman of the
Photographischer Verein zu Berlin, whose members later appointed him honorary master of their guild. From 1910, he served courts and from 1912 onwards also the as a sworn expert in photographic matters. From 1912 to 1931, Titzenthaler worked for the magazine
Die Dame, published by
Ullstein Verlag, and in this capacity captured the flats of famous actors, singers, directors and architects, among others. Since 1934, he lived in
Berlin Lichterfelde. From 1922/23, Titzenthaler was also chairman of the Berlin section Mark Brandenburg of the
Deutscher und Österreichischer Alpenverein. As an advocate of German-national ideology, he was conspicuous for his radical
antisemitism. He euphorically welcomed the
Seizure of Power by the
NSDAP and advocated the incorporation of the "German tribes" in Austria and South Tyrol into the German Reich. In 2003, therefore, the mountain path named after Titzenthaler to the in the farthest
Ötztal was renamed the Memorial Path. A memorial plaque standing on private land, behind which the urn is located, continues to indicate Titzenthaler's final resting place there. An explanatory additional plaque attached by DAV and ÖAV in 2014 was destroyed shortly afterwards by unknown perpetrators and replaced by a new plaque in 2018. This plaque was painted over with brown paint in August 2019. In the early summer of 2020, the grave slab was also removed. Titzenthaler died in Kronland
Carniola at the age of 67. == The Waldemar Titzenthaler Collection ==