The photos mainly portray the life of German inhabitants of the colony German East Africa. They show political, socio-economic and military events. There are also a large number of landscape and family photographs. Pictures from the colonies German South West Africa and Kamerun, which are also part of this fonds, display similar motifs like those from German East Africa.

Photographic records include important political events, public events and daily life in the Weimar Republic and the period of National Socialism from 1923 to 1936 (1946-1955). Besides political photographs (including foreign affairs) and photos of prominent individuals, the fonds also documents the following topics: Economy, transport, military, sport, culture and art, but also natural disasters and accidents. The pictures were taken by press photographer Georg Pahl (*20.10.1900; +13.5.1963), who in 1923 founded the "Fotoagentur A-B-C-Aktuelle-Bilder-Centrale, Georg Pahl" in Berlin.

The fonds is divided into three parts: "Army and Air Force" (Bild 101 I), "Navy" (Bild 101 II) and "Waffen-SS" (Bild 101 III). The photographs of the so-called "Bildberichter[a1] ", i.e. mostly professional photographers in the service of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, show the different branches of the armed forces in the various war zones. After being censored by the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the photos were sent to German and foreign news agencies for publication.

Among the approx. 5.5 million pictures of this record group there are mainly photos of the GDR picture agency "ADN/Zentralbild", which represent the life in the GDR from a quasi-official point of view. Apart from these photos there are also photos from the Scherl picture archive dating back to the German Empire and photos of Wehrmacht propaganda companies kept in this record group.

The record group "B 145 Bild" contains approx. 1.1 million photographs documenting the political, economic, social and "architectural" life of the Federal Republic of Germany until the 1990s. Some of the pictures date back to the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist period.