1895 – A postcard shows the renovated buildings on top of the Bruhnskoppel near Malente-Gremsmühlen in Germany. Scan © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
This is a postcard shot by photo pioneer Albert Giesler. It shows the buildings of Bruhnskoppel near Malente-Gremsmühlen, probably taken in 1895 as this image was captioned as ‘Bruhnskoppel renovated (1895)’ in another postcard. The property was owned by my great-great-grandfather, Johann Hinrich Grebien (1826-1903), father of Dorothea Christine Grebien.
In 1870, Johann Hinrich opened a restaurant on the top of the Bruhnskoppel, a tiny hill near Gremsmühlen. Tourism in the area had been slowly picking up, and the restaurant was pretty successful. It was so successful in fact, that he extended the business with a hotel around 1895, which was run by his son, Friedrich Rudolph Grebien, who added a 21 meter high tower that provided stunning views across the landscape. Friedrich operated the hotel until the end of 1907 when he sold it.
The hotel continued a wild ride through the decades until it closed in 2010. It followed a bizarre story of several investors who were talking about investing into a new, fully restored hotel. But these plans were never put into reality. At the same time, the buildings were destroyed by the weather and by vandals. Today, it has become a shame for the community, labeled as a “lost place”.
Yet, it’s exciting to see where Johann Hinrich actually lived in the 1890s, a beautiful place for sure.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | 1895 |
| Photographer | unknown |
| Location | Bruhnskoppel, Germany |
| Image Source | 10.5 x 7 cm postcard image |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 5064 x 3352 Pixels |
| Copyright | Scan © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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