An undated postcard shows a panoramic view of the promenade at the Dieksee in Malente-Gremsmühlen in Germany. Photo © Karl Jenckel, Malente
The story behind the image
Here is a historic photo, probably shot around 1940 by photographer Karl Jenckel in Malente-Gremsmühlen.
The photo is a folded postcard that is three times as wide as a traditional postcard. This makes it an exciting print, because it allows for creating a huge image from it (in my case, 77 Megapixel). Not only do you get a lively impression of how the location presented itself back in 1940 – with the Hotel Dieksee on the left, the promenade in the center, and the beautiful lake on the right – but you can zoom into the high-resolution image and discover many small details.
I noticed, for example, that Jenckel composed this super-wide image by stitching three photographs. The stitches are slightly visible in the original scans. I had to stitch as well (from two scans) and have removed several little flaws.
Jenckel probably shot the image early in spring, as not all trees had full leafs yet, but there were no leafs on the ground either, so autumn can be ruled out. Some sun umbrellas had already been opened on the patio of the hotel, waiting for guests.
The sun created some long shadows, so it must have been in the (early) morning. Jenckel probably started to shoot on the right and then proceeded to the center image and finally captured the left image. The shadows of the trees seem to be less tilted on the left than on the right.
For me, the lack of people, the bare trees, and the mirror-like surface of the lake create a somewhat sad impression. But I understand that Jenckel most likely intended to capture the place untouched and natural. (Actually there is one man in the center image standing in the distance next to a tree.)
Still, I love this image, because I know that my grandparents lived in Malente from 1943 to 1949, and a good number of my ancesters had been living here and in the area.
The photographer
Karl Gustav Heinrich Jenckel was born in Lübeck, Germany, on the 10th February 1879, as a son of a watchmaker. It’s unclear when he went into the photography business, but I found images that had been shot in Malente the late 1910s.
In 1916, at the age of 37, Karl Jenckel married his wife Frieda Anna Elisabeth Schult in Lübeck. Like Karl, she was also born in Lübeck (1889). At the time of their marriage, he already worked as a photographer.
At some point in time they must have moved to Malente-Gremsmühlen, where Karl Jenckel opened a photo studio in the Bahnhofstraße that he operated for decades. Later he also sold photo equipment.
Karl Jenckel died in Bad Harzburg, Germany, in 1954, at the age of 75, but he got buried in Malente. Frieda died not even 12 months later in Malente, at the age of 65.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1940 |
| Photographer | Karl Gustav Heinrich Jenckel, Malente |
| Location | Malente-Gremsmühlen, Germany |
| Image Source | 8.1 x 41.8 cm postcard |
| 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 | 19492 x 3968 Pixels |
| Copyright | Photo © by Karl Gustav Jenckel, Scan by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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