UNDATED – Nightly view of the illuminated city hall of Kiel in Germany (left) and the city theater (right). © Schöning & Co., Lübeck
The story behind the image
I recently acquired this historic postcard that shows one of the truly iconic views of Kiel in Germany, my home town, at night. On the left is the former town hall with its tower, built from 1907 to 1911, and on the right is the city theater, built from 1905 to 1907.
The postcard is a so-called photo postcard, i.e. the print was actually created as a photo print with well-balanced grayscales instead of a lithography which is made up from small dots that look good from the distance but show a real loss in quality once you do a high-resolution scan.
It must have been shot between 1933 and June 1941 because the theater had been hit during an air raid in June 1941 (and again in December 1941.)
I think it is a very special photo. It’s pre-war Germany (or even war Germany), and the photographer used a long exposure to capture the clear and calm night. The reflection on the water shows no movement at all, so it had not been windy by any means.
To me, the darkness of the photo looks almost scary. The long exposure has eliminated basically any sufficiently fast movement that might have been visible while the photo was taken. There is just one person on the opposite side, probably waiting for a train. Still, this is the only visible sign of life at all in the picture. This general lack of human life and the dark surroundings make me almost shiver. It’s as if the photographer did not want to show a beautiful summer night but present the buildings in a concerned subtext (that he probably could not clearly voice without getting into serious trouble.)
I can’t say, but it’s an impressive image.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1936 |
| Photographer | unknown |
| Publisher | Schöning & Co., Lübeck |
| Location | Kiel, Germany |
| Image Source | 13 x 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 | 3874 x 6187 Pixels |
| Copyright | © Schöning & Co., Lübeck |
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