UNDATED – A historic print shows shows the restaurant at Lake Uglei in Sielbeck near Eutin in Germany, with its 600 year old giant oak. Photo © F. Henning, Plön
The story behind the image
As you know, I’m interested in all things Ost-Holstein, the area in Northern Germany situated between Eutin, Oldenburg in Holstein, Fehmarn, and Lübeck. That’s because about quarter of my ancesters comes from here (the other half comes, more or less, from the Schleswig-Flensburg area.)
I could recently acquire a set of 21 historic prints by photographer F. Henning in Plön (which is close to Eutin.) It does not carry a production date. Looking at the frocks of the ladies on the right, I’d estimate it to 1910-1915. One indicator is the price of 1.20 Mark. The Mark, also called Goldmark, was the official currency in the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.
This image shows the restaurant at lake Uglei in Sielbeck near Eutin. Since 1891, it was operated by August Holzbach, the former manager of the Voss Haus in Eutin, a premium hotel situated directly at the lake.
Holzbach had been a really smart manager and started designing and selling souvenirs. Postcards would send the word of the beautiful space (in the middle of nowhere) into the world. Even back then, a beautiful spot was not enough any longer. He had been looking for a unique feature that would attract visitors. He found it in the giant oak in front of the building. It was said to be 600 years old, 30 meters tall with a tree trunk of 5 meters circumference.
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Photographer Friedrich Henning was a native of Plön (1835-1921), and one of the established photographers in the region. At the age of 31, he married Juliane Dorothea Ernestine Bendt (1846-1919). Ten years later, their son Friedrich Henning (1877-1942) was born who also became a photographer and took over the business. It’s not clear who actually shot this image. It could be either Friedrich senior (as a work late in his life) or Friedrich junior (with his career in full swing.) By the way, I found an interesting image on Flickr showing the entrance to the studio in 2018.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1912 |
| Photographer | F. Henning, Plön |
| Location | Eutin, Germany |
| Image Source | 17 x 12 cm rasterized print |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 16 bits/pixel, grayscale |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 4011 x 2842 Pixels |
| Copyright | Photo by F. Henning, Scan by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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