1912 – The beach of Grömitz in Germany, packed with beach chairs. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Julius Simonsen
The story behind the image
This image from my archive shows Grömitz at the German Baltic Sea as it used to be before World War I. My grandmother grew up in the area and she loved the place. We even have a photo of her posing at the pier in Grömitz.
The image is a scanned postcard that was sent in July 1912. It shows the south-western section of the central beach, captured with a moderate tele lens. In the back are the steep cliffs that still exist today. Today there is a proper marina where the cliffs begin, and there are a couple of moderate high rises next to the beach.
It’s interesting to see the ladies actually constructing the beach castles (“Strandburgen” in German) that surround each beach chair, probably following the statement ‘My Home is My Castle’. 🙂 Today, signs ask for not creating beach castles, because the beach chairs stand too close to each other.
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The photographer, Julius Simonsen, was born in 1876 in a small town between Schleswig and Flensburg. A son of a butcher, he originally was trained to become a merchant but decided to move into the photo business at the age of 20. He joined the studio of L. Christensen in Oldenburg in Holstein and acquired the business just four years later, in 1899. During his lifetime, Simonsen photographed all the beautiful spots in northern Germany and printed and sold the postcards under the label Kunstverlag Julius Simonsen.
Nikolaus Julius Simonsen died on the 29th October 1943 in Oldenburg at the age of 67. His stunning work will continue to live in the photo archives forever, showing the beauty of a world that has significantly changed since then.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1912 |
| Photographer | Julius Simonsen |
| Location | Grömitz, Germany |
| Image Source | 14 x 9 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 | 6271 x 3842 Pixels |
| Copyright | © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Julius Simonsen |
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