1910 – A historic postcard shows the cantral station of Kiel in Germany. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: W.J., Kiel
The story behind the image
The other day I purchased a historic postcard from about 1910 that shows the central station of Kiel in Germany. In my youth, the central station was the key symbol for freedom and exploration of the world. From here you could get to other cities, Flensburg, Lübeck, and – most importantly – to Hamburg and beyond. My father took me to the central station every now and then just to dive into the experience of the busy place, the arriving and departing trains, the announcements, people waving good-bye. You get the idea.
I am not a big fan of the composition of this photo. There is just one horse-drawn coach on the left waiting for customers, and a single marine on the right. Otherwise the huge place in front of the station looks empty and totally lacks the buzz I remember.
However, I researched the history of the building and was surprised to find that it was inaugurated in 1899 to replace the “old station” which was about 350 meters north of the new station. This explains why the postcard (sent in 1910) presents the building as if it was new. Well, it was pretty new – and the pride of the quickly growing city of Kiel.
The station got widely destroyed during WW2 and has been reconstructed (much simpler) after the war. Kiel Wiki has the full story (in German.)
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Sadly, the photographer is not mentioned on the postcard, and the publisher is just abbrevated as W.J. – which is not a big help. I guess the photo had been published by the retail store of Wilhelm Jacobsen (1853-1910) who ran a side business as a publisher of lithographs and postcards showing Kiel’s cityscape. These were published under the name “Warenhaus W. Jacobsen” and were widely distributed from the turn of the century until the 1910s. Since the full name is not spelled out on this card, though, this remains just a guess.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1910 |
| Publisher | W.J., Kiel |
| Location | Kiel, Germany |
| Image Source | 13.8 x 8.8 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 | 6532 x 3674 Pixels |
| Copyright | Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: W.J., Kiel |
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