1953 – View from Flensburger Straße in Kiel, Germany, towards west. Photo © Inga Schweim/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
This photo from our family archive is very interesting. It’s not interesting because it’s so beautiful (it isn’t) or technically challenge (it isn’t either) – but because it shows a landscape that has vastly changed since the photo was taken by my mother in 1953.
Apparently, she had taken her very first camera which she had received as a gift on her 10th birthday in July 1952 and captured the view towards west from the first floor of the family home in Flensburger Straße.
At the very bottom of the image we see traces of cars in the snow-covered street. Then there are several small huts and plots probably belonging to a small area of allotment gardens. Behind these are wider meadows and finally we see two large appartment buildings. In the distance there seems to be a small forest.
I tried to put this angle on a map of 1902:
Of course, there had been already a lot of change between 1902 and 1952. Back in 1902, the Flensburger Straße did not yet exist. It was formally created in 1937. But the meadows can be seen clearly on the map. The Knooper Landstraße got renamed to Irenenstraße in 1907 and then got once more renamed to Projensdorfer Straße (its current name) in 1923.
Today, the left building still exists (Projensdorfer Straße 170) but the meadows have been replaced by a four-lane Motorway (B503) which has totally changed the landscape. The allotment gardens are gone as well but a single house seems to exist right next to the motorway. In recent years three new semi-detached houses have been built where the allotment gardens once began.
An interesting photo from an interesting period.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | January 1953 |
| Location | Kiel, Germany |
| Image Source | 8 x 11 cm print |
| 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 | 3781 x 5210 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Inga Schweim/zanzig.com |
Zanzig.com Photo Hub 