Architecture | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts from the ‘Architecture’ category

My Berlin: Wrapped Reichstag at night, 30 years on

Above: “Wrapped Reichstag 1995–2025” light show.

In 1995, the artist duo Christo & Jeanne-Claude carried out a bold but contentious project by covering Berlin’s landmark Reichstag parliament building. Plans for the project had taken over 20 years, even though the artwork had always meant to be temporary and all expenses had been covered without corporate sponsors. Over 5 million visited in a period of 12 days in the summer of 1995 to look at the undulating “silver dream” in the German capital city. The timing was ideal. After reunification of the two Germanys in 1990, the new home of the federal parliament would be Berlin’s Reichstag. Renovations to the building began in the autumn of 1995 with the federal parliament opening in the spring of 1999.

From 9 to 22 June 2025, the Reichstag building was illuminated nightly with a light show in a 30-year anniversary tribute to the famous 1995 artwork. In a 20- to 30-minute cycle, the light-show appeared to first envelop the building in silver fabric. The fabric cover flapped in artificial breeze, before the cover lost its shape and fell onto the ground at the base of the building. The free-of-charge light show began shortly after sunset at about 930pm and continued until 1am. Whatever Christo and Jeanne-Claude chose to cover and transform, their art works posed questions of perception, origins, shape, functionality, and permanence.

• DW: Germany Arts
• Visit Berlin

( Click here for images )

Nuremberg: Fuji(film)-Store

“Home of X Photography”

It’s a busy active crowded Saturday in Nuremberg’s city centre. There’s a big music festival with acts ranging in size from solo artists to 3-piece bands. But as I walk across town, I see a big Fujifilm sign, and as I approach, I can see this is no ordinary camera shop.

I learn there’s been a Fuji shop in the city for a number of years, and only this past February did they move to this new location. Judging by layout and the upstairs gallery, the Fuji shop has a feel similar to aLeica shop. That’s because the owner of Nuremberg’s Fuji-Store created the shop based on their experience operating the city’s Leica shop nearby. I chat with Peter, the gentleman in the shop about what’s out now and what else might be expected. We agree to a common wish: to have Fuji fill a current niche with a compact portable point-and-shoot at the right price point. How about an X80 product variant?

I’ve done my fair share of drooling (but no buying) at Leica shops in Frankfurt and Vienna, and I enjoyed doing the same to available X-models on display at Nuremberg’s Fuji-Store. Did I buy? No. Am I thinking about life after the X70? Yes.

I can also see Fuji X Weekly having some fun here in the shop.

I received neither support nor compensation for this piece. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 2 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

25T88 Cologne: back to where this began

E87, C04.

More than 80 days ago, I reached Cologne. And now again, it’s the Carneval City to which I’ve returned to put a final bow tie on this 90-day summer of `25 jaunt.

*Approaching the city’s central station with the world-famous cathedral in the background.*

*Rudolphplatz: the Hahnentorburg is one of the few remaining medieval city gates at the western edge of Cologne’s Old Town. “Rudi” is today an important transport junction and commercial hub.*

“ruhender Verkehr (Static Traffic)”, by Wolf Vostell, 1969. With his Opel Kapitän car (K-RM175) encased in concrete, Vostell created the sculpture to protest the increasing glorification of car culture. The sculpture has been placed on the Hohenzollernring north of Rudolphplatz since 1989.

*“He drinks Reissdorf Kölsch.” Spanning several vertical floors of the building at Aachener Straße 3, this 1968 neon advertisement is now under Heritage Protection* *as of 2021.*

*“Handy (mobile) on, World off”. The artist’s Instagram profile: liebezurfarbe.rise*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 3 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

25T87 Nuremberg: Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle)

E86, N04.

At the north end of Nuremberg’s Old Town is the Imperial Castle on top of a sandstone mount. An initial structure goes back to the 12th-century CE, but much of the castle appeared in the 15th-century. As an independent Imperial city, Nuremberg had been a safe place to store the jewels of the Holy Roman Empire jewels; these are now in the Hofburg Schatzkammer (Treasury Vault) in Vienna. In ruins after the Second World War, the post-war era saw a rebuild of town and castle, and the 21st-century version of the Kaiserburg is a snapshot of not only about grandeur, but also the importance Nuremberg held in the Empire.

*Albrecht Dürer House, a half-timbered building where the famous artist lived and worked from 1509 until his death in 1528.*

*“The Hare: An Homage to Dürer”, 1984 artwork by artist Jürgen Goertz; a modern interpretation of Albrecht Dürer’s 1502 painting “Die Hase” (The Hare).*

*Passage to Heidenturm (Heathen’s Tower).*

*Left: Tiefer Brunnen; right: Sinwellturm.*

*Kaiserstallung constructed as the city’s Imperial Granary by Hans Beheim in 1495; also subsequently used as imperial stables.*

*One last look from below at Am Ölberg.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 2 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

25T84 Nuremberg, after 22 years

E83, N01.

The only time I had visited Nuremberg (Nürnberg) was 2003. But it’s now the 30th of July in 2025, as I arrive from Vienna by train. I check into my hotel, and hurry over to the German National Museum (Germanisches Nationalmuseum) to take advantage of their extended Wednesday hours. Founded in 1852, this is the German-speaking world’s largest museum on Teutonic culture. I’m here to see 2 specific objects in their collection.

Long thought to be the world’s oldest pocket watch by Peter Henlein from the 16th-century, additional research with non-invasive non-destructive scanning technology has shown the central parts likely to be late-19th century, although many parts date to the 16th century. But it sure is pretty and interesting to see in person. Mechanism: worked iron and brass; Case: gold-plated brass.

Terrestrial globe, Nürnberg, 1492-1494 CE: about 50-cm in diameter; designed by Martin Behaim, and painted by Georg Glockendon the Elder. As one of the oldest surviving globes in the world, the Behaim terrestrial globe has since 2023 been inscribed into UNESCO’s Memory of the World program.

*For late 15th-century, India and Southeast Asia appear to take shape, with a lot of coastline yet to be mapped.*

North and South America are missing, but east Asia seems to hold some promise, especially with Japan (the large island of Cipangu on its own at right). The South Pacific is also missing representations of Australia and New Zealand. I’m reminded by terrestrial globes I’ve seen in Vienna’s Austrian National Library (Prunksaal, Globenmuseum).

*Sketch of the Behaim globe (Wiki). Europe and Africa are at far-right, and Cipangu is where Japan is supposed to be.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 30 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.