There was a time I didn’t think I’d be a fan of trains. I’m glad I was wrong, helped in large part to living and visiting Germany over much of the last 25 years.
Nuremberg’s Transport Museum includes the Deutsche Bahn (DB) Museum and the Museum of Communication. I spent the better part of Friday afternoon, learning and gathering bits and pieces on German rail.
Nuremberg’s Verkehrsmuseum, including Bahn (rail) and Post (mail).
With North at the bottom of the map, Johann Georg Kuppler drew this map of the Ludwigseisenbahn (Ludwig Railway) between Nuremberg (left) and Fürth (right) in 1835.
Replica of the “Adler” steam locomotive engine, next to an ICE-3 model.
Established between Nuremberg and the nearby city of Fürth, the Ludwigseisenbahn began operation as Germany’s 1st railroad on 7 December 1835. A replica of the engine car, the Adler from the very first journey is in the museum proper (above).
Built in 1835, this lemon-yellow “car number 8” is the only remaining surviving passenger car from the Ludwigseisenbahn, and is Germany’s oldest railway vehicle.
In 1896, the Skladanowsky brothers produced short-films of Berlin city-life for the first time. This image is a snippet of one of their films showing the comings and goings, including city rail above street-level, at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz.
Train ticket in 2nd class, from Berlin to Wiesbaden, on 15 May 1901.
Train ticket in 3rd class, from Munich-Obermenzing to Regensburg, on 22 June 1946.
Left to right, respectively: West Germany’s Deutsche Bundesbahn logo in 1955; East Germany boundary stele at the inner German boundary, c. 1967; East Germany’s Deutsche Reichsbahn logo, c. 1960.
1974 map showing routes for the Trans-Europe-Express. By present-day standards, Berlin, Prague, and Warsaw are conspicuous by their absence.
1984 1:10 model of VT11.5 (601) locomotive for the Trans Europe Express. Cue up the Kraftwerk song …
1976 advertisement for Deutsche Bundesbahn’s Intercity trains running every 2-hours inside West Germany; note Berlin’s exclusion.
The modern DB logo.
I received neither support nor compensation for the present piece. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 1 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
Salmannsdorf is tucked away in the northwest corner of the Austrian capital city. It only seems “far” when a bus route reaches its final stop; fact is the terminus for bus 35A is only 8 km northwest from the city centre.
First mentioned in an official document in 1279, the small village of wine growers began next to the Krottenbach creek and surrounded by hills. The name “Salmannsdorf” is likely derived from the personal name Salman or Salmann, or from the professional name of the “Salmann” who was a trustee or scribe of the land register called the “Salbuch”; literally, he of the Sal, or the Sal-man(n). By 1938, the village had been fully absorbed into the city of Vienna’s 19th district.
In a compact area, I’ve gathered:
a cross dedicated to victims of the French Napoleonic occupation 1809
where Franz Schubert composed “Das Dörfchen” (The Little Village) in 1821
Johann Strauss II (JS2) spent boyhood summers at his maternal grandfather’s house, where JS2 wrote at age 6 his 1st attempt at waltz “Erster Gedanke”
Franzosenkreuz (French cross), in front of Salmannsdorfer Straße 32.
French cross: memorial to the victims of the 1809 Napoleonic campaign and French occupation.
The slope up Dreimarksteingasse with a plaque at building address 6 (right).
Memorial plaque: Franz Schubert composed “Das Dörfchen” at this location in 1821.
Dreimarksteingasse 13, facing northwest. There’s a plaque on the outer wall of the bright yellow barn-like structure (upper right). Johann Strauss Sr. And his family spent summers here from 1829 to 1832.
Johann Strauss Jr. at age 6 composed his 1st waltz at this location; this is memorialized by the plaque on the wall. “Hier hat ein großer Musikant / Der ‘Meister Strauß’ war er benannt / Den ersten Walzer komponiert / Und dadurch dieses Haus geziert.”
Dreimarksteingasse 13, facing south.
Across from the Strauss’ summer residence is the village church whose names include Dreimarkstein Chapel and Saint Sebastian’s Chapel. The small church dates back to the late 18th-century.
Near the top of Dreimarksteingasse with the village chapel at left and the yellow building (once occupied by the Strauss family) at right.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 9 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
In Vienna’s Museum of Science and Technology, I get to nerd out over things like cameras, calculators, radios, televisions, and telephones: all of which are now contained in some compact form within a mobile “smart” phone. Much of the history for the development of gadgets large and small is both long and fascinating.
But there’s also regulation of the Danube river, fresh- & waste-water management, computers & data management, bookmaking & block-type, print-making & lithography, tools & equipment “at home”, national radio & television broadcasting, telegraph & telephony, power generation, engines & automobiles, aircraft & airports, industrial-scale smelting, elevators & funiculars, transport signals, hygiene practices, et cetera, et cetera.
No surprise, really, that it’s a wae difficult to see everything available in the museum’s general collection inside a single visit.
TMW: Technisches Museum Wien.
Ebene 4 (4th level).
Ebene 3 (3rd level).
Typewriter: one of the earliest prototypes, by Peter Mitterhofer in Partschins (Italy) in 1864.
Top view: one of the earliest typewriter prototypes, by Peter Mitterhofer in Partschins (Italy) in 1864.
Arithmetic (mathematics) book from Johann Hemeling, printed in 1678 by Johann Görlin in Frankfurt, Germany. At right is an example of compound interest of 5-percent applied annually over 20 years on a principal of 10 million; that is, 10^7 * 1.05^20 =26532977.
Hewlett-Packard HP-35 electronic pocket scientific-calculator: USA, 1972.
Texas Instruments SR-40 electronic pocket scientific-calculator: USA, 1975.
Rolleiflex reflex camera with cut film adapter: Franke & Heidecke, Braunschweig (Germany), around 1929.
Front view, Leica I 35mm-camera: Ernst Leitz GmbH in Wetzlar (Germany), 1930. The word “Leica” is constructed from “Leitz” and “camera”.
Top view, Leica I 35mm-camera: Ernst Leitz GmbH in Wetzlar (Germany), 1930.
Front view, Leica IIIa 35mm-camera: Ernst Leitz GmbH in Wetzlar (Germany), 1938.
Top view, Leica IIIa 35mm-camera: Ernst Leitz GmbH in Wetzlar (Germany), 1938.
Left: Western Union, internal memo, 1876. Right: purple Telekom/Magenta telephone booth with a large digital screen and webcam.
Würfeluhr (Viennese cube-clock), 1930 to 1960s. This style of city clock can be found throughout the city of Vienna.
On Ebene 1 (level 1), the public can make their own thermograms: images in the thermal infrared at wavelengths around 10 microns. Red to orange are the warmest temperatures.
The hope is real: to live long and prosper (in the thermal infrared) with my trusty X70 (in the optical/visual). Thankfully, my glasses and camera remain “cool”.
I received neither support nor compensation for this piece. Except for the final two frames, I made all remaining images with an iPhone15 on 8 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
If something has carried on for over one hundred years, surely that’s long enough to count as “tradition.” I can live with that here in Vienna.
Saturday saw the heat return to the capital city with a balmy high of +28C (82F), likely touching low-30s in the Danube valley plains. Hanging out in the 3rd district (Landstrasse) brought me to some munchies at Rochusmarkt and some beautiful old streetcars at a transport museum.
Trześniewski
Since 1902, this Vienna-only chain offers simple delicious open-faced sandwiches. Their “Brötchen” consist of fresh rye bread cut to small rectangular slabs on which thick savory spreads are applied. (“Tschress-nee-ev-ski” is my best attempt.)
It’s 125pm and cozy inside their space at Rochusmarkt.
Rich creamy savory spreads on solid rye; very tempting to buy individual spreads in 100gram-jars for the apartment.
Remise (depot) transport museum
In a former rail maintenance yard, the city’s public transport operator, Wiener Linien, has their own history museum describing how Vienna went from horse-drawn trams in the 1840s to the U- and S-Bahn trains within the metro region today. There’s the visual bonus of many old pretty red trams, a.k.a. streetcars, a.k.a. “Bims”.
Lounge- or trailer-car, no.1504 (1871).
“Rund um Wien” (Around Vienna), no.82 (1912).
With the introduction in 1962 of rapid transit or Schnellbahn, this 1965 logo with the white jagged rune-like ‘S’ on a blue background became a standard sight around Vienna.
“Silberpfeil” (silver arrow), no.2022, 1976 with the introduction of the first U-Bahn line, the U1, in Vienna.
Tracks out from the sheds.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 15 Jun 2024. I received neither sponsor nor support from any external organization. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
The massive industrial facility providing wealth, economic growth, and stability in the bilingual Saar region went from a duration of many decades, to a new form of sustainability including art and museum space, as well as an industrial park to highlight its 1994 inscription as UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site covers an area of almost 7.5 hectares (185 acres).
The ironworks, located to the southwest of Völklingen train station.
“Kunstfabrik” (art factory), by jaume, 2022.
“Tenemos miedo a las nubes”, by e1000 (2024) for Urban Art Biennale.
“Black is beautiful!”, by Jef Aérosol (2014), for Urban Art Biennale.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 16 May 2024. I received neither sponsor nor support from any organization. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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