Travel | Fotoeins Fotografie

Stuttgart’s Gerda Taro

Travel day 76, Euro day 75.

I’m in Stuttgart for a few days, and I rediscover photographer Gerda Taro was born in the city. I’d already read some history of photography, including the Spanish Civil War and Gerda Taro as the first woman to photograph and publish images about open conflict. I’ve gone looking for some traces in the city of her birth, as a quick and spontaneous mini-project in the midst of 90 consecutive days in Europe.

Memorial, near Olgaeck

Near the bus and tram stop Olgaeck is Gerda Taro Plaza, in memory of the young woman photographer who was born “Gerta Pohorylle” in Stuttgart and who once lived with her family in the area. At the plaza is a 2014 memorial dedicated to Taro; the text on all nine panels is entirely in German.

*Named for photographer Gerda Taro (1910-1937), the plaza was unveiled by the city in 2008, and redesigned in 2014 with the installation of the memorial.*

*“O”. Gerda Taro, a pioneer in war photography.*

*“R”*. *The 1920s: Jazz, Theater, and the Stuttgart Kickers.*

*“A”*. *Leipzig: distributing leaflets against Hitler.*

*“T”. Exile in Paris: meeting André Friedmann, and the creation of Gerda Taro and Robert Capa. There is no Capa without Taro.*

*“A”. The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939.*

*“D”. Barricades, armed women, equitable distribution of land.*

*“R”. The camera as witness: misery and terror from bombs.*

*“E”. Getting up close, for the world at large.*

“G”. The first woman war-photographer killed on location. Documenting Spain’s civil war with her camera, Gerda Taro was accidentally run over by a tank and died from her injuries in a hospital near Madrid on 26 July 1937. She was buried in a marked grave in Paris’ Cimetière du Père-Lachaise.

*Republican militia women training on the beach outside Barcelona, Spain: photo by Gerda Taro, August 1936. Provided by Ur Cameras on Flickr via Creative Commons.*

Family home

Not far from Gerda-Taro-Plaza, I found the Pohorylle family’s former home, based on this poignant essay. I didn’t see any Gedenktafel (memorial plaque) or any Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) in the pavement, at or in front of either building 170 or 170A. In 1929, when Gerta was 19 years old, the Pohorylle family moved from Stuttgart to Leipzig.

*Obstructed view of the former Pohorylle family house (in light orange), as seen from passage off Cottastrasse.*

*Gate to path access for building address Alexanderstrasse 170A.*

*Former Pohorylle family house, at Alexanderstrasse 170A.*

Taro, short bio

Born Gerta Pohorylle, 1910 in Stuttgart, Germany; died 1937 in El Escorial, Spain.

“… Studied in Leipzig starting in 1929. Emigrated to Paris in 1933. In 1935 began working with the photographer André Friedmann, later known as Robert Capa. In 1935-1936 worked for the Alliance Photo Agency. Shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in the summer of 1936, she and Capa went to Spain; other photography assignments in Spain followed in early 1937. She was fatally wounded at the Brunete front in July 1937 and was the first female war correspondent killed in action.”

Source: “Women War Photographers: from Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus” (Munich: Prestel, 2019), p. 218.

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 22 Jul 2024. I received no support from an external organization. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T00 What’s in my carry-on

“Travel day zero”: nothing to check

For 3 months in summer, I have a medium-sized 21-Litre (21-L) Timbuk2 Classic Messenger bag in blue and black, and a 32-L Timbuk2 Command backpack in black. (Both products are unfortunately phased out of production.) These are my “personal item” and “carry-on”, respectively, for my flights.

*What’s in my 21-Litre Timbuk2 Classic Messenger bag?*

21-L messenger bag

Tilley Hiker’s Hat (with evaporative cooling insert)

Mountain Equipment Company (MEC) medium-sized mesh pouch in blue, containing a change of clothes (1 t-shirt, 1 change of underwear)

Columbia grey long-sleeved half-zip fleece

32L backpack

Centre-left:

Tenba BYOB7 Camera Insert bag in black, carry-case for my X70, extra batteries, and chips.

Kompass 4in1-Wanderkarte/map, for Wettersteingebirge and Zugspitze

Centre:

• 3-L Peak Design Field Pouch in charcoal grey, containing:

carrying strap for the pouch

small soft pouch with wired earphones and small USB-C to 3.5mm audio jack.

small freezer bag with “Europlugs” (type-C) adaptor plugs for western Europe

Charger for MacBook Pro (c. 2016; not shown)

translucent film-roll cannister, for spare change

USB-A power cube wall charger (retractable), light blue

USB-A to USB-micro cable for camera, black

• 3-L Peak Design Field Pouch in midnight blue, containing:

carrying strap for the pouch

WCL-X70 wide-lens with small rubber lens-hood

small clear zip-pouch with cleaning cloths

Mophie 5000mAh PowerBank, dark blue

USB-C to USB-A cable, black

I’ve used one of the Field Pouches as a compact lightweight day-pack; can’t carry much except for camera, batteries, memory chips, PowerBank, cables.

Below the field-pouches:

USB-C to USB-C cable, white

2 pens

USB-C power cube wall charge (retractable), black

Sunglasses in hardshell case

Passport

Moleskine hardcover small lined-notebook

Portable hard disk with black USB-A to USB-microB cable

Centre-right

• Heys medium-size packing cube in black; containing 2 t-shirts, 2 changes of underwear, 2 pairs short-socks

• Small (<1-L) freezer bag containing:

“arts & crafts styled” pill-jars, ear plugs, sunscreen stick, lip balm, eyedrops, nail clipper, Mopiko ointment, toothpaste, collapsible toothbrush, small bottles with body wash/shampoo, roll-on “deo”.

Many items on display are easy to replace at my destinations.

Still got clothes on me back

T-shirt, half-buttoned Henley-style pullover sweater, blue jeans, light rain-windbreaker jacket; Merino wool socks, walking shoes.

Peak Design

My nods go to their versatile Field Pouch, their Leash strap on my X70, and their Everyday case for iPhone 👍🏽

I made the images above with an iPhone15 on 7 May 2024. I have received no support from an external organization. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-sts.

Deutschland Ticket, for Canadian visitors (2024)

How-to buy guide, effective May to August 2024.

( 2025 note: On 18 September 2025, Bavarian state broadcaster BR24 reported the monthly price for the Deutschland-Ticket will go up by 5€ to 63€ , starting 1 January 2026. The price had already gone from 49€ to 58€ for the 2025 calendar year. My summer 2025 purchase went the same way as in 2024, whose details are described below. )

89 days within Europe includes by necessity substantial travel by train within Germany. I’ve already booked in advance a number of intercity express segments, but what about local transport and regional trains?

The “Deutschland Ticket” (D-Ticket) is a rail ticket for one person and costs 49€ per month on a rolling subscription. The ticket is generally valid for local transport (bus, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, intracity ferry) and regional rail (RB, most RE, IRE), but not for long-distance IC and ICE routes. Intended primarily for commuters, visitors to Germany can also purchase these tickets.

It’s early-April 2024, and I’m about to buy the D-Ticket for 49€ for the entire month of May. The ticket’s “rolling subscription” means if I do nothing else before 10 May, I’ll also automatically purchase a D-Ticket for the month of June for 49€. I’ll need the D-Ticket for May, June, July, and August; but I can only buy one month at a time.

I choose Munich’s MVV-App, based on successes reported by other travellers. I’m only using the Munich app for ticket purchase, and I’m not planning to use public transport within Munich. To buy a D-Ticket, customers are neither limited by their choice of app/method, nor by the base/location where the app is based. My question is whether a Canadian-based credit card is an acceptable form of payment by the processing company in Germany for a German-based app.

Sapperton: gatehouse & monument cairn

New Westminster

Within New Westminster’s Sapperton residential area at 319 Governors Court is the Gatehouse building of the former British Columbia Penitentiary (1878-1980); happily, the site is now home to a pub with patio. At the right edge of the picture below, the massive tower under construction is for the new Pattullo Bridge.

*In front of the gatehouse is this 1927 Govt. of Canada* 🇨🇦 *commemorative cairn in honour of the Royal Engineers (“Sappers”).*

“In 1859 military considerations induced Colonel Richard Moody* to select the site of New Westminster as capital of the new colony of British Columbia. Jointly developed until 1863 by civilians and the Royal Engineers, whose campground was here, the town, dominated by its Canadian^ middle-class, tried to challenge Victoria’s commercial and political power. Hopes rose when New Westminster became the seat of government after the colony’s union with Vancouver Island in 1866, but fell with the removal of the capital to Victoria in 1868. Consequently, union with Canada was advocated to solve the town’s fiscal problems.”

* after whom city of Port Moody is named

^ white British Empire colonists

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 17 April 2024. Composed entirely within Jetpack for iOS, this post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-sjR.

New West actor Raymond Burr

Fraser Cemetery

As a boy whose early memories include the family’s small black-and-white television from the 1970s, I remember the tv show “Ironside.” Canadian-born Raymond Burr played the titular character of Robert Ironside, special consultant for the San Francisco police department. Years later in the mid- to late-1980s, Burr returned as Perry Mason, the lead from the 1960s weekly tv-drama revived as a popular series of made-for-tv movies. He died in 1993, buried with members of his family in Fraser Cemetery, at home in New Westminster, B.C.

*Burr family grave at lower-centre – 9 Apr 2024 (iP15).*

*Raymond Burr (lower-right), with sister Geraldine, father William, and mother Minerva – 9 Apr 2024 (iP15).*

In 1858, the British established New Westminster as first- and capital-city of the new colony of British Columbia. Fraser Cemetery accepted its first burials in 1869.

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 9 April 2024. Composed entirely within Jetpack for iOS, this post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-sjD.

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