It’s the 15th of August 1961, as additional elements of the Berlin Wall went up next to a made-up barbed-wire fence marking the border of East and West Berlin. An East Berlin guard made up their mind to defect on the spot, and jumped over the fence safely into West Berlin. His name was Conrad Schumann, and news photographs of his jump made him famous. A sculpture in 2009 called “Mauerspringer” (wall jumper) captures that fateful moment; a large photograph of that very moment is on a wall nearby.
I made the image above on 16 May 2025 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and these settings: 1/500-sec, f/8, ISO2000, and 18.5/28mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-vsb.
Brühl is the home of the Augustusburg and Falkenburg Castles and their associated garden-parks. For its unique and intact early-example of Rococo architecture from the 18th-century, these castles were inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage Site in 1984. A regional-express train from Bonn Hauptbahnhof (central station) to Brühl Bahnhof (train station) is only 10 minutes, and upon leaving the latter station, Augustusburg’s sunlit golden yellows lies straight ahead on the walking path.
Schloss Augustusburg.
My father would have loved this French garden.
(1) 8000 km to the other side of the world, and Canadian geese are everywhere. (2) The geese seemed to disagree over who has the most rights to this pool of water.
One last reflection from Schlosspark Augustusburg, for personal reflection. “Not bad” for a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
BRD buildings in the Bundesviertel
As a product of the 1970s and 1980s, I knew of two Germanys and, thanks to the 1976 Olympics, I then learned their abbreviations in both English and German. West Germany was known as FRG / BRD, and East Germany GDR / DDR. Looking back now, this became a starting point towards a long journey over the Atlantic, as I learned too that Bonn was capital of West Germany.
From 1949 to 1990, Bonn was capital city of the BRD: Bundesrepublik (West) Deutschland; FRG: Federal Republic of (West) Germany.
Former parliament building between 1992 and 1999. With German reunification and (re)declaration with Berlin as capital, many federal departments move from Bonn to Berlin. The final session of the German Bundestag in Bonn takes place in this building on 1 July 1999; all subsequent sessions take place in Berlin.
“Deutscher Bundestag” (German Parliament). Today, this building is part of the ensemble for the World Conference Centre Bonn.
1933 former Pedagogic Academy building built in Bauhaus style, converted in 1949 to meeting space for the Parliamentary Council, German Bundestag, German Bundesrat. This is the south part of the former parliament building.
The German Bundesrat meets in this north part of the parliament building. Plenary sessions take place here from 1949 to 2000, after which the Bundesrat moves to Berlin.
Deutsche Welle (now: DW), in Bonn. From 1994 to 2001, I watched Deutsche Welle from my apartment in Toronto’s North York. In late-2001, I moved sight-unseen to Heidelberg, Germany.
Two important flags.
I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 30 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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