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.
A tunnel into the Old Town.
Tiergärtnertor (zoo gate).
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).
The path up called Burg.
Passage to Heidenturm (Heathen’s Tower).
Left: Tiefer Brunnen; right: Sinwellturm.
A view of the city from Freiung.
The tower called 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.
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.
In the 1970s, West Germany experienced inner unrest and great confusion: was there “law and order”, was there a “police state”. The questions and answers depended partly upon political spectrum and age. To quote the information panel provided by the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery):
… In West Gernany, the armed struggle of individual political groups like the Red Army Faction (RAF) leads to widespread public debate. After kidnappings and terrorist attacks by the RAF, the West German government establishes the GSG 9, a special police unit charged with protection and enforcing order. Artist Katharina Sieverding uses a press photo of the GSG 9 to give the image a new and critically charged meaning. In her piece “Battlefield Germany”, the police appear threatening, suggesting the process of becoming a state governed by violence.
I made the image above on 22 May 2025 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and these settings: 1/60-sec, f/5.6, ISO2500, and 18.5/28mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-vsX.
There’s a courtroom I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time. On return to Nuremberg after 22 years, I’m taking full advantage of the opportunity.
After the conclusion of World War 2, the four Allied powers agreed to put key Nazi perpetrators on trial which began in November 1945 and ended in October 1946. The Nuremberg Trials became the first international war crimes tribunal in history.
The famous venue, Schwurgerichtssaal 600 (Courtroom 600), remained an active courtroom at Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice until 2020. The courtroom is now a part of the museum Memorium Nuremberg Trials housed in the same building.
On 21 November 1945, Robert H. Jackson, the chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, gave his opening statement, which remains as one of the most influential speeches about the emergent principles and applications of international criminal law in the post-war era. His statement began with:
The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs, which we seek to condemn and punish, have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that power has ever paid to reason.
I received neither support nor compensation for the present piece. I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 31 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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.
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