Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place & home

Posts tagged ‘Welterbe’

My Vienna: how centuries pass at Judenplatz (Jewish square)

Above/featured: Judenplatz at night. The Holocaust memorial is in the foreground at centre. In the background are “To the little trinity” at centre and Misrachi House (Museum Judenplatz) at right. Photo, 10 Jun 2022.

At Judenplatz are clear visual reminders of the city’s first Jewish community in medieval times.

The first Jewish community in Vienna settled around present-day Judenplatz in the Middle Ages with mention in written documents dated mid- to late-13th century AD/CE. Daily Jewish life thrived around the Or-Sarua Synagogue, the Jewish School, and the Mikveh ritual bath. The community along with the surrounding Jewish neighbourhood came to an end with the Pogrom of 1421. Catholic Habsburg Duke Albrecht II rolled out a decree (Wiener Geserah, Vienna Gesera) which legitimatized the expulsion, incarceration, torture, and murder of some 800 Jewish residents; accompanied by destruction and forced takeover of buildings and property.

Below I highlight remnants and traces to the medieval Jewish community at this square in central Vienna.

Judenplatz, Vienna, Wien, Oesterreich, Austria, fotoeins.com

Facing northwest: B, Bohemian Chancellery; H, Holocaust Memorial; L, Lessing monument; M, Misrachi House; T, To the little Trinity. Photo, 20 May 2018.

Judenplatz, Vienna, Wien, Oesterreich, Austria, fotoeins.com

Facing southeast: B, Bohemian Chancellery; J, Jordan House; H, Holocaust memorial; L, Lessing monument. Photo, 20 May 2018.

( Click here for images and more )

Osterspai, Rhein, Rhine, Oberes Mittelrheintal, Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday on the Middle Rhine: Osterspai

24 May 2016.

This image is of the town of Osterspai, near “kilometre 575” (distance north of the Rhine Falls in Switzerland). In town at left-centre is the Catholic St. Martin’s church, first established in town in 1076 AD/CE. Accompanying the scene are two river boats and two bicyclists in the foreground.

I’m on board a Deutsche Bahn IC (InterCity) train from Heidelberg north to Cologne, along the left (west) bank of the Rhine river. The slower train along the river bank and more scheduled stops allows further opportunities to photograph the right (east) bank of the Rhine. Although overcast, the mid-morning early-afternoon train means any diffuse light will originate “behind” me from the south, and the landscapes will either be front- or side-lit.

In this series, I show images of the Rhine between Mainz and Koblenz which is the area included within the Oberes Mittelrheintal (Upper Middle Rhine Valley) inscribed in 2002 as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I made the image above on 24 May 2016 with a Canon EOS6D mark1, 24-105L glass, and the following settings: 1/160-sec, f/9, ISO1000, and 70mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-hMk.

St. Goarshausen, Burg Katz, Rhein, Rhine, Oberes Mittelrheintal, Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday on the Middle Rhine: Sankt Goarshausen

24 May 2016.

This image is of the town of Sankt Goarshausen, near “kilometre 556” (distance north of the Rhine Falls in Switzerland). Above town (at upper right) is historical landmark Burg Katz, a reconstruction of a medieval castle and is under private ownership.

I’m on board a Deutsche Bahn IC (InterCity) train from Heidelberg north to Cologne, along the left (west) bank of the Rhine river. The slower train along the river bank and more scheduled stops allows further opportunities to photograph the right (east) bank of the Rhine. Although overcast, the mid-morning early-afternoon train means any diffuse light will originate “behind” me from the south, and the landscapes will either be front- or side-lit.

In this series, I portray images of the Rhine between Mainz and Koblenz which is the area included within the Oberes Mittelrheintal (Upper Middle Rhine Valley) inscribed in 2002 as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I made the image above on 24 May 2016 with a Canon EOS6D mark1, 24-105L glass, and the following settings: 1/250-sec, f/10, ISO1000, and 75mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-hMa.

Kaub, Burg Gutenfels, Rhein, Rhine, Oberes Mittelrheintal, Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday on the Middle Rhine: Kaub, Gutenfels

24 May 2016.

I’m on board a Deutsche Bahn IC (InterCity) train from Heidelberg north to Cologne, along the left (west) bank of the Rhine river. The slower train along the river bank and more scheduled stops allows further opportunities to photograph the right (east) bank of the Rhine. Although overcast, the mid-morning early-afternoon train means any diffuse light will originate “behind” me from the south, and the landscapes will either be front- or side-lit.

In this series, I portray images of the Rhine between Mainz and Koblenz which is the area included within the Oberes Mittelrheintal (Upper Middle Rhine Valley) inscribed in 2002 as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This image is of the town of Kaub, near “kilometre 546” (distance north of the Rhine Falls in Switzerland). Above town sits historical landmark Burg Gutenfels on the slope accompanied by vineyards.

I made the image above on 24 May 2016 with a Canon EOS6D mark1, 24-105L glass, and the following settings: 1/200-sec, f/9, ISO1000, and 50mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-hLW.

Lorch am Rhein, Rhein, Rhine, Oberes Mittelrheintal, Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Germany, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday on the Middle Rhine: Lorch am Rhein

24 May 2016.

I’m on board a Deutsche Bahn IC (InterCity) train from Heidelberg north to Cologne, along the left (west) bank of the Rhine river. The slower train along the river bank and more scheduled stops along the way allow further opportunities to photograph the right (east) bank of the Rhine. Although overcast, the mid-morning early-afternoon train means any diffuse light will originate “behind” me from the south, and the landscapes will either be front- or side-lit.

In this series, I portray images of the Rhine between Mainz and Koblenz which is the area included within the Oberes Mittelrheintal (Upper Middle Rhine Valley) inscribed in 2002 as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This image is of the town of Lorch am Rhein, at “kilometre 540” (distance north of the Rhine Falls in Switzerland).

I made the image above on 24 May 2016 with a Canon EOS6D mark1, 24-105L glass, and the following settings: 1/160-sec, f/9, ISO1000, and 55mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-fYw.

My Vienna: Holocaust Memorial, by Rachel Whiteread

Where: Judenplatz, in Vienna’s Altstadt.
What: Holocaust Memorial, by Rachel Whiteread (2000).

How do you commemorate or memorialize the absent or missing? How should the void be acknowledged, recognized, and remembered? Does the act of constructing a physical monument “draw a line”, creating a physical manifestation of marking an end that gathers and wipes away all subsequent future responsibility for remembering?

In Vienna’s Old Town, what was unjustly and violently removed from the city’s long historical memory and cultural identity comes into shape at Judenplatz. Under the public square are ruins of the medieval synagogue destroyed in the pogrom of 1421 with hundreds of Jews driven out, hundreds killed by burning, and the community erased. Directly above these ruins is the Holocaust Memorial which attempts to generate experiences and memories to address the void left behind after the systematic murder of 65-thousand people.

( Click here for images and more )

Worms: Holy Sand, Europe’s oldest surviving Jewish cemetery

I’m looking for a “thousand-year history” in the city of Worms located in southwest Germany. This has nothing to do helminthology or nematology, as the town’s name is derived from “Warmaisa”, the former Jewish name of the city. This is about an important part of Jewish-German history and peaceful coexistence of the Judeo-Christian communities within Europe. The town’s fame and reputation is also partly derived from Martin Luther; I’ve already visited the site where Luther was on trial to answer charges of heresy, as well as the world’s largest Reformation monument.

This part of the Rhein river area is considered the “cradle of European Jewry”, known also as “little Jerusalem on the Rhine.” In medieval times, flourishing Jewish communities in the cathedral cities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz facilitated the creation of a common Jewish league with the name ShUM (SchUM), spelled out by the first letters of the Hebrew names for the three cities. As emphasis on the influence of Jewish heritage in Europe and the ongoing process of preservation and education, the Holy Sand cemetery is one of four constituents in the newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Site (2021).

On a breezy late-autumn afternoon, light fades quick, casting solemn shadows on this ground. In the town’s old Jewish cemetery, I’m the only person present, and I’ve placed a small stone on top of a number of gravestones. I’m surrounded by apparitions over an millennium’s age and by the remaining physical traces in various shapes, stones, and size.

( Click here for images and more )

Georgengarten, Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, Gartenreich, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, fotoeins.com

Dessau: George Gardens, Garden Kingdom UNESCO WHS

Above/featured: Guided Bauhaus tour stopping momentarily in the Georgengarten.

How times have changed: I wouldn’t have given Dessau a second thought a time ago. But after speaking with representatives from Saxony-Anhalt and after spending a few days in the city, I’ve better understood the historical and cultural significance, and those who feel strongly about culture and history should give Dessau a chance.

Dessau is a German city of about 80-thousand people in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, and is known as the second capital of Bauhaus in the early 20th-century movement of modernism for design and architecture which has been given inscription as World Heritage Site.

If you’re in town to check out various Bauhaus sites, there’s a 2nd heritage setting over a vast green space. East of the Bauhaus Masters’ Houses are a set of Roman ruins marking the edge of Georgengarten (George Gardens); further in the park is the Schloss Georgium (Georgium Palace). Since 2000, both Georgengarten and Schloss Georgium are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s shared with the neighbouring city of Wörlitz.

( Click here for more )

Augsburg: Fugger, Luther, & water in Germany’s 3rd oldest city

Above/featured: Facing north on Maximilianstrasse: Steigenberger Hotel Drei Mohren (left), Fuggerhäuser (orange) – HL, 12 Mar 2017.

Why Augsburg?

  • Fugger family legacy
  • Martin Luther and the Reformation legacy
  • Water supply management, newly inscribed World Heritage Site

I had come to Augsburg to find and understand traces Martin Luther left behind in the city. What I learned was the extent of the lasting legacy provided by the Fugger family, and how the city has for centuries provided safe clean water to her citizens, and how that water management system has become world-renowned as a piece of cultural heritage, forming the basis of an application for recognition as a World Heritage Site.

( Click here for images and more )

Meisterhäuster, Gropiushaus, Masters Houses, Gropius House, Bauhaus, Bauhaus100, Dessau, Dessau-Rosslau, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen-Anhalt, Deutschland, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Dessau Masters’ Houses (Bauhaus100)

Part 2 of 4, Dessau Bauhaus.

2019 marks the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus. The Bauhaus art school began life first in Weimar between 1919 and 1925, moved to Dessau between 1925 and 1932, and ended in Berlin from 1932 and 1933 before the Nazis forced the school to close for good.

About 500 metres north from the Bauhaus headquarters building are four structures Martin Gropius designed for the Bauhaus Masters: a single family house and three duplex houses. UNESCO inscribed the Masters’ Houses and the Bauhaus headquarters building as part of a single Bauhaus World Heritage Site in 1996.

Thanks to IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus and the city of Dessau-Rosslau for their patronage and access to facilities, and the City-Pension Dessau-Rosslau for their hospitality. IMG- and Sachsen-Anhalt-Tourismus supported my visit to the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt from 25 October to 3 November 2016 inclusive. I made the photo above on 28 October 2016 with a Canon EOS6D and the following settings: 1/250-sec, f/5, ISO1000, and 24mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-dGW.

%d bloggers like this: