The city of Görlitz in the Lausatia region of Germany is famous for it's architectural heritage. The Holy Grave, also referred to as Görtlitz Jerusalem, is an artificial landscape with several buildings designed to reference Christian holy sites in Jerusalem in...
The Ice Drift of 1784
Historic water mark in a staircase in the Bonner Münster marking the 1784 flood level. Cities in the Rhine region in west Germany have been subject to floodings for centuries. In 1784 a particularly severe flooding event occured during a particularly cold winter. Here...
Flood lament from 1784
The winter of 1783/1784 was extremely cold in central Europe. When the unusually large amount of snow and ice melted in the spring, many German cities witnessed severe floods. These flood events are now considered one of the most severe natural disasters in...
Noah’s Ark on a silver coin
This silver coin was printed in 1737 to celebrate the end of the flood and famine in Silesia in 1736/1737. The front shows the biblical scene of the dove returning to Noah's Ark with a German text from Psalm 37, which translates as "Put your life in the hands of the...
The coast of North Frisia over the last nine centuries
Map from from 1649 with the shorelines of today's coast in red. Source: Wikipedia
Storm surge events on the North Sea
12/26/838First documented storm surge in the North Sea; Approximately 2,500 deaths in what is now the Netherlands. 2/17/1164First Julian flood: 20,000 dead; First collapse of the Jade Bay, major damage in the Elbe area. 1/16/1219First Marcellus flood: 36,000 dead:...
Political flood images
In Germany, the imagery of flood or flooding and of Noah's Ark is frequently used in the political discourse to refer to undesired migration. Since the 1990s this dehumanizing topos was in high demand and was used by mainstream media and radical political parties...
The Wave in Architecture
It's a rather popular architectural motif, particularly of course in coastal and riverside cities. I wonder if there ever has been a historical study of the wave in architecture. Here are a few random examples from Europe: Dessauerstraße, Hemshof Ludwigshafen,...
Tides (2021)
"Tides" (alternative title "The Colony") is a sci-fi movie from 2021 about a post-apocalyptic world at the moment the first human communities are about to re-settle again. The only territory suitable is a coastal strip that is covered by tides twice a day. The area is...
Flood Memorabilia
In Germany as well as in many other countries, images of extreme floods often found their way on postcards. Here is a selection of postcards. (click on the image to find the online source) 1909 1910 1914 1920 1920 1929 2002 undated postcard from Tokyo, Japan undated...