A street in the city of Bonn with the Rhine river in the background, January 2024.
Street Scene on the Rhine
read more
Germany
Vesuvius – the most beautiful disaster
The erupting mount Vesuvius in Italy is one of the most popular motives in modern art history, particularly throughout the 18. and 19. Century - at least as far as disasters go. Between 1766 and 1779 the volcano erupted several times, giving artists occasions to...
Kota Ezawa: Flood (2011)
Kota Ezawa (*1969)Flood, 2011, from the gallery website by FRAENKEL Gallery.
Nürnberg flooded, 1909
The Bavarian city of Nürnberg (Nuremberg) has been flooded quite often over it's history. The flood of 1909 is particularly memorable and the most severe flood that has been documented in photography. The visual similarity to Venice, apparent in pictures like these,...
Are floating cities a remedy for over-crowded coastal cities, land subsidence and rising sea level?
As this documentary from German TV from 2022 clearly shows, designing floating cities is one thing, wanting to live there is quite another. I guess instinctively we all prefer "stability over floating flexibility", as director Kristin Siebert says, land over sea,...
Cohabitation and technical failure
Berlin once had the biggest, cylindric aquarium in the world, the Auqua Dome. In fact it was a hotel lobby dome, a modern cathedral with a giant tank filled with over 1.500 fish in the middle. The architectural concept is a twist on the submarine city, as we can find...
Climate Catastrophe pictured in 1986
Already in 1986 the well known German news-magazine Der Spiegel published this image on it's front page. It depicts the Dome of Cologne, one of the most important cultural heritage sites of Germany, partially flooded. The visual strategies of the media have not...
Storm sculpture in Bremerhaven
The New Harbour in Bremerhaven is protected by a dike. Behind the dike lie the German Maritime Museum, the Klimahaus and further behind the city's center. Right behind the dike stands a sculpture to commemorate the danger of storm surges. Copper rings on the pole of...
Maritime murals in German cities
Mural in Bremen Neustadt advertising the local beer company Beck's. The building and the brewery are directly adjacent to a dike that is in urgent need of renovation and elevation. A building at Hongkongstraße in Hamburg's harbour district adorned with japanese style...
The louse and the flea
A fairy tale as collected by the Brothers Grimm: A little louse and a little flea kept house together. They were brewing beer in an eggshell when the little louse fell in and burned herself to death. At this the little flea began to cry loudly. Then the little parlor...