Monday 30 April 2012

Past and Present No. 7: Wuppertal

 
A recent trip to Germany with a pocketful of ancient postcards produced a few comparisons of things past and present of which this is one. Allied bombing and subsequent reconstruction has obliterated many of the landmarks and street profiles in the Wuppertal area and this example was a rare success – perhaps assisted by the fact that the postcard looks to be of post-war origin. The location is on Tannenbergstrasse, just outside Robert-Daum-Platz station on the much photographed Schwebebahn monorail. The distant view appears much changed but the foreground buildings seem to have survived the last half century or so unscathed. As for the Schwebebahn – it is such a miraculous survivor from a distant age of engineering experimentation that we shall return to it for a more detailed look.

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