Photographs from bygone times exude something magical. They cast a spell on the viewer because they allow glimpses into vanished worlds, because a short piece of time is frozen on their surface. In this way they build bridges into a past that is otherwise almost impossible to grasp in this immediacy. The philosopher Karl Valentin, who was also a picture collector, defined the standard for the value of old photographs more than a hundred years ago. An old picture of Munich, he said, was worth more than a diamond.
Viewed in this way, the 30,000 historical photographs slumbering in the archives of the National Association for Homeland Care are an immeasurable treasure. They were once made especially for the magazine that still exists today More beautiful home made, in which a part of them was also printed. 3000 of these great relics have now been digitized. They will soon be available on the internet platform “bavarikon” be made generally accessible. If you are interested in historical images or in general Bavarian phenomena, you can look forward to finding never-before-seen pearls in this visual treasure chest, most of which are local views and old buildings.
The project has only one small catch: a good 200 of these digital copies cannot be assigned in terms of time or location due to a lack of information. The regional association therefore hopes to be able to close this gap before the collection is published on “bavarikon”. The unknown pictures can already be viewed on the internet at heimat-bayern.de. The regional association takes information from the e-mail address [email protected] opposite. Another interesting question is which of these buildings are still standing.
Most of the images that have now been digitized come from the 1920s and 1930s. Since the originals are large glass plate negatives, the images are of high quality and razor-sharp. As the typical rural building culture began to decline in the 1920s and 1930s, employees of the regional association traveled to the country to use their cameras to document buildings and houses in particular. “There was a lot of idealism involved,” says Daniela Sandner, who is in charge of the project. Folklorists and architects wanted to preserve typical building forms before they disappeared. That is why there are still thousands of photos with detailed shots of roofs, balconies and windows in the archive.
The pictures impressively convey the ability of the ancestors to build with the harmonious inclusion of the landscape and rich craftsmanship, which is expressed, among other things, in the half-timbered houses. The charisma of these buildings forms a counterpoint to the often faceless and seemingly lost architecture of today. From the questions that arise when looking at the old pictures, thoughts automatically arise about our values, our time and our future, as the folklorist Martin Ortmeier once put it.