The huge "Germany THEN AND NOW" comparison thread

[elianzoom]

Even the level of destruction, it´s a same the way that many German cities were reconstructed,well better to say rebuilt after WW2. Warsaw was simply obliterated but even so polish people decided to restore the building as they were as much as it was possible today we can enjoy most of it.
¿ Why this policy in west Germany after the war there was destruction but for sure it could be have done much more and much better on this, cities had the grid and the skeleton or facades of many historical buildings ? , I don´t get it I love Germany, but I get sick when I see historical centers rebuild with such a lack of soul and past. Why?

[Bluegate74]

Originally Posted by Chadoh25

Wow, the new City Hall is ugly as sin! Such a shame!

Stuttgart City Hall is actually a very good replacement, that has worked very successfully as a building. The materials used were top notch and overall its one of the better modern buildings in the city.

[Bluegate74]

Originally Posted by elianzoom

Even the level of destruction, it´s a same the way that many German cities were reconstructed,well better to say rebuilt after WW2. Warsaw was simply obliterated but even so polish people decided to restore the building as they were as much as it was possible today we can enjoy most of it.
¿ Why this policy in west Germany after the war there was destruction but for sure it could be have done much more and much better on this, cities had the grid and the skeleton or facades of many historical buildings ? , I don´t get it I love Germany, but I get sick when I see historical centers rebuild with such a lack of soul and past. Why?

Lets not exagerate, the resconstruction of Warsaw was actual a very smallfragment of the city, covering only a few blocks and a handful of key buildings. Most of Warsaw is a huge sprawling mass of modern buildings and amenities.

Cost and the necessity to house people were of prime importance after the war and for a nation that was financially ruined the last thing on peoples minds was reconstructing defunt medieval palace or a rambling Victorian town hall which in the 'modern age' would not have met modern day standards. Over the years there have been some impressive German rebuildings of key monuments and buidlings. But for a nation to move on and provide adequate facilities for the future you cannot have everyone living in tennement housing, baroque palaces and going to work along cobbled streets and narrow alleys.

[elianzoom]

Well Yes and No, of course the need of houses for people was dramatically urgent, but here is something else because a townhall or historial landmarks like Dormund city center were not a matter of giving people a roof to live, it was made by political decitions for sure and very bad ones in my opinion.
Even today whats the point to bulid a mall like that in the place where was the Rathaus and city center of Dormund ?, or stuttgart rathaus, What is this building seriously there must be some architectural critizism to all the wave of destruction of a country heritage. There was and destruction war sure but that don´t answer this question. Even in Dresden reconstruction today there are plain modern buildings among the beautifull baroque ones, who plans this ? And I repeat I love Germany, there are still a lot of beautifull towns and cities there, that no city plan bureau touch it, thank God !

[Karasek]

Originally Posted by elianzoom

Even the level of destruction, it´s a same the way that many German cities were reconstructed,well better to say rebuilt after WW2. Warsaw was simply obliterated but even so polish people decided to restore the building as they were as much as it was possible today we can enjoy most of it.

Well, Warsaw was rebuilt with building material from former German territories. However, unlike Wroclaw or Szczecin no German city was willing to contribute ~165 million bricks each year, ...or the inventory of entire museums, to Nuremberg, Dresden or Cologne.

[Judge Roy Beam]

Originally Posted by Bluegate74

Stuttgart City Hall is actually a very good replacement, that has worked very successfully as a building. The materials used were top notch and overall its one of the better modern buildings in the city.

That may be ... but it's still coyote ugly

[Judge Roy Beam]

Originally Posted by Karasek

Well, Warsaw was rebuilt with building material from former German territories. However, unlike Wroclaw or Szczecin no German city was willing to contribute ~165 million bricks each year, ...or the inventory of entire museums, to Nuremberg, Dresden or Cologne.

And yet the cities of Breslau and Stettin, the looting of millions of their bricks notwithstanding, are infinitely more pleasing to the eye today than say Stuttgart or Pforzheim.

Why is that?

[leperd]

Originally Posted by Karasek

Well, Warsaw was rebuilt with building material from former German territories. However, unlike Wroclaw or Szczecin no German city was willing to contribute ~165 million bricks each year, ...or the inventory of entire museums, to Nuremberg, Dresden or Cologne.

here we go again. How many million??

[Iluminat]

Originally Posted by Bluegate74

Lets not exagerate, the resconstruction of Warsaw was actual a very smallfragment of the city, covering only a few blocks and a handful of key buildings. Most of Warsaw is a huge sprawling mass of modern buildings and amenities.

It was limited to the pre-XIX century buildings because victorian architecture was considered outdated and worthless at that time many of such buildings were demolished even if they survived the war almost intact. But still it was more than just a few blocks.

[Urbanista1]

Originally Posted by Karasek

Well, Warsaw was rebuilt with building material from former German territories. However, unlike Wroclaw or Szczecin no German city was willing to contribute ~165 million bricks each year, ...or the inventory of entire museums, to Nuremberg, Dresden or Cologne.

I would only expect such misinformation from Karasek. Yes, many bricks, details and more likely church interiors because Warsaw's churches were totally plundered were taken from ruined buildings in Wroclaw and other cities in the regained territories, but most of the bricks used were newly fired bricks using ancient kilns that were brought back online, but also most bricks were simply salvaged from ruins:





Wroclaw today is undergoing a massive revitalization with far more restorations and reconstructions than Warsaw, in time those wrongs that irritate you so deeply will get righted.

[elianzoom]

Looking the new plans to reconstruc some parts of the old town of Frankfurt, that includes the costly demolition of huge monsters modern buildings ( like the Technishe Rathaus and back of Historische Museum) insert in a part of the city that should have been protectec form doing this kind of things.
Shouldn´t have the German cities after the war some basic plans or laws to protect the old city centers, the grid the zones ?, now would be much more easy to reconstruc the old parts if not were already reconstructed. The very few cases of faithfull reconstruction gives the city of Frankfurt his most important image.

Frankfurt römer aerial view 1949


Techn Rathaus 1974 Bildarchiv Marburg

[Dr.Mabuse]

Originally Posted by elianzoom

Frankfurt römer aerial view 1949

thats 4 years after the war. i am surprised to see intact houses in the front!!

[elianzoom]

Here is an image of the same place in 1945, as it can be seen there is still some buildings and places with the front part still standing. The former rathaus and other buildings around were reconstructed, and that´s is the main icon of frankfurt today. So what had happened if the entire oldtown had been reconstructed step by step, part by part, and not just fill the emty spaces with huge moder buildings, loosing the grid and glam of the entire zone. I just hope that the new plans will reverse all this nonsense, German cities should have it back !

römer platz , 1945

[Dr.Mabuse]

^
i see...they rebuilt it quickly.

[bijtkonijn]

I find it very hard to figure that especially the Americans destroyed buildings and artifacts that have been around for centuries before the USA was founded. Even before the first settlers set foot on the new world.

[Dr.Mabuse]

Thread-Update

Koblenz
http://imageshack.us/f/571/mi11588c09a.jpg/

[Aachener Mädelstraße]

Ich war vor genau einem Jahr in Koblenz, und alles in allem war ich positiv überrascht durch das Zentrum der Stadt. Man hatte, glaube ich, gerade viele Gebäude restauriert.

It's always extremely sad to see that an old beautiful town is ruined and replaced by modern architecture. The fact that not a single German city escaped the bombing madness of the allies makes it even more depressing.

[Tiaren]

Originally Posted by Aachener Mädelstraße

Ich war vor genau einem Jahr in Koblenz, und alles in allem war ich positiv überrascht durch das Zentrum der Stadt. Man hatte, glaube ich, gerade viele Gebäude restauriert.

It's always extremely sad to see that an old beautiful town is ruined and replaced by modern architecture. The fact that not a single German city escaped the bombing madness of the allies makes it even more depressing.

Fortunately that is not really true.

Regensburg, Passau, Landshut, Fürth, Konstanz, Heidelberg, Bamberg, Görlitz, Erfurt, Weimar, Oldenburg, Flensburg amongst others were hardly harmed by bombings.

[Dr.Mabuse]

Originally Posted by Tiaren

Fortunately that is not really true.

Regensburg, Passau, Landshut, Fürth, Konstanz, Heidelberg, Bamberg, Görlitz, Erfurt, Weimar, Oldenburg, Flensburg amongst others were hardly harmed by bombings.

but every bigger city with more than 500.000 inhabitants got bombed.

berlin, hamburg, stuttgart, frankfurt, munich, colone, etc.

[Dr.Mabuse]

I searched at bildindex for those photos of wiesbaden, because i wanted to see them again and i was suprised the got delted from bildindex. i watched for frankfurt am main and was suprised too.

i always wondered, why bildindex never had a onw category with thos sepcial photos. i searched a bit now and found a category in bilindex.de which presents only those special airpictures of german cities!

the whole contingent are about more than 3000 photos, while in this special category are only 1907 uploaded.

http://www.fotomarburg.de/bestaende/uebernahm/kieler

click "ZUM BESTAND"

Whatever, Frankfurt and Cologne and Wiesbaden aren't there yet, maybe there are going to be uploaded in the future, hopefully.