In the image archive of the Herder Institute, there is a collection of 4,475 oblique aerial images, essentially from the former Prussian provinces of Silesia, Pomerania, East Prussia, the Free City of Gdansk and a few towns and villages in the province of Brandenburg to the east of the Oder. These photographs from the 1920s and 1930s were produced by a commercial company and purchased from them in 1967/68.

With over 770 photographs, the city of Wrocław forms the most extensive and dense section of stock and is therefore particularly suitable for comprehensive image documentation. Using the 34 selected photographs in the exhibition, it is possible to see the particularly dynamic phase of urban building in the interwar years on
the one hand and on the other a last look at the “flower of Europe” before the destruction at the end of World War II.

An exhibition by the Herder Institute in collaboration with the publishing house VIA NOVA Wrocław and the advertising agency of the City of Wrocław. Under the aegis of the Mayor of the City of Wrocław.

The entire holding of the oblique aerial photographs can be searched in the image catalogue of the Herder Institute. A publication in german an polish languague is available to accompany the exhibition.

» Breslau im Luftbild der Zwischenkriegszeit. Aus den Sammlungen des Herder-Instituts Marburg ed. by Sławomir Brzezicki, Stanisław Klimek and Dietmar Popp, with essays by Rafał Eysymontt und Thomas Urban, VIA NOVA, Wrocław 2008.