What I immediately notice is the total absence of brutalist architecture.
I dare say there's not an architect nor builder or construction worker alive today, that could create something like the buildings depicted above.
They can put together pre-fab made units and pieces, much like how a boy would build Meccano from the blueprints, but they cannot move to the next step:
Creation.
Still, beauty created is and remains beauty, while commodities produced are simply there to be spent.
I know which I prefer, even if (or because) it comes part and parcel of an entire cultural package
In Sweden, there's a group calling themselves the "Architect's Revolt". They hand out a prize every year, called the "Kasper Kalkon-prize". They also award a prize every year for most beautiful new construction.
So far, none of the winners of Kasper Kalkon has deigned to attend the show and accept the prize.
You can spend an unhealthy amount of time on their homepage, in a state of revulsion, sadness and outrage:
Sehr schön! I'm trying to imagine how many boxes 40,000 postcards that would be! I have spent many happy hours online looking at the East Prussia picture archive and actually found photos of my mother and other family members which was a surprise (school class or church) and also postcards of towns, fishermen, etc. I do hope you get them put online for all to share. I'd like to see more.
Oh, they're packed into 10 relocation boxes and in total weigh some 300kg.
I do have some from what once (or twice) used to be (part of) Germany east of the present border, and now that you mentioned it, I shall see to posting some before too long.
Interesting pictures. One of my daughters is learning Czech and we've spent many happy days over recent years in Český Krumlov, Olomouc (where she was at the university for summer schools), Kroměříž, Ceske Budejovice etc. The ossuary at Kutna Hora is a strange and interesting place, though the town itself is very 'Soviet' in appearance. I'll send her a link.
Please do share it, for I have literally many more of these cards at my office.
As to the region (South Bohemia) itself, if you found the ossuary at Kutna Hora 'strange', I recommend the Rosenberg Chapel at Hohenfurth Abbey (Vyšší Brod), which is one of the largest dynastic burial places I know: https://www.klastervyssibrod.cz/
As to the 'Soviet' appearances, well, yes, that's true, but it also has its 'benefits': virtually no-one lives in many of these small cities in Czechia, as the majority of people lives in 'Soviet'-style blocks a few kilometres away (it's the same in Pardubice, which I visited professionally a few weeks ago), but it also means that the old towns are kept quite nicely.
Yes, we've been to Pardubice too - we used to be able to fly in to the airport there but last time we went (August) they'd stopped those flights so we went via Brno (which also has some very nice bits).
Postcards are another genre that went from laborious beauty (lithograph prints) to bleakness (black-and-white photographs) and back to more beauty, albeit of a different kind (colour photographs). Mathematics textbooks are another example: from beautiful typesetting to typewriter plus handwritten formulas (in the 60s and 70s) to LaTeX.
This also affects virtually all other textbooks; incidentally, there's a huge research cluster, the so-called Georg Eckert Institute for Textbook Research (Schulbuchforschung) in Brunswick (if memory serves). Sadly, though, most scholars who study such textbooks focus on--History, even though I'd bet that other disciplines would yield (more) interesting results, esp. Biology textbooks (go and look for 'eugenics/genetics' sections throughout the 20th century).
Very enjoyable. I would love to see more. My grandmother liked to collect things, and I still have a number of her postcards. (She didn't keep nearly as many as your grandfather did.) Mostly the postcards are from Europe, but there is one from New York in which both she and my grandfather appear. They were on a ferry and a photographer passed overhead to take a shot. My grandfather wasn't feeling well by that point in his life, so his head is downwards and his head covered by his hand. My grandmother, though, is looking straight up at the camera. I am not sure how she got a copy of the postcard.
This is so awesome--don't throw them away (if you ever think of getting rid of them, please mail them to me).
As to what one can find, well, I even found a card from Leningrad (now St Petersburg) where my grandparents went to in 1984, and that card is addressed to my parents. Small world (but also no coincidence my grandfather has that one in his collection).
remind me of falling in love with the beautiful medieval architecture and local history that I saw in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy at the tender ages of 12 & 17. I somehow kept the beauty and profound history all tied up with the Christian West in my heart. Born in NYC of Austrian WWII refugees in the 1950's, life just exists among the ugly concrete infrastructure and pre-fab homes of the U.S.. Some parts of picturesque New England and some old but now trashed sections of NYC, Boston, and the Montpelier Vermont State Capitol bldg are reminders of historic meaningfulness. Mostly America is dreary as are the post WWII sections of European cities
I have longed to return though I had forgotten how striking was the impression of architecture designed by or on behalf of people of faith centuries ago. Your postcards remind me of my deep intention to visit beautiful middle and eastern Europe before the world blows up any further than it is doing presently.
What I immediately notice is the total absence of brutalist architecture.
I dare say there's not an architect nor builder or construction worker alive today, that could create something like the buildings depicted above.
They can put together pre-fab made units and pieces, much like how a boy would build Meccano from the blueprints, but they cannot move to the next step:
Creation.
Still, beauty created is and remains beauty, while commodities produced are simply there to be spent.
I know which I prefer, even if (or because) it comes part and parcel of an entire cultural package
That is so true; if you'd like to check out some truly awful stuff, check out the Berliner Stadtschloss / Humboldt Forum …
In Sweden, there's a group calling themselves the "Architect's Revolt". They hand out a prize every year, called the "Kasper Kalkon-prize". They also award a prize every year for most beautiful new construction.
So far, none of the winners of Kasper Kalkon has deigned to attend the show and accept the prize.
You can spend an unhealthy amount of time on their homepage, in a state of revulsion, sadness and outrage:
https://www.arkitekturupproret.se/
Thanks for that link, I'm on it.
Also, since I wish to respond in kind, here goes James Kunstler's awesome 'Eyesore or the Month' collection:
https://kunstler.com/featured-eyesore-of-the-month/
Enjoy, if you will!
Sehr schön! I'm trying to imagine how many boxes 40,000 postcards that would be! I have spent many happy hours online looking at the East Prussia picture archive and actually found photos of my mother and other family members which was a surprise (school class or church) and also postcards of towns, fishermen, etc. I do hope you get them put online for all to share. I'd like to see more.
Oh, they're packed into 10 relocation boxes and in total weigh some 300kg.
I do have some from what once (or twice) used to be (part of) Germany east of the present border, and now that you mentioned it, I shall see to posting some before too long.
Keep them coming, please. Is there a prize for spotting the brown bear in the second lithograph?
Oh, well, I shall do so, then.
Sadly, the only prize for spotting anything would be more postcards, I suppose.
Interesting pictures. One of my daughters is learning Czech and we've spent many happy days over recent years in Český Krumlov, Olomouc (where she was at the university for summer schools), Kroměříž, Ceske Budejovice etc. The ossuary at Kutna Hora is a strange and interesting place, though the town itself is very 'Soviet' in appearance. I'll send her a link.
Please do share it, for I have literally many more of these cards at my office.
As to the region (South Bohemia) itself, if you found the ossuary at Kutna Hora 'strange', I recommend the Rosenberg Chapel at Hohenfurth Abbey (Vyšší Brod), which is one of the largest dynastic burial places I know: https://www.klastervyssibrod.cz/
As to the 'Soviet' appearances, well, yes, that's true, but it also has its 'benefits': virtually no-one lives in many of these small cities in Czechia, as the majority of people lives in 'Soviet'-style blocks a few kilometres away (it's the same in Pardubice, which I visited professionally a few weeks ago), but it also means that the old towns are kept quite nicely.
Yes, we've been to Pardubice too - we used to be able to fly in to the airport there but last time we went (August) they'd stopped those flights so we went via Brno (which also has some very nice bits).
Postcards are another genre that went from laborious beauty (lithograph prints) to bleakness (black-and-white photographs) and back to more beauty, albeit of a different kind (colour photographs). Mathematics textbooks are another example: from beautiful typesetting to typewriter plus handwritten formulas (in the 60s and 70s) to LaTeX.
This also affects virtually all other textbooks; incidentally, there's a huge research cluster, the so-called Georg Eckert Institute for Textbook Research (Schulbuchforschung) in Brunswick (if memory serves). Sadly, though, most scholars who study such textbooks focus on--History, even though I'd bet that other disciplines would yield (more) interesting results, esp. Biology textbooks (go and look for 'eugenics/genetics' sections throughout the 20th century).
Yes a wonderful footnote! Beautiful and fascinating in equal measures - thank you for sharing with us.
I'm glad you like them!
Very enjoyable. I would love to see more. My grandmother liked to collect things, and I still have a number of her postcards. (She didn't keep nearly as many as your grandfather did.) Mostly the postcards are from Europe, but there is one from New York in which both she and my grandfather appear. They were on a ferry and a photographer passed overhead to take a shot. My grandfather wasn't feeling well by that point in his life, so his head is downwards and his head covered by his hand. My grandmother, though, is looking straight up at the camera. I am not sure how she got a copy of the postcard.
This is so awesome--don't throw them away (if you ever think of getting rid of them, please mail them to me).
As to what one can find, well, I even found a card from Leningrad (now St Petersburg) where my grandparents went to in 1984, and that card is addressed to my parents. Small world (but also no coincidence my grandfather has that one in his collection).
I am very good at not throwing things away. (Maybe too good.)
Chiming in 3 months late, these beautiful lithographs and this photo
https://encyklopedie.ckrumlov.cz/img.php?img=1401&LANG=en
remind me of falling in love with the beautiful medieval architecture and local history that I saw in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy at the tender ages of 12 & 17. I somehow kept the beauty and profound history all tied up with the Christian West in my heart. Born in NYC of Austrian WWII refugees in the 1950's, life just exists among the ugly concrete infrastructure and pre-fab homes of the U.S.. Some parts of picturesque New England and some old but now trashed sections of NYC, Boston, and the Montpelier Vermont State Capitol bldg are reminders of historic meaningfulness. Mostly America is dreary as are the post WWII sections of European cities
I have longed to return though I had forgotten how striking was the impression of architecture designed by or on behalf of people of faith centuries ago. Your postcards remind me of my deep intention to visit beautiful middle and eastern Europe before the world blows up any further than it is doing presently.
More postcards always appreciated.
This is wonderful. Thank you.
Having never been anywhere (Lol) I relish the sight of “old” places. Historical places.
Huhum, I shall see if I can find some from overseas, i.e., places I've never been to!