It may come as a surprise to some that colour photography goes back over a hundred years. The history of it is too long to do justice to it here, but is summarised in this recent book which presents a selection of postcard style pictures of Germany taken by various people from the early 1900s to the end of WW2.
The 380 photos on 224 A4 size pages cover a range of themes, some of which can still be experienced by today's tourists, and others which are now dated by various factors, particularly because the particular building was destroyed in the bombing raids of WW2. Other buildings in the eastern zone which were partly damaged and could have been restored, such as palaces and churches, were subsequently demolished by the communists for ideological reasons.
The book confines its coverage to Germany in its present borders and omits Silesia (Schlesien), Pommerania (Pommern) and East Prussia (Ost-Preussen) although the first is the theme of a separate small book.
Don't expect today's pin sharp images, but the softer romantic feel of a past world when life was simpler and less hurried.
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