Alsenbrücke in Berlijn 1868 - 1870

Editor: This is a stereo card photograph from between 1868 and 1870, titled "Alsenbrücke in Berlin," by Johann Friedrich Stiehm. It features a cityscape, focusing on a bridge in Berlin. The tones are muted, almost sepia, and it has a very formal, composed feeling. What strikes you about this image? Curator: It speaks to the rapid industrialisation and urban expansion of Berlin at the time. Bridges, in particular, hold significant symbolic weight, don’t they? They connect, overcome divisions, facilitate progress, and movement but this bridge in particular… look at its rigid lines and cold stone. Editor: That's true, there's something a bit stark about it. Curator: The gas lamps lining the bridge remind us of the rising urban landscape, bringing light into previously dark corners, both physically and metaphorically illuminating progress. But notice also the bare tree to the left. What symbolic message do you see there? Editor: It’s a stark contrast to the man-made structure. Maybe a sense of nature struggling to adapt in this new industrial environment? Curator: Precisely. Consider this: Berlin was rapidly transforming, becoming a powerful, unified capital. The photograph, presented as a stereo card for mass consumption, presents an ordered vision of progress. Do you see any figures within the scene? Editor: Just a few blurry ones in the distance, almost swallowed by the urban landscape. Curator: Their anonymity underscores the growing depersonalization inherent in a burgeoning metropolis. This image, ostensibly a simple cityscape, speaks volumes about cultural anxieties and aspirations. How do you perceive the connection between the bridge and its symbolic meanings now? Editor: I see it less as just a structure and more as a statement about ambition, and also about the potential loss of connection to nature as cities grow. Curator: Exactly. A tangible representation of a society grappling with modernization and its own identity.