Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/11

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Subject: [Leica] Hannover on a hot Saturday afternoon
From: douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp)
Date: Sun Jun 11 03:57:08 2006

Be warned, quite a lot coming up - Glorious weather yesterday, and it 
still is, took a walk around the centre of town and took a few pictures 
of some of the "attractions"

Starting at the Opera
http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3961_edited_1  The 
figures around the top are Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller and co (strange 
- they didn't have much to do with opera, but King George was mad 
anyway), down Georgstrasse past the Holocaust Memorial 
http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3964_edited_1 which 
always looks out of focus on pictures (it isn't)
The sloping sides have the names of many Jewish residents of Hannover 
and neighbouring towns who were deported to more or less certain death 
in Riga, Auschwitz and Treblinka.
The Deutsche Bank, parts of this portal turn up in Kurt Schwitters 
"Merz" collages  
http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3967_edited_1  
Schwitters, born in Hannover, died in exile in the UK, is now buried in 
a cemetary in the North West of Hannover. The name Merz came from an 
inscription on another Hannoverian bank, and is part of the word 
"Commerz" (meaning commerce).
At the end of Georgstrasse, not far from Aegidientor Platz ( with the 
Hiroshima Memorial church ruin - next time)  is the Landesmuseum, 
everything is in there, Dinosaurs, paintings of Prussians (it was the 
museum of the Prussian Provincfe of Hannover after the Kings got kicked 
out) http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3972_edited_1. 
Behind where I was standing to take this shot is the Maschpark, this 
landscaped garden is one of my favourite combinations of gardening and 
architecture, as can be seen in the next four shots of the Rathaus, this 
one is called the "New" Rathaus, Hannover has two, the old one is in the 
Altstadt
http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3972_edited_1  
There's nothing wrong with my lens, the building really is bent - it was 
built on marshy ground on a platform of oak logs and it's sinking a bit 
at both ends. 
http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3975_edited_1  The 
interior of the green dome is unique in having a lift which runs on 
rails up the inside of the curved
dome, the floor of the lift is only level when you reach the viewing 
platform at the top. In a couple of weeks the water in the forground of 
this shot will be a carpet of water lilies - but then the reflection has 
gone. http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3988_edited_1 . 
The Ugly glass building on the right is the new Regional Bank, 
http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3990_edited_1 . 
Crossing the river, the Leine (Hannover comes from Am Hohen Ufer, 
meaning on the higher river bank) you reach the Wasserkunst,
this used to be a timbered, water powered mill and pumping station, very 
old and beautiful - it was pulled down in the mid-sixties. 
http://gallery.leica-users.org/New-Old-Pictures/MG_3993_edited_1
The Schloss is now the seat of the Parliament of Lower Saxony, the 
church on the right is the immense red-brick gothic Marktkirche. There's 
no pigeon guano on this church because a pair of Peregrine Falcons took 
up residence in the tower some years ago.
I'll comment on the following pictures when I've a bit more time
Comments criticism and questions about Hannover are more than welcome
cheers
Douglas

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