Tag: Darmstadt

A Few Wise Words

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and some not so much.

“If you are a narcissist loving yourself you have at least the advantage of not having many rivals in your love.”

One of the many very witty and occasionally sharp aphorisms of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, a physicist and satirist who was one of the foremost European thinkers of the 18th century.

This wall stands in the middle of a little square, next to the Lichtenbergstraße in Darmstadt. I don’t know if it was purposely designed to invite others to add their thoughts or if sprayers just gravitate naturally to it. The slogans are mainly political (if crude) and their topicality suggest that the wall is at least occasionally scrubbed. I have no idea where the stag beetle comes in.

Photographing Public Art Challenge #34

A Great Disc

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I remember seeing this sculpture in Darmstadt and I saw it as a geometric structure, a circle filled with cubic shapes. It is located in front of the Staatstheater at the Georg-Büchner-Platz. It’s called Grande Disco, by Arnaldo Pomodoro.

The landmark of Darmstadt can be seen in the middle, a pictorial rendering of the Hochzeitsturm (wedding tower) which is also called the Fünf-Finger-Turm (five finger tower). This tower is a superb example of art nouveau architecture, a work all by itself.

However, when I prepared this post and I looked at the thumbnail of the photo, i.e. a very small version of the photo, all I could see was a flower.

Photographing Public Art Challenge #13

Rainbow alert

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A colourful house in Augsburg.

These domes are from Darmstadt, they are on the grounds of the Merck pharmaceutical and chemical company.

This is a house designed by the architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser from Bad Soden am Taunus.

Linked to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Colourful buildings.

CFFC

Long Louis

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Langer Ludwig

The central place in Darmstadt is the Luisenplatz with this 33 metre tall column supporting a bronze statue of Ludwig I, first Grand Duke of Hesse, erected in the middle of the 19th century.  The people of Darmstadt call it Langer Lui, meaning Long Ludwig, on account of its size (or length).

Today it is surrounded by buildings erected after the second world war as the centre of Darmstadt was almost completely destroyed in one night in 1944.  In the firestorm created by allied bombers approximately 11 ,000 to 12,500 of the inhabitants burned to death, and 66,000 to 70,000 were left homeless.  The palace behind the column was erased and in its place is now a shopping mall.

Langer Ludwig
Langer Lui

Ludwig from the bottom and almost at eye level from a neighbouring multi-storey car park.

Linked to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: things that are long.

 

Opposites

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67 monochrome

Grande Disco von Arnaldo Pomodoro

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nature vs art.  Plant vs metal. Curves vs straight lines.

A rose.

The centre of a sculpture called “Grande Disco”  by Arnaldo Pomodoro  in front of the Staatstheater in Darmstadt, Germany.

For One Word Sunday: monochrome.  More monochromatic photos can be found here.

 

 

A new building in town

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I came upon this odd structure yesterday.  It’s on a company’s ground which has just changed its corporate colours (flags everywhere!).   The bright colours urged me to fool around a bit.

For Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge. More oddballs can be found here.