through a glass

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trees and windows are some constantly recurring subjects in my photography, so here is a new combination of both topics. shot during a wedding celebration in dachau palace (beeing not photographer-in-charge those deviations were allowed), i tried to make best use of that soft twilight shortly before sunset.

taken some minutes earlier than the lead shot, the shadows of the trees outside formed beautiful patterns on the facade of the old palace. generally i do love those soft, non-vivid and not at all gaudy colors up to monochromacity in color, but here the contrast between that strong, warm yellow and the (bavarian) blue sky is really pleasing to my eye.

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cafe, dachau

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dachau, situated approx. 40km away from munich, is a small town with a history: temporary domain of one of the well renowned bavarian writers, ludwig thoma, 1867-1921 (who unfortunately enough had a mostly pushed aside renommee as anti-semite) and site of the first nazi concentration camp in germany. the concentration camp is now a memorial place, and a majority of bavarian pupils have their first real exposure to 3rd-reich cruelty there.

the memories of ludwig thoma are conserved at least for economic reasons, and even 100 years later some houses there seem to have retained a bit of the look-and-feel of those days.

in a sense this is an attempted conservation of an aura that has lost its life and importance since a long time, but reading thoma's (non-political) books can fire one's imagination where his characters might come to life in an environment like these old houses.

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brewery window, dachau

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my stroll round dachau palace also led me to the brewery. the proximity to the palace itself is stunning, especially given the olfactoric annoyance a brewery can create. it seems though that the former rulers were not that sensible regarding smells.

the brewery is now in a quite derelict state, not used any more. here in bavaria the structure of the beer business has completely changed in the last 3 decades, pretty much all the beer is produced by large companies. wherever there is still local beer, people do like it very much, but only some of them are willing to pay a higher price for it. and economies of scale of course work in favour of the big ones, selling "aktienblempel". the latter is a colloquial term for low quality beer with a high return on interest, "aktie" being the german word for share.

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sky over bavaria

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maybe it's local patriotism only, but we bavarians are convinced that the sky over bavaria is something special, and so we do have the colors blue and white in our flag. a late winter evening, with the air on the brink of carrying the scent of rich soil, still not able to do so because of the partial snow cover, and with the winds having carried away the smoke and fog, suddenly can add a certain transparency (i lack a better word for this) and the sky develops that rich and warm blue, dotted with some feather like clouds just to make the blue and whites glow even more. and then one can forget for a moment being in a chatting crowd, just savoring these wonderful seconds.

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