Ebay photo find #1
Wintergarten's bomb damage
Every day new photos of Berlin from the Second World War days appear on many photography auction pages, some of them taken following bombing raids on the city, mostly from family albums.
One of the most interesting pics which appeared on the last days is this one from a military albums seller (not a cheap one) labelled as “Ecke Dorothen - Friedrichstr. Variete-Wintergarten”, a 1944-view of ruined Friedrichstraße and the corner entrance of the Wintergarten-Central Hotel with both sides of the street covered with debris from the air raids. Picture seems to be taken from Dorotheenstraße, with camera looking west. You can read the Wintergarten’s (Friedrichstr Nr 143-149) full story, one of Berlin’s best-known variety theatres located in the heart of the city, here.
Façade damage is evident, with most of the windows walled up for protection against bomb splinters; the building prominent dome is gone, destroyed by the continuous air attacks on the capital’s city centre. Quite interesting also because at that time taking photos of the destruction caused by enemy raid was prohibited by the Nazi regime. Take a look to the same corner at the end of the post, taken years before the war outbreak and see the differences between them.
From the same seller we can find another Friedrichstraße photo, again a 1944-view of the Hotel, seen from Dorotheenstr from the opposite side of the previous one, and one more labelled as “Berlin Friedrichstr 1944 Bombing Raid”, in this case with camera looking north (note Bhf’s railway bridge in the background) but sadly the picture is partly obscured by something (or a finger?). Of course, both of them could be dated most probably 1945 instead of the captioned “1944”.
Not far from there is this view of Dorotheenstraße full of rubble and debris, another picture taken in 1944 and auctioned by the same seller too.
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