Die Erfindung des Ortsbildes

The German term “Ortsbild” – the visual character of a place – activates a whole bundle of ideas about well-ordered communal life. At the turn of the twentieth century, urban planning, heritage conservation, politics and society together made it the guiding concept of local development, and the notion of an “intact Ortsbild” still shapes debates about reconstruction, new building and demolition. Amid processes of rapid change, an Ortsbild is at once a cultural and physical marker of memory and a vision for the future, and can be invoked to justify preservation and transformation alike. Judith Sandmeier examines twelve such places and the aims of the actors involved, mapping the full range of scenarios around 1900 in Bavaria and its neighbouring regions: from the attempt to merge art, culture and industry in Munich and Nuremberg, through the stylisation of smaller towns such as Seßlach and Lindau, to urbanised villages such as Zirl and Oberammergau.