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Images - Portraits of Ruins

By the end of the war, many official buildings either stood in ruins or had been stripped of their original function. Seidenstücker was fascinated by this transformation and turned to these buildings – which had typically only functioned as background elements in his prewar oeuvre – with new interest. As a result, his postwar photographs feature numerous prominent works of architecture, with burned-out castles, destroyed palaces, and bombed churches forming a central theme. Seidenstücker did not analyze these buildings in isolation, but sought rather to present them within their larger surroundings. One can glimpse, for example, street life and hints of nature between the ruins, as well as neighboring buildings.

List of Images