Collector Chronicles Berlin Through The Years

Amateur mounts personal exhibition of Berlin in maps, from 1738 through 1989 A part of central Berlin (the “Mitte” district) from an East German map publshed in 1989, as exhibited at Mirko Tamkus’s Berlin City Map archive. (…)

Amateur mounts personal exhibition of Berlin in maps, from 1738 through 1989

A part of central Berlin (the “Mitte” district) from an East German map publshed in 1989, as exhibited at Mirko Tamkus’s Berlin City Map archive. Of paraticular note is the near-total lack of detal beyond the Berlin Wall. (click to enlarge)

Few cities in the world have the history of the Cold War writ upon thier face quit like Berlin, Germany. Similarly, as the principal city of what could arguably be called one of the most militaristic nations of the early industrial age, Berlin has seen its share and more of history wash across its urban face.

A good example is the excerpted graphic above. The area to the left of the picture, beyond the Berlin Wall, is almost utterly bereft of detail, save for just a few important streets, an U-Bahn station or two, and the Tiergarten park can be seen (as well as the Soviet War memorial, just to the left of the Brandenburg Gate) but the Reichstag, located just above and to the right of the Gate, is nowhere to be seen.

If Berlin’s history interests you as much as it does us, then the site http://www.alt-berlin.info/\"> http://www.alt-berlin.info/, the Berlin City Map Archive, will be of definite interest. There, Mirko Tamkus is channelling his passion for maps and Berlin into a site where anyone can travel the years, in 26 steps, from 1763 to the year before the end of the Cold War, 1989.

This is a private, passionate effort by a hobbyist; each panel of each map is scanned, watermarked, and posted, accessable though a simple and direct intuitive interface. Donations are accepted and encouraged, and if anyone has Berliner cartographical ephemera they are encouraged to send it (or scans, if the owner can’t bear to part with the object) to Mirko for inclusion in the archive.

(Via The Map Room)

28 June 2006