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Pictures within a picture, or: Provenance!
I just discovered something I simply had to share...
As I had already mentioned elsewhere, my maternal grandfather had served as a career Infantry NCO in the German Army.
Among his belongings now kept by me were three black and white group photographs of soldiers standing in front of Frederick the Great's palace Sanssouci at Potsdam.
Two of the photographs were period framed in simple black wood frames with cardboard backing to the rear bearing the label of a Berlin shop, one had lost the frame, but - from the identical location, size, general condition and backing - can safely be assumed to have been originally mounted in the same way.
All three are very nice photographs, but nothing really exceptional and unfortunately the frames and backing are not in the best condition either:
Another item he had was this wall decoration from the 10th Company of Infantry Regiment 20, probably bought as a souvenir at the garrison's shop. (This was his initial unit in which he served from 30 March 1933 until his transfer to the 62nd Infantry Regiment on 15 October 1935.)
Now for the interesting bit:
Looking through some of his old photographs, I noticed something interesting: An image of a soldier (not my grandfather himself, but apparently one of his roommates/comrades) resting on his bunk in a corner whose walls are decorated with those exact same photographs and wall plaque!
Now, isn't that a neat little discovery?!
Last edited by HPL2008; 05-06-2011 at 09:52 PM.
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05-06-2011 03:42 PM
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Re: Pictures within a picture, or: Provenance!
Wow, what a realisation that must have been! You must do some reseach and find some more to the story, who is the sleeping soldier!
Nick
"In all my years as a soldier, I have never seen men fight so hard." - SS Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Bittrich - Arnhem
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Re: Pictures within a picture, or: Provenance!
Those heirlooms are priceless, and then seeing them in a period photo is unfathomable. Incredible family history that you can certainly be proud of H.P., thanks for sharing them with us. Have you been to Sanssouci? It would be a thrill to go stand in the exact same place your grandfather did when they took those photos if still possible today.
Jay
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Re: Pictures within a picture, or: Provenance!
by
sitges1990
Those heirlooms are priceless, and then seeing them in a period photo is unfathomable. Incredible family history that you can certainly be proud of H.P., thanks for sharing them with us. Have you been to Sanssouci? It would be a thrill to go stand in the exact same place your grandfather did when they took those photos if still possible today.
Unfortunately, I've never been there. I must admit that I have visited Berlin only twice so far, but both times without a side trip to neighboring Potsdam where the palace is. Sure enough, it can still be visited today:
http://feurstein.eu/berlin/sanssouci17m.jpg
http://feurstein.eu/berlin/Berlin03%20106m.jpg
(By the way: The two times I was at Berlin were in my last year of school back in 1987 - which was, of course, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German Re-Unification - and then on a holiday in 2006. As you can imagine, that was quite a contrast in many ways!)
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Re: Pictures within a picture, or: Provenance!
Beautiful palace, I'm glad it survived the war. Well H.P., add that photo in front of the palace to your bucket list. It's always nice to have a list of things to do.
Take care,
Jay
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