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Lilienthal, Otto
(1848-1896)Otto Lilienthal flying near Berlin, Rhinower Berge

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Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts
Auktionsdatum 5.6.2024

Photographer: Alex Krajewski (Court photographer of Prince Aribert von Anhalt, active in Berlin, 1890s). Otto Lilienthal flying one of his gliding planes near Berlin, Rhinower Berge, Germany. 1893. Vintage collodion paper print. 15,2 x 20,9 cm. Mounted to original ornamental board (slight traces of use).

The evolution of photography and aviation shares interesting similarities. In 1884, Ottomar Anschütz began capturing images of storks in flight, marking the first momentary snapshots in the history of photography. By 1890, he developed the "Tachyscope," displaying sequential images of people and animals in motion, which gained popularity at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, highlighting advancements in transportation and industry through widely distributed photographs. In 1891, Otto Lilienthal initiated his flight experiments, lasting five years until his unfortunate death in 1896, due to a flight accident. During this period, photographers such as Ottomar Anschütz, Carl Kassner, Richard Neuhauss, and Alex Krajewski documented Lilienthal's flights near Berlin. These images often circulated as photo postcards and served as crucial documentation for Lilienthal. Unfortunately, the glass negatives of Lilienthal's photographs, archived in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, were destroyed during WWII. This particular image, part of a series by Alex Krajewski capturing Lilienthal's flights in the Rhinow Hills near Berlin, is exceptionally rare in its large format and good condition, with only eight images from this series preserved in the photo archives of the Otto Lilienthal Museum in Anklam. – Slight surface rubbing and surface soiling, otherwise in very good condition.

Lit.: Published in Prometheus. Illustrierte Wochenschrift über die Fortschritte in Gewerbe, Industrie und Wissenschaft. 4. Jg., No. 220. Berlin 1893, ill. p. 184 (no. 87).