Exhibition on architectural photography opens at BTU on 5 May 2025

Around 80 photographs of buildings from the fields of education, culture and religion, as well as residential buildings and memorials from Saarbrücken and the Saarland, are on display. These include the German-French Grammar School in Saarbrücken, the Faculty of Philosophy at Saarland University and the Saarland University and State Library. Interested visitors will also discover interesting perspectives on the Saarland State Theatre, the synagogue in Saarbrücken and the Church of St. Albertus Magnus, for example. The contemporary architectural witnesses also include the "Neue Bremm" Gestapo camp memorial and the "Habitat Stockenbruch" civil servants' residence.

The photographs were taken as part of the International Research Studio on Architectural Photography in cooperation with the Chair of Architectural Conservation at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and the ENSA-Strasbourg National School of Architecture: 23 young academics from the fields of history, architecture and Architectural Conservation spent four days in September 2024 working intensively on reading and interpreting historical architectural photographs under the guidance of experts. Using cameras, they explored the potential of buildings as historical sources.

Anyone interested is cordially invited to the vernissage!
Monday, 5 May 2025, at 16:30
Information, Communication and Media Centre (IKMZ)
Foyer on the 7th floor
Platz der Deutschen Einheit 2, 03044 Cottbus
Followed by a tour of the exhibition on the 2nd floor.

Exhibition "You only know what you see" - Buildings and their images as a source of knowledge about Franco-German relations in Saarland after 1945

5 to 28 May 2025, during the opening hours of the IKMZ
on the 2nd floor of the building.

The architectural heritage provides access to knowledge about historical events and developments that textual sources alone often cannot offer. Architectural photography opens up the possibility of sensitising and sharpening the view of researchers and harnessing the potential of buildings as historical sources and research media for their own work. However, a trained eye is required to acquire this knowledge.

The photographs in the exhibition focus on the buildings of the occupation period in Saarbrücken (1945-55) as architectural testimonies to a key period in German post-war history and Franco-German relations. The results of the research studio have already been exhibited at the annual conference of the Deutscher Werkbund in Saarbrücken. The research studio was funded by the Franco-German University in Saarbrücken.