Scenes of street life on Potsdamer Platz from 1928 to 1934 are captured on glass negatives: the Potsdam train station, hotels and commercial buildings show the imperial capital’s splendour, while the Traffic Tower and Columbushaus lend it modern accents. The photographs date from the period following the end of the Weimar Republic, leading up to the year after the National Socialists came to power; they depict passers-by anonymous photographers captured with their cameras – or who posed for the picture. The images give evidence that this was a society in upheaval. 

In 1990, the museum acquired 135 silver gelatine plates measuring 9 x 12 cm, but the history of their creation and publication has still not been fully clarified. Stadt auf Glas (City on Glass) historically contextualizes the pictorial content and the location of Potsdamer Platz while posing questions concerning how to present historical analogue photographic negative material today. Various ways to make historical negatives visible are presented in a comparative manner and their respective implications discussed.