29.03.24
 

Old Photographs

The book "Würselen, Bardenberg, Broichweiden History in Old Pictures" by Achim Großmann tells the story of the city and its districts through old photographs and postcards. Just because pictures don’t conceal their own story showing their stains and scratches and their handwritten greetings and personal remarks, they speak directly to the viewer. The Würselen of the early 20th century comes back to life - even without color, even without long explanations. It is worth looking at the images with leisure, to study them in a real way, to find the little things and details that make each individual picture unique. All of which is a little unusual considering today's media perfection. 

Denglish

Whenever there is text please be aware that it is a citation of older document written in the German of that time. It is sometimes hard enough of native German speaker to copy the meaning. And it nearly impossible to put the wording in plain English. We did not translate the text from scratch which means really begin writing in English. This would automatically result in 'better' English but it is rather time consuming. The shorter way is to use an automatic translater (here Microsoft or Google) to get a start. The translation is not that bad if it simple German. It is absolute confusing if it is old German wording. And what happens is that you can't get the bad translation out of your mind. The result is rather poor English with a lot of German word order. We are sorry for such 'Denglish'.

Selection

On 264 pages there are about as many pictures. A selection had to be made to be for webWürselen. This selection follows a simple criterion: Photos depicting only persons have been largely dispensed with. The reader may procure the original to look at it in its entirety collection of pictures. Against flipping in a book, clicking on a ‘forward’ button is just a fade replacement anyway.

Outdated Information

Please keep in mind that the book was written is the 1980ies. Therefore, some statements are outdated. New information is provided at the top of the page.

Chapters

Achim Großmann has divided the book into the following chapters:

  1. Greeting
  2. Preface
  3. Views and buildings
  4. Wurmtal
  5. Kindergartens, schools and social institutions
  6. Railway and post office
  7. Church life
  8. Industry, trade, crafts and agriculture
  9. May customs and ‘Jungenspiele’

Rules

The list states whether and how chapters were taken to webWürselen.

Some chapters are too long to dedicate a single website to them. Sub-points are therefore introduced in the menu.

The presentation of the pictures and texts on a website follows its own rules. The images were all rendered to a width, which allows them to be presented in full page width. The captions are taken into the flow text below the image. The sequence of the images is not changed. If images have not been taken over, this is usually not noted.

The three-column print is released in the one-column flow text. If necessary, additional paragraphs have been introduced.

If necessary and appropriate, comments and links are imported in some places, but they are clearly discontinued.

Please note the detailed references about the book "Würselen," the editor, the authors and the rights of exploitation on the Special page.