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Adalbert is a forum for me, to post ephemera, photography, poetry, occasional travel notes, and various spontaneous motions. Cover photo: Parsonage where my great-grandfather spent his early years. Taken near Liegnitz, Silesia, ca. 1870. The "xothique" portion of the web address is a nod to Clark Ashton Smith's fictional continent of Zothique.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Breslau 1937

 
 


"Wroclaw not Breslau" doesn't have quite the same ring as "Istanbul not Constantinople."



6 comments:

  1. good song :).
    I've heard of Breslau, but I wasn't aware of the changed name.

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  2. The song's a little before my time, but amusing.
    Wroclaw (vrots-wahf) takes some practice but the Poles seemed to accept my pronunciation of it when I was there.

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  3. I thought this would interest you, Jonathan...I will post some of them soon.

    http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2010/ginsberg/#

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  4. Thanks for the tip, Ray, great stuff. I'd seen some of Ginsberg's photos before but not these ones.

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  5. I consider cities who have changed names highly fascinating. I found the location of the place shown on the postcard. The bridge in the background is the Kaiserbrücke, surprisingly enough it still exists today (named Most Grunwaldzki in Polish). I didn't know the song, strange song, apparently popular because a lot of covers have been made (a.o. by They Might Be Giants).

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  6. That is a strange song, not the typical pop song subject. You have a sharp eye as usual. I crossed the bridge when I visited Breslau/Wroclaw in 2009.

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