THE BILDKARTEN OF HERMANN BOLLMANN

A G HODGKISS

University of Liverpool

ABSTRACT. The representation of surfaces in three-dimensions is a problem that has always intrigued cartographers. Early attempts to portray towns and cities in the 16th century used elevation as a technique. The oblique, perspective-like view came into use in the latter part of the century, and the method was later improved and enhanced. The modern plan is accurate, functional and correct, but perhaps less attractive than these early town plans. Herman Bollman has revived cartographic interest in 'bildkarten' through the production of a remarkable series of town plans over a period of nearly 25 years. In his brilliant series of plans, Herr Bollman has developed new methods in the production of perspective drawings and combines technique with the understanding of a master craftsman.

The representation of the three-dimensional aspects of towns and cities on a flat sheet of paper has, in a way similar to that of the spherical surface of the globe, presented centuries of mapmakers with thorny problems. Early works such as the Nuremhurg Chronicle (1493) of Hartmann Schedel and the Cosmographiae Universalis (1540) of Sebastian Mnster treated towns in elevation. Their portrayals were more or less panoramic town views which illustrated the vertical aspect only and, particularly if the town site was a fairly flat one, gave little or no suggestion of its layout. In the six volumes of Civitates Orbis Terrarum published between 1572 and 1618 Georg Braun and Frank Hogenberg used a variety of methods in their presentation on paper of the world's cities. Direct views in elevation were still used in some instances but were combined with oblique and bird's eye views, these being achieved by raising the viewpoint of the observer by varying degrees and looking down on to the towns from an angle (Figure 1). The bird's eye view method is the most attractive way of portraying a town and it has several advantages to offer the observer not only does it permit the extent of the town and its street layout to be clearly shown, but it also introduces the third dimension so that relative heights of the topography and of the buildings can be clearly shown as well as characteristics of the architecture. Remarkable examples of the bird's eye view technique are to be

found in the volumes of Zeiller's Topographiae published in Frankfurt-am-Main in the middle of the 17th century. These engravings were the work of the Swiss topographer Matthus Merian and are among the most valuable pictorial documents of the period. In our modern age, of course, towns and cities are almost invariably depicted in plan with the observer looking down from directly above any given point. Scale is consistent throughout and spatial relationships are always accurate. The town plan of this kind is therefore scientifically correct and admirably functional. It does, however, tend to be lacking in visual interest and it gives little impression of the settlement's appearance and character. It is refreshing, therefore, to find a modern German graphic artist reverting to the traditions of Merian and producing 'bildkarten' or picture-plans of towns which arc of considerable charm and artistry but are also drawn to scale and are as functional as the now conventional plan. The artist is Hermann Bollmann, born in Braunschweig in 1911, and it is perhaps inevitable that he should have been referred to as 'a modern Merian'. Before the onset of the Second World War Herr Bollmann was pursuing a career as a graphic artist and was especially skilled in wood engraving and wood carving. When called to the German armed forces Bollmann served in a survey mapping unit

A. G. Hodgkiss is Senior Technical Officer, Department of Geography, University of Liverpool and is responsible for the Cartographic Office. The author expresses his thanks to Herr Bollmann for permission to reproduce details from his plans and to Mr. D. H. Birch for his excellent photography of the colour originals. MS submitted April 1973. THE CANADIAN CARTOGRAPHER Vol 10 No 2 December 1973 pp 133-145

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Figure 1. Amsterdam. Perspective view by Braun and Hogenberg, 1574 until he was captured and interned in a prisoner-of-war camp. It was during this period of interment that Bollmann developed an interest in 'picture-maps' of towns and he occupied much of his time in planning production techniques for such plans which could be put into practice on his release. After the war, faced with the appalling devastation of many German cities, Bollmann conceived the idea of producing his plans at regular intervals in order that they might serve as historical documents which would illustrate the rebuilding of the shattered urban scene. This conception of his plans as 'historical documents' has remained the underlying aim of Bollmann's work and is well illustrated in the plans of his native city of Braunschweig. The first of these was prepared in 1948 as a spare-time task while he resumed his former full-time occupation as a graphic artist. It depicts the denuded city centre with vast open spaces and roofless buildings with the dominating mass of the Schloss open to the sky. In the 1954 plan Bollmann shows rebuilding well in hand, the derelict areas gradually being filled in with office blocks and flats. The railway and sidings which appear prominently in the 1948 plan have disappeared and the castle remains in its roofless state. In the 1958 plan we see the city centre almost completely renewed and by 1963 we see the task of rebuilding is accomplished and the shell of the castle has now been replaced by attractively-laid-out gardens. In these early days Herr Bollmann worked alone on his plans purely as a hobby while pursuing his main occupation of graphic artist. Working entirely at ground level he simply took out a light drawing board, hung around his neck with a cord for support, and meticulously drew in the picture of the town as it appeared before him, going into a wealth of architectural detail. At this time there had been no opportunity to use any photographic techniques and indeed he had not even considered their use. Before 1956 his method of working was to prepare accurate field

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Figure 2. Amsterdam. Bollmann plan, 1956. Size of original 71 x 88cm. sketches in the street and render them into fair drawings suitable for the printing press in the comfort of his home. The finished drawings were produced entirely free-hand, the artist deliberately dispensing with scales and other aids as he firmly believed that it is impossible to draw in true perspective with them. Bollmann, in fact, states that the perspective used in his plans is one which cannot be constructed but is most suitably described as an 'optical perspective'. This early method of work - sketching in the streets surrounded by large crowds of spectators, mostly mystified by the whole proceedings - continued until 1957 when the project had reached such proportions that the 'sketch and fair copy' method of operation proved altogether too time-consuming. The next development, in which Bollmann continued to work single-handed, was to draw directly for the printing press in the street, and incredible as it may seem if one studies the printed plans, the towns of Frankfurt, Osnabrck, Dsseldorf, Mnchengladbach, Hamburg and Siegen were mapped in this way. They are indeed the work of a master craftsman. 1960 was a decisive year for Hermann Bollmann; to implement the programme he envisaged meant that he must recruit coworkers. Perhaps not surprising in view of the high degree of skill required, it proved impossible to recruit colleagues capable of producing fair drawings in the street as Bollmann himself had done. Consequently, it was necessary to devise new methods and scientific techniques which would enable a team of workers to produce the same results in the studio as had formerly been achieved by a direct street rendering of the bird's eye view. It was clear that ground and aerial photography would have to be introduced. A Volkswagen was purchased, on the roof of which was mounted a camera with a wide-angle lens for ground photography while for aerial

Figure 3. Detail from New York (Central Manhattan), 1962

views Bollmann and his new assistants acquired a light plane and produced s p e cia1 cameras. By means of these new techniques Bollmann could now produce his town plans with remarkable speed. His most ambitious project, the extraordinary plan of Central Manhattan (Figure 3 ) , was produced in only eight months. I n this short space of time 17,000 aerial photographs and 50,000 ground shots were taken, the fair drawings made and the printing of the plan carried out. It is claimed that the average-sized town centre can be photographed from the aircraft in twenty minutes using the eight speciallydesigned cameras. Surprisingly, however, Hermann Rollmann states that the ground photoiraphs are the decisive factor in the making of his plans and that the aerial ones merely serve to implemenl them. All the co-workers, mainly drawn from outside the cartographic profession, were trained personally by Bollmann to draw freehdnd from the projected photographs without the aid of scale or straight edge Once the photographs have been taken, the whole process of production from drawing to final printing and binding is now carried out under one roof, unlike the early stages of Bollmann's career when the plans were printed by a commercial printing estdblishment. The plans themselves are normally supplied in tolded format with a decorative cover which includes highlighted details. A short printed text and street index are also provided.1 The plans are rendered doubly useful by having a conventional street plan, covering a much greater area than that of the bildkarte itself, printed on the reverse side. Small medieval towns such as Rothenburg and Dinkelsbiihl (Figure 4) lend themselves admirahly to the bildkarte treatment tor it is possible to portray the complete old town at a relatively large scale. In the case of large cities such as Hamburg and Diisseldorf

limitations of scale mean that only the heart of the town can appear. Nevertheless it is possible to portray the early nuclcus of thc towns together with the important commercial and shopping areas. In some instances large industrial complexes or harbour and river installations are portrayed. Bollman has now published plans of a considerable number of German towns and cities, large and small, as well as some towns in other countries, amongst them Zurich, Amsterdam and Luxcmbourg as well as the remarkable plan of Manhattan. The most recent plans have been of Aarhus in Denmark and of Jerusalcm, Bethlchem and Nazareth. Two hound volumes of Staedte (town-plans) have been published and a third is under way. In these handsomely-produced volumes [he concept of the plans as an historical document is fully explored for in several cases there are sets of plans of the same town drawn at regular inLervals. This concept is also evident in the separate publications, 'Dokumentation-Braunschweig' and 'DokumentationMiinstcr'. Thc plans in thcse collections appear at a reduced scale from the separate folded issues and similar reducedscale versions also appear in the annual calendar of Bollmann bildkarten. One of the most interesting of all the Bollmann productions is the Bildatlas des Landkreises Peine, a volume of striking village plans issued in 1966 to coincide with the centenary of the Peine Savings Bank. A further atlas Das Durener Land is being produced.
AF already stated, the plans are drawn in an optical perspective with the observer looking on to thc town from an angle. Scale does not diminish wilh distance, however. as in a conventional perspective draving. North is not necessarily placed at the top of each plan, the orientalion being chosen to suit individual towns and show them to greatest advantage.

'Obtainable from Bollmann-Bildkarten-Verlag KG, 33 Braunschweig, Lilienthalplatz 3.

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Figure 4. Dinkelsbhl, 1967. Size of original 55 X 64cm. Drawing is carried out with overlays for colour printing and the printing itself uses soft pastel shades, the choice of the dominant colour for a particular plan playing a large part in determining its visual attractiveness. This dominant colour is inevitably that used for the roofs of the buildings - the Hamburg plan, for example (Figure 5), is a happy blend of red-brown roofs for the great majority of the buildings with blue-green for the many churches and the larger public buildings such as the Town Hall and the great arched roof of the main railway station. On this Hamburg plan the streets are left white so that the layout stands out clearly and the water of the Alster and the River Elbe is pale blue. This particular sheet is a masterpiece of fine draughtsmanship with beautifully-detailed depiction of ecclesiastical architecture and a lively picture of the dockyards, landing stages of St. Pauli and the shipping in the Elbe. Craft of all types are shown in detail passenger vessels, barges, floating cranes, launches, repairs being carried out in the floating docks and vessels undergoing construction on the docks. All this, of course, is in addition to the street layout of the city. Two of the most pleasing Bollman plans are those of the old German cities of Lbeck and Bamberg. In each the layout of the heart of the old town is clearly seen and the warmth of the red tiled roofs blends beautifully with the delicate blue of the waterways. Luxembourg, on the other hand, is much less satisfactory, with a rather harsh blue as the dominant colour.

Figure 5. Detail from Hamburg, 1968 Nor does the great gorge separating the old part of the city from the newer sectors emerge so strikingly as one might have expected. The fine bridges and viaducts which are such a prominent feature of the city are, however, well displayed and the decorative border of the plan appears to be designed with these great viaducts in mind. The individual treatment of the borders is a particularly happy feature of Bollmann's designs and the border is often devised so as to reflect a particular feature of the town - Cologne and Trier are good examples with designs related to Roman antiquities while the port of Kiel has a border which immediately brings to mind the white sails of countless yachts. Most effective of all, perhaps, is the border of the Mainz plan which is made up of a regular wave pattern in blue to symbolise the Rhine and on it is a repetitive pattern of stylised river craft. The plan of Heidenheim has a border symbolising its industrial complexes and, taken as a whole, the treatment of the borders is a most exciting feature (Figure 6). Bollmann departs from realism only in his depiction of railways for which he adopts the conventional symbol of a double line with alternate black and white infilling. The reason for this is not clear but it may be that the artist felt that naturalistically drawn railways would be lost in the other map detail. Be that as it may the freehand drawing of intricate railway sidings and station approaches such as those at Zurich (Figure 7) is a tour de

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Figure 6. Examples of Bollmann's decorative treatment of borders: Upper - Kiel with a border suggesting the white sails of the yachting harbour. Centre - Trier, with border suggesting the Roman features of the city. Lower - Mainz, border symbolising the Rhine and river craft. force. Indeed there is much in the plans to interest the student of railway architecture from the portrayal of the great harbourside station of Amsterdam and the massive Hauptbahnhof in Hamburg to the delightful wayside stations of the small villages in the Peine district atlas. Bollmann is at his best in those features which incorporate considerable detail such as the large Voith engineering works in Heidenhetm and the superb cathedral of Ulm (Figure 8). This fine draughtsmanship is seen to great advantages in the bound volumes, Staedte, where details from the complete plans are reproduced in black and white at the large scale used for the original drawing. These details make admirable illustrations in themselves, reproduced as they are without colour or lettering, simply the original drawing as Bollmann made it in pencil on white Astralon. Boldness of drawing varies from plan to plan the clean and simple lines of the buildings on the plan of Soest contrast with the detailed faithfulness of Hamburg or Nrnberg. The drawing of trees is always well done and the plan of Rothentmrg with thickly wooded slopes of deciduous trees and some intermixed conifers is especially good in this respect. The Hanover plan includes a separate portrayal of the Schloss and formal gardens of Herrenhausen, resplendent with canals, flower beds, fountains, trees and geometrically planned avenues. In contrast, the plan of Mnchengladbach in-

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Figure 7. Detail from Zurich plan, 1968, showing approaches to main railway station. The railways are conventionally treated but drawn entirely freehand.

cludes a view of the rather uninspiring rows of parallel blocks of the NATO Headquarters. The commonest style of lettering used is an italic script which in some instances has to be very small indeed so as to accommodate the names of the narrowest streets. There is no absolute consistency on the Lbeck sheet, for instance (Figure 9), most public buildings, churches and

so on are labelled in the italic script and enclosed within a scroll but, for some reason, the Reformierte Kirche is labelled with a thin, condensed sans-serif. Prominent commercial and industrial enterprises are labelled with their distinctive trade marks, a feature perhaps a little out of keeping with the general conception of the plans but not over-obtrusive. Each plan is gridded with a system of index letters and numbers in the margins. These refer to

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Figure 8. Detail from Ulm, 1967, showing detailed architectural drawing of buildings and cathedral. a list of prominent buildings, industrial establishments etc. which is included in the accompanying booklet. The conventional plan which appears on the reverse is also gridded to enable streets to be quickly located. So much for the town plans, a series which brings the cities of Europe and elsewhere to life, and finally to Bollmann's Bildatlas des Landkreises Peine. This volume was published to accord with the centenary, 1866-1966, of the Kreissparkasse Peine and contains plans of the small town of Peine (situated approximately midway between Hannover and Braunschweig) and of the fifty-five villages in the Peine Landkreis. Each village plan is accompanied by a page of descriptive text and an attractive sketch of a village feature. The plans vary in size from approximately six inches by eight inches to folding maps of about twelve inches by eighteen or, in the case of lsburg and Peine, eighteen inches by twenty-five. All are reproduced at the scale of one hundred metres to one inch so that visual comparisons of extent and layout are easy. Each plan is printed in black and white with tones of a single colour overlaid, except in one or two cases where two extra colours are used. On the plans of larger towns Bollmann is most successful in the depiction of intricate detail but the village plans provide less scope for this aspect of his artistry and instead he has to turn his attention to devising textures to illustrate field patterns and crops. In this he has been much

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Figure 9. Detail of Lbeck plan, 1969, showing typical typography. more successful than in his treatment of lages). It is usually easy to pick out the open spaces on the town maps. The old nucleus of the village with its network method used is that of parallel lining with of winding streets often leading to the broken lines or with lines of dots, varying church, and the later development with the distance apart to give different inten- straight, wider roads, lined by villas and sities. Gardens are shown by the same semi-detached houses, leading away into method. Boundary fences are clearly indi- the countryside. Several villages in this cated and field names are often included area have a large number of half-timbered so that such names as 'Mhlenkamp', buildings - Eickenrode, as its name sug'Unter der Windmhle', 'Kleines Feld' can gests, being a good example. Eickenrode's be found, whereas on the plan of the main activity is indicated by its crest village of Stedum, which is split into two which appears on the map and depicts an completely separate portions, the fields oak tree with woodmen's axes, and in the separating the two sections are named north point where the actual pointer is an 'Zwischen den Drfern' (between the vil- oak leaf. The larger village of Hohen-

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Figure 10. Detail from village plan of Bierbergen. Bildatlas des Landkreises Peine, 1966.

hameln displays a variety of aspects - its centre of winding streets is well-wooded and the ready availability of timber is apparent once again in the many halftimbered buildings. These aspects would not, of course, be apparent from a con-

ventional plan. By the church of Hohenhameln with its tall spire and apse can be seen the Marktstrasse leading into Marktplatz and to the north, beyond the railway, is a sizeable industrial concern; to the west are extensive market gardens and glass-

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houses. Sporting activities are apparent on many of the village plans with the inevitable football field and some villages such as Gadenstedt rejoicing in open-air swimming pools. These village plans of the Peine district are of the greatest interest to any student of rural settlement, village layout or rural architecture and the whole volume testifies not only to the attractiveness of the villages themselves but also to the craftsmanship and industry of Hermann Bollmann. As a whole Bollmann's work combines artistry with usefulness and his plans provide an invaluable tool for planners, urban geographers and historians. For the tourist also they are indispensable for not only do they provide him with a clear and attractive guide to the town he visits but on his return home they help him to retrace his steps and bring his journeys back to life again. To the car-

tographer they offer superb draughtsmanship and design allied to accuracy and fine printing. Compared with a conventional street layout plan they are undoubtedly exciting and any cartographer familiar with Bollmann's work will surely look forward eagerly to his future publications. It might seem that his chief problem in the future will be to cope with all the possibilities which lie before him - in Europe alone there are so many towns and cities which are admirably suited to the Bollmann treatment - Siena, Lucca, Florence in Italy; Dubrovnik, Hvar, Korcula in Jugoslavia; innumerable towns in Holland; Bruges, Ghent in Belgium; the country towns and cathedral cities of England, where Bollmann's work is not as well known as it deserves to be. These represent only a few of the tasks which might be tackled by this outstanding artistcartographer.

RESUME. La reprsentation des surfaces en trois dimensions est un problme qui a toujours intrigu les cartographes. Les premires tentatives de reprsenter des villes au 16e sicle ont utilis l'lvation comme technique. La vision oblique, comme en perspective, est devenue en usage pendant la deuxime moiti du sicle, et la mthode a t mise en pratique et amliore par la suite. Le plan moderne est prcis, fonctionnel et exact, mais moins attrayant peut-tre que ces premiers plans urbains. Herman Bollman a redonn vie l'intrt cartographique dans les 'bildkarten' en constituant une remarquable srie de plans urbains qui couvre une priode de prs de 25 ans. Dans cette brillante srie de plans, Herr Bollman a invent de nouvelles mthodes de dessins en perspective et de nouvelles techniques combines l'art d'un matre artisan. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG. Die Darstellung von Oberflchen in drei Dimensionen ist ein Problem, das Kartographen schon immer gefesselt hat. Bei frheren Versuchen im 16. Jahrhundert, Stdte und Ortschaften abzubilden, benutzte man die Technik der Seitenansicht. Das perspektivische Schrgbild kam in der zweiten Hlfte des 16 Jahrhunderts auf, und dieses Verfahren wurde spter verbessert und erweitert. Der moderne Plan ist exakt, funklionell und korrekt aber doch nicht so attraktiv wie jene frheren Stadtplne. Hermann Bollmann hat das kartographische Interesse en "Bildkartcn" wiederbelebt durch die Produktion einer bemerkenswerten Reihe von Stadtplnen ber fast 25 Jahre hinweg. In seiner brillanten Planserie hat Herr Bollmann neue Methoden zur Herstellung von perspektivischen Zeichnungen entwickelt und vereint handwerkliche Fertigkeit mit dem Kunstverstndnis des Meisters. RESUMEN. La representacin de superficies en forma tridimensional es un problema que siempre ha intrigado a los cartgrafos. Los primeros intentes de representar pueblos y ciudades durante el siglo XVI, utilizaron la tenica de la elevacin. La forma oblicua, o la vista en perspectiva, comenz a utilizarse a fines del siglo y ms tarde el mtodo se mejor. El piano moderno es preciso, funcional y correcte, pero quizs menos atractivo que los primeros pianos de los pueblos. Herman Bollman ha vuelto a despertar inters en este tipo de cartas por medio de la produccin de una notable serie de pianos, Herr Bollman ha desarrollado mtodos nuevos en la produccin de dibujos en perspectiva y combina la tcnica con los conocimientos de un maestro.