Albertz 
23 
Albrecht Meydenbauer - Pioneer of Photogrammetric Documentation of the Cultural Heritage 
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Fig. 11: One of the two original Meydenbauer cameras that survived in 
Switzerland. This camera has been on display during the Symposium 
C1PA 2001. 2) 
After World War I the development in Germany was characterized by 
political changes and economic difficulties. In this situation als the status 
of the institute was changed. After 1920 photogrammetric operations 
were reduced to a minimum. The name of the institute was changed to 
»Staatliche Bildstelle« (Public Institute for Images). Its main function 
was to earn money by selling photographs for general purposes (such as 
publications about art history, postcards etc.) in cooperation with a 
private editor. To a certain extent also the historical images were used 
for such purposes, and many of them suffered from this usage. 
4. MEYDENBAUER AND CULTURAL HERITAGE 
DOCUMENTATION 
Albrecht Meydenbauer was a visionaire and thuis much more than a 
photogrammetrist. His plans were to expand the photogrammetric 
institute for Prussia to a cultural heritage archive for all Germany. 
Therefore his concern was to propagate this idea by lectures and printed 
media, and he did this with great emphasis, ft is really impressive to see, 
that he was aware of upcoming risks for cultural objects already very 
early. 
One of his main publications in this context was an article, printed for the first time in 1894 in a periodical for architecture: »Ein 
Deutsches Denkmalerarchiv« (A German Cultural Heritage Archive). Two years later, in 1896, he distributed a revised edition of this 
article as a memorandum entitled »Das Denkmaler-Achiv und seine Herstellung durch das Messbild-Verfahren« (The Cultural 
Heritage Archive and its Creation by Photogrammetry). He argued that written or other cultural heritage documents are preserved in 
archives and museums, whereas the built heritage remains unprotected and exposed to natural erosion processes. He continues »Was 
die Natur nicht fertig bringt, vollendet oft unheimlich schnell der Unverstand und der alles vor sich niederwerfende Verkehr« (What 
nature does not make, is often destroyed extremely fast by stupidity and by the traffic throwing down everything). At the time of 
these statements, just a few early automobiles were operated! Meydenbauer has not foreseen - at least not mentioned - military 
actions. Probably he could not imagine that in two World Wars and many other military conflicts such immense numbers of our 
cultural heritage objects would be destroyed or heavily damaged. In his memorandum Meydenbauer described the appropriate 
techniques for acquisition and archiving, and also the usage of the metric photographs for various purposes. And he estimates that it 
should be possible to document the most important cultural monuments for all Germany within 12 or 15 years. 
ft must have been disappointing for Meydenbauer, that his memorandum did not cause the reactions he expected. It was left 
unnoticed by the members of the government and the German parliament. In 1905, when his Prussian institute celebrated its 
twentieth anniversary, he made a new attempt to propagate a cultural heritage archive for Germany. This proposal was again 
unsuccessful, he received only meaningless answers from the ministers. In 1909 - Meydenbauer was already 75 years old - he 
resigned and stepped down from his office as the director of the ‘Royal Prussian Photogrammetic Institute’. 
5. THE HISTORY OF THE MEYDENBAUER ARCHIVE 
The great number of survey photographs, collected in about 35 years of actitivity of the institute, have been stored in special shelfs. 
In 1933 the material was removed for the first time, because the institution changed to another building nearby. But soon its real 
Odyssey was coming up. During World War II the complete collection was first transported for safety reasons to a cellar in the 
Palace of Berlin. Because of increasing aerial attacks on Berlin, in 1944 the material was again displaced and stored in the shaft of a 
former potash mine about 150 km from Berlin. 
In 1945 the Sowjet Army put the collection in »safekeeping« and brought the material - alltogether 935 wooden boxes - to Moscow, 
where it arrived in July 1946. 56 boxes, the content of which is still unknown, were brought to an art museum. The remaining 879 
boxes with the photoplates were handed over to the museum of the Academy for Architecture and Building where the material was 
well treated. In 1958 these boxes were given back by the Sowjets to the government of the German Democratic Republic. 
Unfortunately catalogues and also the camera calibration and measuring documents were not part of this materials, and are therefore 
still missing. 
In the »Kunstgeschichtliche Bildstelle« (Art-historical Photo Archive) of the Humboldt University of Berlin the negatives were 
identified and an index was prepared. The archive was stored in three floors of a building near the city center of Berlin. In 1968 the 
Meydenbauer negative archive was took over by the »Institut für Denkmalpflege der DDR« (Institute for Monument Preservation of 
the GDR). In this context a new photogrammetric institution, called »Meßbildstelle« (Photogrammetric Institute), was established in 
the tradition of Meydenbauers institute. It has been assigned to provide photogrammetric services in the field of monument 
preservation. From now on, also the historical photographs gained great importance in the restoration of monuments in the GDR.