Hermann Bollmann

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 Nurem-hurg Chronicle (1493) of Hartmann Sche-del and the Cosmographiae Universalis (1540) of Sebastian Münster 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 Ter-rarum 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 Topo-graphiae published in Frankfurt-am-Main in the middle of the 17th century. These engravings were the work of the Swiss topographer Matthäus 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

134 A G HODOKISS

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

HERMAN BOLLMAN'S TOWN PLANS 135

Figure 2. Amsterdam. Bollmann plan, 1956. Size of original 71 x 88cm.

sketches in the street and render theminto fair drawings suitable for the printingpress in the comfort of his home. Thefinished drawings were produced entirelyfree-hand, the artist deliberately dispensingwith scales and other aids as he firmlybelieved that it is impossible to draw intrue perspective with them. Bollmann, infact, states that the perspective used in hisplans is one which cannot be constructedbut is most suitably described as an 'opti-cal perspective'. This early method of work- sketching in the streets surrounded bylarge crowds of spectators, mostly mysti-fied by the whole proceedings - continueduntil 1957 when the project had reachedsuch proportions that the 'sketch and faircopy' method of operation proved alto-gether too time-consuming. The next de-velopment, in which Bollmann continuedto work single-handed, was to draw direct-ly for the printing press in the street, andincredible as it may seem if one studiesthe printed plans, the towns of Frankfurt,

Osnabrück, Düsseldorf, Mönchengladbach,Hamburg and Siegen were mapped in thisway. They are indeed the work of a mastercraftsman.

1960 was a decisive year for HermannBollmann; to implement the programme heenvisaged meant that he must recruit co-workers. Perhaps not surprising in view ofthe high degree of skill required, it provedimpossible to recruit colleagues capable ofproducing fair drawings in the street asBollmann himself had done. Consequently,it was necessary to devise new methodsand scientific techniques which would en-able a team of workers to produce thesame results in the studio as had formerlybeen achieved by a direct street renderingof the bird's eye view. It was clear thatground and aerial photography wouldhave to be introduced. A Volkswagen waspurchased, on the roof of which wasmounted a camera with a wide-angle lensfor 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. In 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 specially- designed 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 out- side 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 sup- plied 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 rela- tively 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. Neverthe- less 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 Luxcm- bourg as well as the remarkable plan of Manhattan. The most recent plans have been of Aarhus in Denmark and of Jeru- salcm, 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 in- Lervals. This concept is also evident in the separate publications, 'Dokumenta- tion-Braunschweig' and 'Dokumentation- Miinstcr'. Thc plans in thcse collections appear at a reduced scale from the separate folded issues and similar reduced- scale versions also appear in the annual calendar of Bollmann bildkarten. One of the most interesting of all the Bollmann productions is the Bildatlas des Land- kreises 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 orienta- lion 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. Dinkelsbühl, 1967. Size of original 55 X 64cm.

Drawing is carried out with overlays forcolour printing and the printing itself usessoft pastel shades, the choice of the domi-nant colour for a particular plan playinga large part in determining its visual at-tractiveness. This dominant colour is in-evitably that used for the roofs of thebuildings - the Hamburg plan, for ex-ample (Figure 5), is a happy blend ofred-brown roofs for the great majority ofthe buildings with blue-green for the manychurches and the larger public buildingssuch as the Town Hall and the greatarched roof of the main railway station.On this Hamburg plan the streets are leftwhite so that the layout stands out clearlyand the water of the Alster and the RiverElbe is pale blue. This particular sheet isa masterpiece of fine draughtsmanship

with beautifully-detailed depiction ofecclesiastical architecture and a lively pic-ture of the dockyards, landing stages ofSt. 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 thefloating docks and vessels undergoing con-struction on the docks. All this, of course,is in addition to the street layout of thecity. Two of the most pleasing Bollmanplans are those of the old German citiesof Lübeck and Bamberg. In each the lay-out of the heart of the old town is clearlyseen and the warmth of the red tiled roofsblends beautifully with the delicate blueof the waterways. Luxembourg, on theother hand, is much less satisfactory, witha rather harsh blue as the dominant colour.

Figure 5. Detail from Hamburg, 1968

Nor does the great gorge separating theold part of the city from the newer sectorsemerge so strikingly as one might haveexpected. The fine bridges and viaductswhich are such a prominent feature of thecity are, however, well displayed and thedecorative border of the plan appears tobe designed with these great viaducts inmind. The individual treatment of theborders is a particularly happy feature ofBollmann's designs and the border is oftendevised so as to reflect a particular featureof the town - Cologne and Trier are goodexamples with designs related to Romanantiquities while the port of Kiel has aborder which immediately brings to mindthe white sails of countless yachts. Mosteffective of all, perhaps, is the border ofthe Mainz plan which is made up of a

regular wave pattern in blue to symbolisethe Rhine and on it is a repetitive patternof stylised river craft. The plan of Heiden-heim has a border symbolising its indus-trial complexes and, taken as a whole, thetreatment of the borders is a most excitingfeature (Figure 6).

Bollmann departs from realism only inhis depiction of railways for which headopts the conventional symbol of adouble line with alternate black and whiteinfilling. The reason for this is not clearbut it may be that the artist felt thatnaturalistically drawn railways would belost in the other map detail. Be that as itmay the freehand drawing of intricate rail-way sidings and station approaches suchas those at Zurich (Figure 7) is a tour de

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Figure 6. Examples of Boll-mann's decorative treatment ofborders:Upper - Kiel with a border sug-gesting the white sails of theyachting harbour.Centre - Trier, with border sug-gesting the Roman features ofthe city.Lower - Mainz, border symbol-ising the Rhine and river craft.

force. Indeed there is much in the plansto interest the student of railway architec-ture from the portrayal of the great har-bourside station of Amsterdam and themassive Hauptbahnhof in Hamburg tothe delightful wayside stations of thesmall villages in the Peine district atlas.Bollmann is at his best in those featureswhich incorporate considerable detail suchas the large Voith engineering works inHeidenhetm and the superb cathedral ofUlm (Figure 8). This fine draughtsman-ship is seen to great advantages in thebound volumes, Staedte, where detailsfrom the complete plans are reproducedin black and white at the large scale usedfor the original drawing. These detailsmake admirable illustrations in themselves,

reproduced as they are without colour orlettering, simply the original drawing asBollmann made it in pencil on whiteAstralon. Boldness of drawing varies fromplan to plan — the clean and simple linesof the buildings on the plan of Soestcontrast with the detailed faithfulness ofHamburg or Nürnberg. The drawing oftrees is always well done and the plan ofRothentmrg with thickly wooded slopesof deciduous trees and some intermixedconifers is especially good in this respect.The Hanover plan includes a separateportrayal of the Schloss and formal gar-dens of Herrenhausen, resplendent withcanals, flower beds, fountains, trees andgeometrically planned avenues. In con-trast, the plan of Mönchengladbach in-


Figure 7. Detail from Zurichplan, 1968, showing approachesto main railway station. The rail-ways are conventionally treatedbut drawn entirely freehand.

cludes a view of the rather uninspiringrows of parallel blocks of the NATOHeadquarters.

The commonest style of lettering usedis an italic script which in some instanceshas to be very small indeed so as toaccommodate the names of the narroweststreets. There is no absolute consistency -on the Lübeck sheet, for instance (Figure9), most public buildings, churches and

so on are labelled in the italic script andenclosed within a scroll but, for somereason, the Reformierte Kirche is labelledwith a thin, condensed sans-serif. Promi-nent commercial and industrial enterprisesare labelled with their distinctive trademarks, a feature perhaps a little out ofkeeping with the general conception of theplans but not over-obtrusive. Each plan isgridded with a system of index letters andnumbers in the margins. These refer to

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Figure 8. Detail from Ulm,1967, showing detailed architec-tural drawing of buildings andcathedral.

a list of prominent buildings, industrialestablishments etc. which is included inthe accompanying booklet. The conven-tional plan which appears on the reverseis also gridded to enable streets to bequickly located.

So much for the town plans, a series whichbrings the cities of Europe and elsewhereto life, and finally to Bollmann's Bildatlasdes Landkreises Peine. This volume waspublished to accord with the centenary,1866-1966, of the Kreissparkasse Peineand contains plans of the small town ofPeine (situated approximately midway be-tween Hannover and Braunschweig) andof the fifty-five villages in the PeineLandkreis. Each village plan is accom-panied by a page of descriptive text and

an attractive sketch of a village feature.The plans vary in size from approximatelysix inches by eight inches to folding mapsof about twelve inches by eighteen or, inthe case of Ölsburg and Peine, eighteeninches by twenty-five. All are reproducedat the scale of one hundred metres to oneinch so that visual comparisons of extentand layout are easy. Each plan is printedin black and white with tones of a singlecolour overlaid, except in one or twocases where two extra colours are used.On the plans of larger towns Bollmann ismost successful in the depiction of intri-cate detail but the village plans provideless scope for this aspect of his artistryand instead he has to turn his attentionto devising textures to illustrate field pat-terns and crops. In this he has been much


Figure 9. Detail of Lübeck plan,1969, showing typical typo-graphy.

more successful than in his treatment ofopen spaces on the town maps. Themethod used is that of parallel lining withbroken lines or with lines of dots, varyingthe distance apart to give different inten-sities. Gardens are shown by the samemethod. Boundary fences are clearly indi-cated and field names are often includedso that such names as 'Mühlenkamp','Unter der Windmühle', 'Kleines Feld' canbe found, whereas on the plan of thevillage of Stedum, which is split into twocompletely separate portions, the fieldsseparating the two sections are named'Zwischen den Dörfern' (between the vil-

lages). It is usually easy to pick out theold nucleus of the village with its networkof winding streets often leading to thechurch, and the later development withstraight, wider roads, lined by villas andsemi-detached houses, leading away intothe countryside. Several villages in thisarea have a large number of half-timberedbuildings - Eickenrode, as its name sug-gests, being a good example. Eickenrode'smain activity is indicated by its crestwhich appears on the map and depicts anoak tree with woodmen's axes, and in thenorth point where the actual pointer is anoak leaf. The larger village of Hohen-

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Figure 10. Detail from villageplan of Bierbergen. Bildatlas desLandkreises Peine, 1966.

hameln displays a variety of aspects - itscentre of winding streets is well-woodedand the ready availability of timber is ap-parent once again in the many half-timbered buildings. These aspects wouldnot, of course, be apparent from a con-

ventional plan. By the church of Hohen-hameln with its tall spire and apse can beseen the Marktstrasse leading into Markt-platz and to the north, beyond the railway,is a sizeable industrial concern; to the westare extensive market gardens and glass-


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, Kor-cula 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 artist-cartographer.

RESUME. La représentation des surfaces en trois dimensions est un problème qui a toujours intrigué les cartographes. Les premières tentatives de représenter des villes au 16e siècle ont utilisé l'élévation comme technique. La vision oblique, comme en perspective, est devenue en usage pendant la deuxième moitié du siècle, et la méthode a été mise en pratique et améliorée par la suite. Le plan moderne est précis, fonctionnel et exact, mais moins attrayant peut-être que ces premiers plans urbains. Herman Bollman a redonné vie à l'intérêt cartographique dans les 'bild-karten' en constituant une remarquable série de plans urbains qui couvre une période de près de 25 ans. Dans cette brillante série de plans, Herr Bollman a inventé de nouvelles méthodes de dessins en perspective et de nouvelles techniques combinées à l'art d'un maître artisan.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG. Die Darstellung von Oberflächen in drei Dimensionen ist ein Problem, das Kartographen schon immer gefesselt hat. Bei früheren Versuchen im 16. Jahrhundert, Städte und Ortschaften abzubilden, benutzte man die Technik der Seitenansicht. Das perspek-tivische Schrägbild kam in der zweiten Hälfte des 16 Jahrhunderts auf, und dieses Verfahren wurde später verbessert und erweitert. Der moderne Plan ist exakt, funklionell und korrekt aber doch nicht so attraktiv wie jene früheren Stadtpläne. Hermann Bollmann hat das kartographische Interesse en "Bildkartcn" wiederbelebt durch die Produktion einer bemerkenswerten Reihe von Stadtplänen über fast 25 Jahre hinweg. In seiner brillanten Planserie hat Herr Bollmann neue Methoden zur Herstellung von perspektivischen Zeichnungen entwickelt und vereint handwerk-liche Fertigkeit mit dem Kunstverständnis des Meisters.

RESUMEN. La representación de superficies en forma tridimensional es un problema que siempre ha intrigado a los cartógrafos. Los primeros intentes de representar pueblos y ciudades durante el siglo XVI, utilizaron la téenica de la elevación. La forma oblicua, o la vista en perspectiva, comenzó a utilizarse a fines del siglo y más tarde el método se mejoró. El piano moderno es preciso, funcional y correcte, pero quizás menos atractivo que los primeros pianos de los pueblos. Herman Bollman ha vuelto a despertar interés en este tipo de cartas por medio de la producción de una notable serie de pianos, Herr Bollman ha desarrollado métodos nuevos en la producciôn de dibujos en perspectiva y combina la técnica con los conocimientos de un maestro.

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