A paper-and-cardboard Freiburg

The old town of Freiburg - with the synagogue, theater, St. Martin’s Gate, the Old University, and Kollegiengebäude IV - which was then the university library - in a kind of 3D snapshot in 1920: This 1:275cm scale model, constructed of paper and cardboard and painted, is now on display as part of the permanent exhibition at the University of Freiburg’s Uniseum. Model maker Fabian Maier used city maps, postcards, and photographs in books and the Badische Zeitung newspaper to create the image. He modeled the buildings in every possible historical detail in an area of approximately 1.3 by 1.8 meters.

“We are delighted and would like to thank Fabian Maier for allowing us to exhibit this magnificent model on permanent loan to the Uniseum,” says Rector Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen Schiewer. “Visitors can get a remarkable impression of how much the university center and the center of Freiburg have changed within a century. Architectural highlights like our university library have been added, and other buildings have disappeared - reminding us of the darkest hours of German history; a painful remembrance underlined in particular by the synagogue, which is shown in the model, but which was burned to the ground in 1938.”

Fabian Maier, born in Freiburg in 1991, has been building models as a hobby for 20 years. His latest project is an Eiffel Tower made of matchsticks.


Contact:
Professor Dieter Speck
University Archive
University of Freiburg
Phone: 0761/203-3831
E-Mail: dr.speck@uniarchiv.uni-freiburg.de