Ten of the twelve prints · two more family views

The Halberstadt they kept

Dolf and Mutti loved Halberstadt—the look of its streets, the closeness of its houses, the feeling of the city itself. Long after their lives there had ended, these pictures remained in the family.

A prewar Halberstadt street opening toward the Fischmarkt, with an archway and dark masonry at left, a horse-drawn cart, pedestrians, half-timbered houses and a large civic building beyond

Why these pictures stayed

They kept the city close.

A cart passes beneath an arch. Tram rails curve through the Hoheweg. People walk, cycle, work and look into shop windows while the old timber-framed houses lean over the streets. These are not distant monuments. They are views of a city being lived in.

Walter Gemm understood that feeling. Halberstadt remembers him as a “chronicler with pen and brush,” an artist whose pictures kept the old city present in homes around the world. In this family, they did exactly that.

The prints are worn now. Some are stained by water; some are foxed; some edges have begun to crumble. They are shown as the family kept them, with that history still visible.

The print in the archive →

Why my family held on to them

Dolf and Mutti loved Halberstadt. Walter Gemm captured the way the city looked and felt, and my family held on to these pictures through all these years.

Daniel Reichenbach, 2026

Ten prints now shown

The city in streets, windows and people

Eight prints kept by my father were the beginning. Two more from the family set are now shown here: Judenstraße and Hinter dem Richthaus, both by Walter Gemm.

Six of the ten pictures are by Gemm. The others are by Käthe Lipke, Edwin Schiel, A. Thiemann and Walter Ebeling. The earlier scans retain their worn sheet edges; the two new photographs show the prints in their mounts.

Color print of the narrow half-timbered Stelzfuß house in Halberstadt supported above a passage, with pedestrians, a horse cab and church spires behind — This color portfolio sheet bears Käthe Lipke’s signature and shows the building known as Der Stelzfuß. Her hand proves that the family’s portfolio included artists besides Walter Gemm. The work is securely identified, but the cropped plate number and acquisition history remain open.RB-SCAN-042

Dense black line print of old half-timbered houses and shopfronts in Halberstadt's Gerberstraße, with a boxed AT monogram — This high-contrast portfolio sheet bears A. Thiemann’s boxed AT monogram. The family kept it among the postwar views of Halberstadt, where it broadens the portfolio beyond Walter Gemm. The title is secure from the contents list, but browning, edge losses and the cropped number remain visible.RB-SCAN-046

Walter Ebeling print of the entrance to the Lichtengraben in Halberstadt, with half-timbered shops, a staircase, a laborer carrying a long beam and a column at right — Walter Ebeling's view shows shopfronts, steps and a worker carrying a long beam. Comparison with plate 6 and the contents leaf of a complete Halberstadt am Harz portfolio identifies Eingang zum Lichtengraben and corrects the earlier tentative attribution to Walter Gemm.RB-SCAN-045

Matted Walter Gemm print of Halberstadt's narrow Judenstraße, with timber-framed houses, an overhead passage, a hanging lantern and people in the lane and a doorway — Judenstraße · Walter Gemm · 1945RB-SCAN-051

Walter Gemm print of a long Halberstadt street lined with half-timbered shops, tram rails curving toward a church spire — This portfolio view shows tram rails, shopfronts and a church tower drawing the street into the distance. Walter Gemm signed and dated the sheet, and the family kept it after the war. It probably matches the title “Der Hoheweg,” but the cropped plate number leaves that match dependent on image and contents list together.RB-SCAN-044

Matted Walter Gemm print of a curving cobbled Halberstadt street behind the Richthaus, with half-timbered shopfronts, an ornate projecting bay and people talking at the right — Hinter dem Richthaus · Walter Gemm · c. 1945–1946RB-SCAN-052

Detailed line drawing of half-timbered buildings around Königs Hotel and the Ratskeller in Halberstadt, signed Schiel 45 — This portfolio sheet bears Edwin Schiel’s 1945 signature and shows Königs Hotel, the Ratskeller and adjoining timber-framed buildings. His close linework preserves a part of Halberstadt later altered by destruction and rebuilding. The title is secure from the contents list, but no separate printed title survives on the sheet.RB-SCAN-043

Walter Gemm print of a busy narrow Halberstadt street with pedestrians, bicycles and a handcart, inscribed Das Gewerkschaftshaus in Halberstadt — This damaged portfolio sheet bears Walter Gemm’s full signature and his inscription “Das Gewerkschaftshaus in Halberstadt.” The contents list calls the same image “Die Gerberstraße,” so both titles remain with the object. The staining and missing corners are preserved, and neither title is silently discarded.RB-SCAN-047

Walter Gemm print of Halberstadt's Rathaus staircase beside the armored Roland figure, with half-timbered buildings, pedestrians and a horse cart — This portfolio sheet shows Halberstadt’s Rathausfreitreppe and Roland amid the traffic of the old city. Gemm made the view, and the family kept it with the postwar portfolio. The landmarks secure the title, but the cropped plate number and the portfolio’s acquisition history remain open.RB-SCAN-048

Ten views from a set of twelve

The complete portfolio has twelve.

Seven pictures in the complete portfolio are by Gemm. Five more are by Ernst Datan, Käthe Lipke, A. Thiemann, Walter Ebeling and Edwin Schiel. Together they made a portrait of the Halberstadt that had just been devastated.

We can now show ten of the twelve prints. Holzmarkt zu Halberstadt by Walter Gemm and Fischmarkt by Ernst Datan are the two views not yet photographed in our family collection.

1. Holzmarkt zu Halberstadt · Walter GemmNot yet photographed in the family collection
2. Blick zum Fischmarkt · Walter GemmIn the family collection · See this print
3. Fischmarkt · Ernst DatanNot yet photographed in the family collection
4. Der Stelzfuß · Käthe LipkeIn the family collection · See this print
5. Alte Häuser in der Gerberstraße · A. ThiemannIn the family collection · See this print
6. Eingang zum Lichtengraben · Walter EbelingIn the family collection · See this print
7. Judenstraße · Walter GemmIn the family collection · See this print
8. Der Hoheweg · Walter GemmIn the family collection · See this print
9. Hinter dem Richthaus · Walter GemmIn the family collection · See this print
10. Fachwerkbau — Der alte Ratskeller · Edwin SchielIn the family collection · See this print
11. Die Gerberstraße / Das Gewerkschaftshaus · Walter GemmIn the family collection · See this print
12. Rathausfreitreppe · Walter GemmIn the family collection · See this print

Another Halberstadt the family kept · 1926

Walter Gemm had painted this city before.

The framed work already in the family is not one of the prints. It is an original Walter Gemm painting, signed and inscribed “Halberstadt 1926.”

It looks across the marketplace or Holzmarkt toward the Martinikirche, Rathaus, fountain and Roland—nearly twenty years before the portfolio, and before so much of the city was lost.

Framed original painting by Walter Gemm of Halberstadt's marketplace or Holzmarkt with the Martinikirche, Rathaus, fountain and Roland in winter — This family-held painting shows Halberstadt’s civic center with the Rathaus, Martinikirche, fountain and Roland. Walter Gemm signed and dated the work, and the family kept it framed. The image identifies the artist and place, but the medium, support and path into the family remain unexamined.RB-PHO-0211

The city before it was lost

The painting and the prints hold two moments together: Halberstadt as Gemm painted it in 1926, and the beloved old city that artists tried to preserve after the destruction of 1945.

We do not yet know when this painting entered the family either. What we know is that it mattered enough to be kept beside the prints.

See the painting and its signature

Close view of the artist signature on the Halberstadt painting

Two detail photographs · 2 viewsSignature and dated inscriptionClose photographs separate the painted Walter Gemm signature from the inscription ‘Halberstadt 1926.’Open the painting details

Select any view for a larger image, source and archive details.

Close view of the inscription Halberstadt 1926 on the painting — This close view records the painted inscription “Halberstadt 1926” in the corner of Walter Gemm’s marketplace scene. Gemm’s hand fixes the place and year on the object. The inscription does not identify the buyer or occasion.RB-PHO-0213

When did Dolf buy them?

The pictures can be dated. The family story is harder.

The small mark at lower left reads Bestehorndruck, the Halberstadt printer or publisher. Several artists dated their pictures 1945, and another print from the same portfolio was catalogued as issued in 1945. A biography of Gemm places the memorial project in 1946. The pictures were therefore made in 1945, and the portfolio was probably printed in 1945 or 1946.

They came too late to have left Germany with the family before the war. Dolf returned to Germany once in the 1970s with his son, and he may have bought them then. We do not yet know. No receipt or inscription survives to tell us—but the care with which the family kept them tells its own story.

About the portfolio

What we know about these pictures

Surviving copies name the twelve views and their six artists. The signatures, the Bestehorndruck mark and Halberstadt’s own account of Walter Gemm place this family group within the city’s effort to remember what had been destroyed.

Walter Gemm School · Halberstadt

The Halberstadt they kept

They kept the city close.

The city in streets, windows and people

The complete portfolio has twelve.

Walter Gemm had painted this city before.

The city before it was lost

The pictures can be dated. The family story is harder.

What we know about these pictures

Walter Gemm’s life in the city

“Chronist mit Stift und Pinsel”

All twelve pictures in order

The portfolio as a physical object