Lisa Henicz
USI/OST [16/10/2024]
[image1] Aerial Photograph from the Hirslanden clinic. 1932, Walter Mittelholzer.Architectural Aerial Photography
After the First World War, a coinciding of technological improvements within the fields of photography, aviation, and print media facilitated a surge in civil aerial photography. Each nation at war had invested increasing amounts in their newly instated airforces to prevent falling behind the enemies’ technological advances. With the Treaty of Versailles the hope for a lasting peace in Europe’s heterogenous nationscape diminished the immediate need for aerial reconnaissance: Military aviation lost significant funding. The British urban planner Patrick Abercrombie commented in his article “Aerial Photography and Town Planning” in 1919 that “it is to be hoped that the great talent which has been evolved […] during the war will not be lost in peace.” (Abercrombie 1919, 705) In fact, many former military pilots trained in surveillance tried to establish a civil career in aerial photography. The images taken by Swiss photographer and aeronaut Walter Mittelholzer (1894 – 1937) exemplify this international tendency.
Flights during the first decades of the 20th century were dangerous and uncomfortable adventures. Exposed to the elements and likely to crash, the experience of travelling in an airplane was still far from the mode of mass transportation we know today. Therefore, aerial photography was the most promising industry in civil aviation in the 1920s. Founded in 1919, Mittelholzer’s Company Ad Astra Aero was one of several small ventures conquering the Swiss airspace. Ad Astra Aero initially specialized in aerial photographs of villages, estates, and factories and sold them to the owners as memorabilia or advertisement. (see also Lugon 2013; Surber 2014; 2017)
Another area of use for aerial photography was the planning practice. At a time when industrialization caused most cities to break out of their historic walls and expand into the surrounding countryside, aerial photography handed urbanists the needed instrument to grasp the urban organism, whose scale had slipped out of their control. The photo taken from a plane suggested an accurate display of the life below in its entirety. However, photos taken from above implied not only objectivity and totality. The novelty of aerial photography as a technology gave aerial images themselves an air of innovation.
[image 2] State of the art x-ray machine at the clinic. 1932, unknown.
[image 3] Control room for the x-ray machine. 1932, unknown.
The Hirslanden clinic, named after its location in Zurich, was designed by Hermann Weideli, and constructed as well as mostly financed by Heinrich and Marie Hatt-Haller. In 1932, the hospital opened its doors to patients, who were to be treated under the most modern standards in the “best-equipped hospital of contemporary Europe”. ([s. n.] 1932, 29) A few weeks after the opening in May 1932, Walter Mittelholzer went on a “Photo flight”, as he noted in his diary, for “roughly 15 minutes in the evening with arch. Weideli for the hospital Neumünster”. (Agenda 1932, fond VA, signature 38247, Verkehrshaus der Schweiz, Luzern) The first published image the flight resulted in was printed as early as July 2nd in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung as part of an article on the innovative architectural project (see image 1). Apart from the hospital’s location in a large park and the importance of air and light in all patient rooms the article mostly focuses on the technological advantages the new building offers. Published in two parts, the second consists mostly of the detailed technical descriptions of the x-ray machine “the largest not only in Switzerland but generally”, the aseptic installations, and the soundproofing of pipes, elevators and all doors. ([s.n.] 1932, 22) The latter were equipped with felt inlays that mechanically pressed down when the doors were shut, avoiding the installation of thresholds and, thus, any obstacles in the path of the patients’ beds. Mittelholzer’s aerial photograph is shown together with an exterior view and an aerial plan at the beginning of the article. It is one of only four external pictures, while most of the forty images show the rooms with their technologically advanced instruments (see image 2 + 3). The aerial photograph taken from the north only shows the clinic, the street and its park but no neighboring buildings. The shadows are long and the camera facing facades well-lit in the evening sun. A truck is turning from the street onto the driveway leading to the delivery entrance.
The fact that the photograph was published almost immediately after being taken and that the architect joined Mittelholzer during the flight indicates the importance of the aerial photo for the article. Furthermore, the selection and layout of the article’s images show the strong emphasis the author put on the technological novelty. To propagate the innovation of the architectural project, Mittelholzer was hired to document the clinic from a technologically superior perspective.
All translations from German by author.
Cited Works:
Abercrombie, Patrick. 1919. “Aerial Photography and Town Planning.” Country Life. 45 (1170): 703–5.
Lugon, Olivier. 2013. “The Aviator and the Photographer: The Case of Walter Mittelholzer.” In Seeing from Above: The Aerial View in Visual Culture, edited by Mark Dorrian and Frédéric Pousin, 147–62. London: I.B. Tauris.
[s. n.]. 1932. “Die Privatklinik Hirslanden A.-G.” Text/html,application/pdf,text/html, April. https://doi.org/10.5169/SEALS-582482.
[s.n.]. 1932. “Die ‘Privatklinik Hirslanden’ in Zürich: Architekt Hermann Weideli, Zürich (Schluss).”
Schweizerische Bauzeitung 100 (2): 20. https://doi.org/10.5169/seals-45525.
Surber, Kaspar. 2014. “Eine Fliegende Dunkelkammer. Walter Mittelholzers ‘Afrikaflüge’ (1926-1934)
Als Mediale Unternehmungen Um Die Gründung Der Swissair.” Lizentiatsarbeit der Philosophischen Fakultät, Zürich: Universität Zürich.
———. 2017. Walter Mittelholzer Revisited: Aus Dem Fotoarchiv von Walter Mittelholzer = From the Walter Mittelholzer Photography Archive. Vol. 6. Bilderwelten. Fotografien Aus Dem Bildarchiv Der ETH-Bibliothek. Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess.