We took our picture during a visit in 2015. The 1917 picture was taken from Wikipedia. There is no information about the photographer or the exact date, all sources only refer to "around 1917."
This building, erected in 1915, is Germany's oldest multi-story building. It sometimes referred to as "Germany's first Sky Scraper."
It was designed by architect Friedrich Pützer. It was built as a factory building in the fast growing Carl Zeiss complex, Germany's largest producer of optical instruments. As part of an industrial complex it was simply called "Building 15 (Bau 15 in German), and somehow, the name survived bombings, fires and reconstructions and stuck until this day.
The building was severely damages in the 1945 bombing raids and burned almost to the ground, leaving only the metal skeleton in tact. It was rebuilt after World War II and then again completely remodeled and turned into an office and apartment building in 2003.
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