Oscar Bittrich was a famous German photographer. He took a valuable series of photos of the pre-war Königsberg - these are the images, the researchers still use to study the history and architecture of the city.

The photographer was born in Königsberg in 1853. He was not a public figure, so there is little information about his personal life. Oscar Bittrich lived during one of the most dynamic periods in the history of his hometown. In the beginning of the 20th century Königsberg rapidly changed its appearance: it was full of architects, bricklayers and land-surveyors. Industrial districts like Forstadt were being transformed into modern urban areas. It was Bittrich who captured this time of change. The photographer actively cooperated with members of the Society for Preservation of Monuments, that dealt with systemization of monuments of East Prussia.

Bittrich was one of the first to shoot unique medieval frescoes that were discovered in the Arnau church and exposed in 1908-1911. The church is still located in the village of Rodniki near Kaliningrad, but the frescoes dating back to the 14th century were damaged in the process of restoration. Nowadays Bittrich’s photos are probably the only available source of information about them.

Many of Bittrich’s photographs of the landmarks were later included in the nine-volume catalogue. The negatives of his pictures were stored in the archives of the Society for Preservation of Monuments. By the beginning of the Second World War they had been successfully evacuated from Königsberg and preserved at the Warsaw Institute of Art Studies. Later the German Zeit foundation Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius acquired many of the photographs from the institute and donated them to the Kaliningrad Museum of Fine Arts. The photo ‘Königsberg. Confluence of the New and Old Pregolya.’ was one of them.

This image represents the site of confluence of the New and Old Pregolya. The river has two streams that join behind the island of Kneiphof - it is now named after the famous philosopher Immanuel Kant. This is the point from which the photo was taken. In the center of the photograph there is the building of the New Königsberg Stock Exchange, built in the Italian Renaissance style, that became the architectural highlight of the city. Aside from bidding, exhibitions, concerts and masquerade balls took place here.