LUDWIGSHAFEN AM RHEIN

When I arrived 48 years ago, everything shone.

In concrete, I saw a promise.

In glass, I saw my own wonder.

The Rathaus-Center stood bright and open.

I rode the escalators and felt the city rise with me.

Bismarckstraße was full of life.

Voices, footsteps, light.

I walked through it and felt I belonged.

I thought it would last.

Now I walk the same streets and barely know them.

Dust covers the years.

Gaps where glass once was.

Silence where laughter lived.

Empty spaces. Blind windows.

A city whose language I no longer understand.

Something has sunk here.

And with it, my belief in what stays.

I carry the old city like a fading image.

These pictures are my farewell.