Praag

ANWB Extra

by Bernd Polster

Ahoj! Op het plein voor Hradcany heeft u een weids uitzicht. Aan uw voeten ligt de stad, overal ziet u rode daken, torens, kerken en paleizen, daar tussendoor het zachte groen van tuinen en parken, de lange brug over de Moldau en een wirwar van nauwe straatjes. Wie dit overweldigende beeld voor het eerst ziet, vergeet het nooit meer. Als de daken in het zonlicht schitteren, is helemaal duidelijk waarom Praag de Gouden Stad genoemd wordt. Daar is overigens nóg een reden voor: sinds de stad bevrijd is van de dictatuur, heerst er een opgewonden stemming. De hoofdstad van Bohemen behoort opnieuw tot een van de opwindendste steden van Europa. Ahoj - de dagelijkse groet van de inwoners van Praag is weer vol verwachting.

Genres: Travel

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Bernd Polster is an author. He spent the first eleven years of his life in the village Winsen an der Aller in Northern Germany. As he was visiting secondary school in Celle he cofounded and designed the prize winning school magazine bi; 1970 its second issue was illegelized because of an educational "sex supplement". He studied in Bochum, where he listened to the lectures of the marxist philosopher Leo Kofler, and in Bonn. His main field of interest was „Kritik der bürgerlichen Wissenschaft“ (Critique of bourgeois science). He was awarded his diploma in psychology - instead of the required experiment - for a philosophical thesis on the topic „Wissen als Vorraussetzung wissenschaftlichen Lernens" (Knowledge as a requirement for scientific learning), an examination of the incompetences of academical psychology.
After some years as school psychologist in Ahrweiler and Cologne he picked up an interest for photography and art. Exhibitions with collages, drawings, and photographs of punk musicians and shut down filling stations followed. In 1980 he began working as freelance author.
Since the late Nineties Bernd Polster has been running normalbuch as chief editor and art director, an office for the conceptual design and production of illustrated books (book packaging), with Eduard Rühmann (founder of normal records, one of the early German independent labels), as well as formguide.de, an internet platform for German furniture and home accessory design. Followed by formweh.de, a design blog. As an author and editor of many design books he is seen as a renowned expert on international design history.
He lives in Bonn with his wife and two children.