View of the City from Paniersplatz

Working from an elevated
vantage point on an upper floor of the apartment building at Paniersplatz 11,
Johann Adam Klein portrays a broad vista of Nuremberg during the Biedermeier
era, giving the onlooker the view from a south-facing window of his apartment.
He thus records his own personal look at Nuremberg, away from the city's famed
landmarks.

The towers of the
Lorenzkirche, and in front of it the ridge turret of the Frauenkirche, are
visible only in the distance. If you look closely, you can also see the tips of
the Rathaus towers and the east choir roof of St. Sebald.

A stranger may well have
found the view uninteresting. But here Klein documents his daily vista of the
city. He might thus have also been engaging in part in the Biedermeier era's
general cult of mementos – the effort to preserve keepsakes, for the future, of
people, fleeting moments and encountered places.