A glimpse behind the facade – Nuremberg around 1900

In November 1867, Ferdinand Schmidt earned an official license to practice photography. In October, he took over the photographic studio of his late father Georg Schmidt (1811–1867). Schmidt promoted his business and his extensive services in an advertisement and was even "always ready to take photographs of corpses".

Around 1800 the Sternhof was an inn for travellers and accommodation for craftsmen. The name comes from the star that marked this inn. The unusually spacious courtyard was bordered by numerous houses and forges. When the inn closed in 1851, the building gradually fell into disrepair until it was largely demolished in the 1880s. During the Second World War the remains fell victim to an air raid. Today, new buildings from the second half of the 20th century stand on this property. House number 13 no longer exists in the address books.

At Hübnersplatz 7 stood this residential house, which was built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The nested wooden baluster galleries and staircases probably fascinated Schmidt when he photographed them in 1880. In many of Nuremberg's Late Gothic residential buildings, stairs between floors and corridors were located outside, in the inner courtyard. The ground floor often housed workshops or storage rooms.

Built at the end of the 15th century, the town house took its name from the art shop that was housed here. In 1858 Abraham Pickert (1783–1870), a renowned art collector and court antiquarian from Fürth, bought the house. His three sons Sigmund, Julius and Max also entered the antiques business. After the death of Abraham Pickert, his eldest son Sigmund (1825–1893) took over, becoming court antiquarian in 1872. Schmidt's photograph from the 1870s or 1880s shows the art treasures exhibited in the courtyard.

Schmidt photographed the inner courtyard of this residential block shortly before its demolition in 1892, when the buildings on the corner of Tetzelgasse 1 and Theresienstrasse 11 had to make way for the new post office building on Theresienstrasse, the so-called Theresienpost. Once again, Schmidt proves to be a chronicler of a city in transition at the turn of the 20th century.

The photographer's visit did not go unnoticed. Thus the house inhabitants spread over all levels; also visible on another photograph of this courtyard: ...

Another beautiful example of a Renaissance-style courtyard shows this unnamed house in Karlstraße. Tracery ornaments decorated the closed galleries on the first and second floors. The house was destroyed during the Second World War at the latest and house number 7 no longer exists today. 

Already at the time of its construction, the Pellerhaus was considered one of the most impressive examples of the Nuremberg Renaissance. The house, built in 1602–1605 according to the plans of Jakob Wolff the Elder (1546–1612), was a classic Nuremberg complex with front and rear buildings connected by an inner courtyard. This courtyard shows influences of the Italian Renaissance, such as the arched positions of the arcades on the ground floor and the gallery corridors on the upper floors – as well as typical Nuremberg features from the late Gothic period – such as the balustrades decorated with tracery ornamentation. 

An octagonal stair tower was also the focus of this photograph of the Hertelhof. The various Gothic tracery ornaments under the windows and on the stair tower distinguished this side facade. The courtyard view became a popular motif over the years.

In the Middle Ages and early modern times, the address Theresienstrasse 7 is home to numerous representatives of well-known Nuremberg patrician families such as Welser, Tucher, Scheurl, Pfinzing, Stromer and Haller von Hallerstein.

In 1509 Jakob Welser (1468–1541) bought the house from the Stromers. The impressive inner courtyard (Welserhof) was named after him and was built until 1512 by the architect Hans Behaim the Elder (1455/60–1538).

The building owes its last name, Krafft's House, to Philip Casimir Krafft. The merchant acquired the property in 1812, before it came into the possession of the Klein’s fuel materials foundation in 1896. Schmidt's photograph from 1903 shows the inner courtyard already at the time of this foundation.