Langen

For centuries, Langen was a rather agricultural town until it gained economic importance in 1813 when it was elevated to the status of a market town. After the abolition of the guilds in 1866, the freedom of trade came into effect and trade flourished. This book begins at this time and tells an exciting chapter of Langen's everyday history between 1880 and 1980. It also accompanies the exhibition of the same name in the Altes Rathaus museum. City archivist Herbert Bauch, together with Inge and Horst Helfmann, selected 170 photographs, most of them previously unpublished, from the photo albums of long-established Langen families and from the holdings of the city archive. These pictures capture the everyday life of working people in traditional crafts and trade, which hardly exists today. They show drastic changes in the urban landscape,.