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Photo Exhibition ‘Vilnius through the eyes of a Swiss man, 1937-1940’ will be opened on Friday, December 6

In the beginning of 1937, Saurer, one of the biggest truck and bus manufacturers in Switzerland, transferred a 24 year old engineer Alfred Rietmann to Vilnius to lead a bus depot of the public transport company. In his memoirs the Swiss man wrote about his work and personal life in Vilnius, his colleagues and friends, trips to the suburbs, as well as the outbreak of the Second World War. Rietmann also documented all these experiences in photographs that were kept in Historisches Museum Schloss Arbon in Switzerland and now are on display in the city where it all has started.

Rietmann’s legacy of 88 photographs combined with his memories described in the manuscript creates a high historical value and could be interesting not only to the historians but also to everyone interested in Vilnius’ development in general. The memoirs of the Swiss engineer reveal the multicultural coexistence of different nationalities in Vilnius back in the day. Especially interesting are author’s insights about the nature of the local people, their work and celebration peculiarities. Rietmann also describes a lot of curious situations that have arisen due to cultural and mentality differences.

Curator Ričardas Žičkus

 

The photo exhibition runs to Saturday, December 21 at the Industry exhibition of Energy and Technology Museum.


Free entry opening night: 4pm to 7pm, Friday, December 6.

Laurynas Vaitulevičius (guitar), Katažyna Paršuta (vocals) and Katažyna Žemoitin (violin) will perform during the event.
The repertoire will include songs „Prząśniczka” and „Złota rybka” by composer Stanislav Moniuška, jazz standard „All of Me” by Gerald Marx and Seymour Simons as well as popular Polish and Lithuanian interwar songs.

Event on Facebook

 

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