The Siegestor glows warm against a deep blue sky at the north end of Munich’s Ludwigstraße, while the morning’s first traffic streams past on either side: headlights in white, taillights in red. The cobbled median runs straight to the central arch and through it, out toward Schwabing.
I got up early for this. Blue hour before sunrise opens a short window when the sky still holds color and the streetlamps still burn, and the city’s first commuters were already on the road. A long exposure turned every passing car into a line of light and left the arch as the only fixed thing in the frame. Across its top runs the inscription added when the gate was rebuilt after the Second World War: dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, urging peace. At that hour, with the street still half asleep, the last two words carried the most weight.
