Can transience and time be made visible in pictures? Michael Ruetz can. Since the 1960s he has been observing hundreds of landscapes and cityscapes in Germany and Europe. In Berlin he follows the effects of time with the change of the political system and the upheaval of society. Buildings disappear and arise, entire squares are ploughed up, the city silhouette is subject to the same turn as the country. The Marx-Engels-Platz becomes the Schlossplatz, Potsdamer Platz changes from a wasteland no-man’s-land to a high-rise district. Land- and cityscape become “time-scape”. Ruetz’s picture sequences are short films about long periods; this book documents history in time-lapse in a unique way.