Reconstruction of the tower windows in the Dome of Cologne:

Reconstruction of Cologne's cathedral tower windows. You have to have a good head for heights if you work in 43 metres on a
window of Cologne's north tower. Altogether eight big traceries were installed to reconstruct the original tower of 1871 and its
architectural, attractive rooms of a former library on the first floor.

The coloured original drafts for all eight windows were available
at the archives of the dome. One suspects that they had been made by the department of the dome. Proved is that a company in
Cologne carried it out in 1871/72. All those windows, received coloured ornamental stained glass, which got bearings by its Middle-
aged windows at the gate of the dome.

Nearly all the windows were destroyed in the Second World War. After that one replaced them by ordinary colourless rectangle-
sheet-glasses. Alsmost half a century later it should get replaced by a right style.

The preparation for the reconstruction of the destroyed ornamental windows was made at the department, but the actual process was made by us.

Taking a closer look at the original, the choice of the sheets and the nuances of colours we adepted to the leftovers of the original.
We decided to use antique cathedral glass, because it seems close the original. It was possible to use standard colours, but in
some cases special colours adepted to original pattern were made to enable window reconstruction with neogothic colours.

Each
tracery is including gothic window approx. 16 metres high, 5,20 metres wide and consists of 52 stained glass panels, each 74 x 96
cm large. One single panel is put together out of 250 - 300 pieces of glass. The Dome of Cologne got a part of its destroyed
equipment, a piece of church architecture, back. It shows as well how trade art can make historic live again.

Reconstruction of the baroque windows of Berlin's dome

The original windows had been painted of a design by Anton von Werner and were completely destroyed in the Second World War.
They were created around the turn of the century through a technique of etching, which nobody can do today. It would as well
cause environmental problems.

These was a competition in 1987 for the reconstruction of the 6 windows. Many companies applied for it, but in the end they
decided to give the project to our studio. We suggested using a process which was influenced by colour photography.

Therefore we made transparency of Anton von Werner's paintings, which were manufactured into original size. After that we made
riddles, with those help we printed sheets of 3 mm thickness. Three sheets (one after another) in blue, red and yellow are now in
the dome of Berlin. Together they show the overall picture.

Visitors can't see how the windows were made, unless they go close to the windows. Then they see how many small raster points there are. It doesn't affect the luminosity and the effect of the pictures.

Left: Glass panel painted with black-vitrious paint and enamels. In contrast to the the panel on the right, the triple panel, it shows a
reduction of brightness.

Five years of planning how to reconstruct the windows were really difficult. It started with choosing and combining colours and
choosing which sizes of raster points to take. Enamels mixed with screen printing oil meant an improvement in the production
process.