Fritz Otto – Buchdruckerei, Papierhandlung, Buchbinderei

Was doing some research and discovered this photo from Hannover (1907). Is this an ancestor or a Namensvetter (namesake) of Fritz Otto Buchbinder, a portmanteau of various famous German bookbinders of the first half the 20th century?

Definitely not an ancestor, rather an serendipitous accident, as the fellow above is "Fritz Otto Buchbinder" and the shop above was owned by a Fritz Otto who was a book printer, paper goods seller, and Bookbinder, a relatively common combination. 

As it happened, a colleague and friend had recently purchased the postcard above and also shared it with me. Of course, this sent me into another rabbit hole that led to the discovery of 2 more images, some background information, and a map. So, first a series of photos from postcards.

Sign above reads: Papierhandlung – Fritz Otto – Buchbinderei
No mention of book printer.
From the collection of Jay Tanner.

The postcard from the top of this post.
Published for Verlag Fritz Otto by Georg Kugelmann (Hannover), 1907.
Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Almost the exact same image, but different cropping.
Published for Verlag Fritz Otto by Georg Kugelmann (Hannover), 1907.

Verso of the postcard above.

Georg Kugelmann was a wholesaler of writing implements, paper goods, and postcards.

Interesting in the image directly above are also the hand drawn "sign" for the Kochschule von "Frau A. Lichter" (Cooking school), perhaps added by the sender. To the left of that, attached to the balcony, a sign for a private "Mittagstisch" (Lunch table). Was there a connection? No idea, and the writing on the postcard offered no clues.

Below a detail from an 1897 map of Hannover with a recent snip from the current Google Maps view. The bindery (the red pin towards the bottom center) was located in the corner building at what was then the address Große Barlinge 64. Today, the postwar building at Kortumstraße 1 stands on the same site. Of the buildings visible in this photograph taken in 1907, almost only the corner building in the background survived the air raids on Hanover during World War II relatively unscathed ...

The bindery would have been at where the house at center is.
Almost only the corner building (circled in red) in the background,
then at Große Barlinge 68, now Große Barlinge 5 and Detmolder Straße 17,
survived the air raids on Hanover during World War II relatively unscathed ...

On the subject of rebuilding ..., then-Prince Charles had this to say:

On December 2, 1987, then-Prince Charles delivered a controversial speech attacking modern architecture and urban development in London, famously remarking that "the Luftwaffe caused less damage than modern developers," and adding: "You have to squeeze the life out of any previously inhabited area and then, with the help of the bulldozers, level it to the ground. ... We did that." From UPI.

 In defense of this rebuilding, after the war, housing was desperately needed, and fast. This was result across the country, and elsewhere.