The photograph was taken from a great height from the tower of Cologne Cathedral and shows in the foreground the characteristic Gothic finials and buttresses of the south tower. Far below, a heavily trafficked inner-city street is visible, on which pedestrians, automobiles, and at least one streetcar go about their daily business in 1937. On the left, a closed row of Gründerzeit buildings with shop windows and balconies defines the streetscape. This shot belongs to the Cologne sequence of the travel film and conveys through the extreme overhead perspective both the height of the cathedral and the lively activity of the metropolis at its feet. The contrast between the medieval stone finials in the foreground and modern traffic below underscores the typical travel film rhetoric: historic landmark encounters contemporary urban life.