25 years of reunification: Clay Paky, a subsidiary of Osram, lights up Frankfurt's bridges

In celebration of this event, the Main metropolis put on a special light show

Last weekend, the official celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the reunification of Germany took place in Frankfurt am Main. In honor of the occasion, a lighting installation designed by Sven Sören Beyer and Björn Hermann illuminated 25 bridges across the Main as part of a spectacular light show on October 3. For the technical side of things, they relied on products from Clay Paky, an Osram subsidiary.

It has now been a quarter of a century since the most important event in recent German history took place. On October 3, 2015 German reunification celebrated its 25th anniversary, with the Main taking center stage for a very special event. Beyer and Hermann symbolically built a total of 25 bridges across the Main – taking the number of years since the reunification as his inspiration. Using 240 Mythos spotlights from the Osram subsidiary Clay Paky, which were set up on 50 truss towers on both sides of the Main, they retold the history of the German people. “For me and for this event there was no alternative to using the Mythos spotlight, a mix of beam light and spotlight. The spotlights are not only extremely bright, small, and consume very little electricity, they also allow me to create many different effects”, said Hermann.

The show, which left the audience speechless with amazement, was divided into three parts. Starting with the division into West and East Germany and the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, then moving on to the fall of the Wall in 1989 and reunification in 1990, and finishing with 2015, the light show highlighted the most important milestones of the past.

During his career, Björn Hermann has provided outstanding lighting for events such as the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall at Brandenburger Tor, European Capital of Culture Opening & Closing Ceremony, the German Sustainability Prize, and the Rosenball in Berlin. Sven Sören Beyer, the director of the event, is famous for his spectacular huge events. The collaboration of both is characterized by remarkable lighting architecture.

The Mythos spotlight from Clay Paky combines the properties of a classic spotlight and beam light in one device. This allows razor-sharp illumination, but also enables geometric projections in a room or in the air – known as mid-air effects – to be shown over long distances, which makes it possible to create tightly focused projections on surfaces at varying distances at the same time.

The annual central celebrations to mark the German Unification Day always take place in the federal state holding the presidency of the Bundestag, which this year was the federal state of Hesse. In consultation with the German government, the federal state opted for the Main metropolis of Frankfurt to host the three-day festivities. Thousands of people bustled around the city center and the bank of the Main to celebrate this special anniversary in style.