In the lead up and all throughout the nations general election, climate change and environmental action was at the forefront of most conversations with the Green party, winning 15% of the vote and achieving their best result ever in a national election. Not least part of this conversation was the flooding that occurred in hard-hit Western Germany in the summer after heavy rains swept across states. As flood victims begin rebuilding their communities and brace for winter, there is question over what can be done to prevent such events from reoccurring. 

We take a look back into the IMAGO Archive at the previous events that have altered the German landscape, changed communities and claimed lives. From the 1997 Central European flood, The Elbe flood catastrophe of 2002, the Alpine regions worst hit in 2005 and large scale floods along the Elbe and Danube, in the spring of 2013.