Introduction : a photographic city portrait in the making -- Crafting the metropolis : photo-panoramas in the illustrated journal "Berliner Leben" -- Framing progress : Ludwig Hoffmann, Ernst von Brauchitsch, and Berlin architectural photography 1902-1912 -- Tracing transformation : Berlin's urban palimpsest in photogrammetry and 'rubble photography' -- Inventing tradition : the Märkische Museum and "Picturesque Berlin" -- Conclusion : a fractured and transitory urban imaginary.