The Architekturmuseum der TUM is based on the collections for teaching purposes that had been set up at the foundation of the university in 1868. It is storing and maintaining ca. 200,000 photos and glass plates of over 800 photographers from the middle of the 19th century until today. For the first time parts of these large treasures will be presented to the public. As the collection was established specifically for architects and their requirements, the tasks of photography and its potential of conveying architecture will be described by means of an exemplary selection. Since the Renaissance collections of models, casts and templates were part of the training of architects. In addition to these teaching materials, photographs were used since the second half of the 19th century. They were meant as a means to get to know important monuments of world architecture as well as for the achievement of a collection of motifs and forms, a major aid for the design in historic styles, that was common practice at that time. From this architectural sample collection of the Architekturmuseum works of famous representatives from the pioneer era of photography, such as Édouard-Denis Baldus, Bisson frères, Antonio Beato and Pascal Sébah are being presented. Very often photographs were also used as a design aid. Architects such as Friedrich von Thiersch, Theodor Fischer or Richard Riemerschmid painted, drew and scratched into photographs or mounted sketches onto them in order to realistically test the dimensioning and integration of their projects. Photographs for the documentation of building sites and measures have also been made in the early times of photography. By the beginning of the 20th century photographic works have been the world-wide mediators of architecture. Since then architects as well as interested non-specialists have obtained their knowledge of buildings mainly from photographs, thus influencing the perception and evaluation of architecture correspondingly. Many architects have tried to achieve a specific view of their buildings by photographs in order to influence the perception of their architecture according to their purpose. The distribution of a characteristic structural appearance was meant to lead to a better recognition of their works. This cooperation of architects and photographers - Eero Saarinen / Ezra Stoller, Alfred Roth / Hans Finsler or Paul Schneider-Esleben / Albert Renger-Patzsch - concludes the view into the treasures of the Architekturmuseum. The exemplary selection offers a fascinating panorama of architectural photography from the beginnings until today