One of the defining features of the second half of the 20th century was—the Iron Curtain. While it looked a wee bit different in the Americas due to the lower number of “socialist” societies, these notions—and the hold-over of the persistent blockade of Cuba—continue to the present (to say nothing about the DMZ between North and South Korea).
Here is, once more, part one of the Cuban postings:
In this second instalment, we shall look at some postcards sent from Cuba—to the German Democratic Republic. One of the consequences of the above-related Cold War division were the significantly reduced contacts across the Iron Curtain. For reasons I don’t know (perhaps, yet), Erich Sonntag had contacts “behind” the Iron Curtain, hence his picture postcard collection offers quite a few specimen from “the other side” of this divide.
Personally, given Erich Sonntag’s profession—he was a career officer in the Austrian Armed Forces from 1961 onwards—I might need to visit the archives of certain “intelligence” and “security” services to see if his postcard-collecting avticities were monitored…
But this is a future activity, for now we’ll look at some more postcards from Cuba.
“Friendship of Peoples”
The below example was mailed to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in November 1967. The caption on the front side reads “On Tour with the MS Friendship of Peoples with DSR-Lines”:
“DSR” stands for Deutsche Seerederei was a Rostock-based shipping line owned and operated by the East German government. Essentially, a continuation/variation of the 1930s Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) holiday operations for “ordinary people”. I am not saying that the Nazi and Communist régimes are the same, but their “popular” features look very much alike.
As an aside, DSR Lines also ended shortly after the end of the German Democratic Republic, and since the mid-1990s, it belongs to the Bremen-based shipping concern Vulkan. One of the curious continuitues to observe here is that the DSR originally used the “cruise trips for everyone” campaign to market what is today known as the AIDA Cruises that are catering to the pan-German market.
Note, as can be seen on the postcard’s reverse, that it was printed in Magdeburg, i.e., it is quite possible (likely) that it crossed the Atlantic before being “sent” later on. Note that the stamps are from the GDR, too…
Interestingly, as far as “typologies” go, it would appear that in the 1960s, Socialist-themed picture postcards often show “amenities” as opposed to main sights, such as the above-reproduced image of one of Hotel Nacional de Cuba’s swimming pools. It too, as its reverse indicates, was mailed (in 1965) to the German Democratic Republic.
Finally, an example from Cuba after the Revolution of 1959 sent to Erich Sonntag himself. Shown is the Mausoleum of José Martí (1853-95), one of Cuba’s leading 19th-century pro-independence (from Spain) advocate. His Wikipedia entry is quite detailed, hence I won’t say more about him here.
Note that the languages on the reverse are Spanish, English, and Russian, which also gives away the post-1959 date, I think.
That’s it from Cuba, onwards to South America we shall armchair-travel next.