Footnote: Old Postcards from Yesteryear

Something entirely different, albeit 'only' to show you something really cool

A few weeks ago, I happened to obtain my late grandfather’s private postcard collection. He was born in 1922 and died in 1988, and my grandfather’s life covers a good deal of what the Marxisante historian Eric Hobsbawm called The Age of Extremes. I was six years ‘old’ when he died, hence please don’t ask me about what he was, how his WW2 service went, and how he was as a person. I do ‘remember’ precious little, and what I remember may or may not be factually true but rather ‘true’ in the sense that it has been told so many times that it gradually made its way from family lore to ‘reality’.

Be that as it may, after WW2 my grandfather began collecting postcards (for those too young to know: here you go, it’s a fair article). When he died, he had amassed some 40,000 cards, mostly from Cold War Austria and a select number of neighbouring countries, but there are cards from literally all over the world (I even found one from São Tomé and Príncipe).

As I’m in the process of revising my next research monograph (to come out, I think, next year, with McGill-Queen’s UP), which focuses on the Habsburg fiscal-financial-military regime around 1700 in what today is southern Czechia, I looked for old postcards in my grandfather’s collection—a et voilà. I found a few of them, which are quite illustrative of the collection that I now have.

Before I post them (below), an appeal to you, dear readers: if you happen to like this topic and would like me to check if I have cards of this place or of that period, please let me know in the comments. If you simply would like to see ‘more’ because they look nice, please let me know and I shall see to it.

---

Český Krumlov / Krumau in the 20th Century

Information about the place here (Wikipedia); it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, which also offers a wonderful collection of more recent photographs.

I warmly recommend the archive (contact me if you’d like some contacts) and winter visits—it’s cold but not as crowded (overflowing) in summer. If you wish learn about Bohemian/Czech history, I recommend Derek Seyer’s The Coasts of Bohemia and the current up-to-date textbook, A History of the Czech Lands, ed. by Jaroslav Pánek et al (2nd ed. 2019).

Before the Great War (images from 1911-12)

Shown is the stately Krumau Castle, then in the possession of the Schwarzenberg dynasty) overlooking the Vltava (Moldau) river, with the eponymous city of Krumau on the right-hand bank of the river.

Same background (castle), with the Civic Hospital’s (Bürgerspital) St Jost Church in the forefront and the Vltava prominently in the foreground.

Same sights as above.

This is a bit of an outlier in terms of the choice of location, for the bridge shown is the one outside the Upper Gate (Horní brána).

During and After the Great War (images from 1917, the Interwar Years)

The main difference is technological and relates to the production of the below cards: the former (see above) are what’s called lithograph prints (the image’s ‘negative’ is carved into a rock and used to mass-produce the image, which is subsequently coloured). The below pictures are ‘true photographs’ (orig. Echte Photographie), as the backside proudly informs the reader (buyer).

Shown is the main church, St Vitus, in the heart of the City of Krumau.

Picture taken from the main tower of Krumau Castle, shown is the City on the other side of the Vltava river.

This is the second outlier in terms of what is shown—depicted is the Eggenberg Brewery (Pivovar), located near the castle (seen in the background), that still operates today (albeit owned by someone else) and serves excellent dark beer.

The Cold War Era (images from the 1950s-early 80s)

Note the similarity of the point-of-view with the second lithograph-product from before WW1; how do I know it’s from after WW2? Well, for once, it’s a bigger format and the backside reads ‘printed in the ČFSR’—I think it’s from the 1950s.

Same here, albeit both the City and the Castle are depicted.

This one is from the 1970s, I think, as is the following one; note the consistency of what is shown, incl. at times the more or less exact point from where older versions were taken (composed).

If, at this point, you’re interested in the history of photography in the place, click here.

Please let me know if you enjoyed that kind of ‘footnote’, for I could find ‘more’, albeit different stuff with ease.