THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ILLUSTRATED POSTCARD IN GERMANY AND POLAND

TOURISTS throughout the world buy millions of illustrated postcards every year, which they send to their relatives and friends, or save for themselves to remind them of the places they visited. In most cases the postcards are not saved for long. Some people pile them into shoeboxes, though with the passage of time they generally forget about them or why they bought them. This seems to have been case since illustrated postcards first came into use in the 1880s. But this homely artefact knew days of splendour much grander than the age of the Internet, with its plethora of images. It was in the years 1898–1918 that the production and demand for illustrated postcards were at their peak. During these years the postcard business flourished as the fashion for postcard purchase and collection swept many sections of society. Publishers printed various series of cards that were individually numbered for the benefit of collectors; they were sold on special stands in the streets of large cities, and collectors’ clubs specializing in various postcard themes sprang up in European and American cities.

The production of Jewish postcards developed within this context, with the Jewish bourgeoisie seeking to imitate the trends within the wider society while strictly limiting the choice of subjects to those they felt were appropriate and reflected their world. The fact that the Jews in this period wanted to participate in the postcard phenomenon carries an important social message, and, as is implied in the common Hebrew term for the postcard at the time, mikhtav galui (open letter), this desire was clear for all to see. The printing and acquisition of postcards signified acceptance of and support for the public image portrayed upon them. They are therefore a mirror of the ideology and values of turn-of-the-century Jewish society as that society wished to present them. At the same time the postcards contain valuable ethnographic information about the lives of Jews during those years: their appearance and dress, utensils and ceremonial objects, furnishings of homes and synagogues, and so on.