The postcard has delighted its recipients for more than 150 years. Since then it has changed - but never lost its impact.
Berlin (dpa / tmn) - A photo of the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca on the front, a personal, handwritten message on the back: How we know it, the postcard.
It may take a while until it arrives at the recipient from far away countries, the greater the joy and surprise of finding it in the mailbox.
Especially on vacation, but also for a birthday or Christmas, some still use a postcard. But where does it actually come from? The Austrian economist Emanuel Herrmann introduced it in 1869. He proposed the "correspondence card" as a short and practical alternative to the letter.
The postcard was first used a year later in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). "It was the life greeting of soldiers back home and was provided by the state," explains cultural scientist Wolfgang Kaschuba.
The world in DIN A6 format
The first generation was very different from today's cards: it was blank and consisted of thick paper or cardboard. It was only with newly invented printing techniques around ten years later that the idea came up to print colorfully on one side.
Together with the long-invented photography, it became a peephole for all the travel destinations that many never visited themselves. In addition to landscapes from distant countries, she also brought home famous architecture and miniature works of art.
Advertising and propaganda
Those who did not travel also picked up a pen and map. Because the postcard was not only more convenient and quick to write due to its brevity. "At five pfennigs, the postcard was significantly cheaper than a letter," says Kaschuba. They discovered hotels and restaurants as advertising material - and many companies still send Christmas cards to customers, for example.
The postcard was also important as a means of communication in the First and Second World Wars - and was not always neutral. "The National Socialists spread their propaganda with postcards," says Kaschuba. With the travel fever of the 1960s and 1970s, it finally became one of the most popular means of mass communication in the world.
The competition came with WhatsApp & Co.
But that was once. Deutsche Post carried 147 million postcards in 2019 - compared to 210 million in 2007. "Whatsapp, Facebook & Co. unfortunately cause a steady decline in postcards," said Alexander Edenhofer, spokesman for Deutsche Post. The basic idea remained: "The shortness of three sentences and the linguistic simplicity can be found in emails," says Kaschuba.
But the digital revolution already exists. For example, with Mypostcard, Cewe Postcard or Pokamax, postcards with your own photos or design templates can be designed and sent on the smartphone via the app. "Individually designed cards with your own photos are increasingly replacing the classic postcard", Mypostcard founder Oliver Kray is convinced.
Incidentally, Corona has been making a thematic impact since March. Over 80 percent of the postcards sent were cards of solidarity, encouragement and encouragement.
Collect, remember and dream
Whoever receives a postcard rarely throws it in the trash after reading it. You collect them or pin them on the fridge. Particularly beautiful specimens are sometimes framed. This applies to the holiday greetings from friends as well as to the funny slogan cards from the card stand in the pub.
By the way, you don't need a vacation trip to write postcards: fans of postcrossing regularly write themselves out from home, from one end of the world to the other. Recipients and senders don't know each other, that's what makes it so appealing.
Especially in these difficult times of a pandemic with limited contacts, grandparents and friends will surely be happy about a surprise in the post.
Writing may also help against your wanderlust. Wolfgang Kaschuba recommends: "Drink espresso, write postcards and dream on vacation."