Kaiser Wilhelm's Band sends Greetings from Berlin as they play at Mittags im Lustgrarten. Though I suspect that in January
The card was sent to Aunt Mary Merkle in Allentown, Pennsylvania on January 10,
At__ + I do wish you could be here. saw Emperor William's Palace today also saw the same scene which card represents, it is directly opposite the Castle.
Love to all, Please do write, Ham____ Saw the Emperor looking out of one of the windows in the Castle-yard(?)
Mary Merkle is found in the 1900 Census for Allentown, age 43, single but the head of a household that includes four younger adult siblings Hannah, Henry, John, and Ella, all single. So the writer is from another branch of the family. Mary lists her occupation as Grocer. But her birthplace was Germany having immigrated to the US in 1860. Perhaps this is a family visit back to the fatherland? A wedding trip? A school trip?
I found this image on Wikipedia for the Lustgarten from 1900. It shows the Old Museum, but you can better see the fountains and gardens behind the band. It must have been a beautiful place for a promenade. No doubt a popular place. But not in January. Even the Kaiser stayed indoors.
My contribution to Sepia Saturday
10 comments:
Linking the band card with the wiki image made this post as it gave us a feep for the scale of the place.
What a great looking band - wonder if the sounded as good as they looked? LOL
Great post and a wonderful postcard. Those helmets look pretty lethal!
The fountians are dreamy, especially the first one with the band...nice post, thanks!
I think the postmark looks like 1906. There would not have been divided backs on postcards in 1900.
Postcardy: You are right, it is a card from 1906. I focused so much on the front, that I overlooked the postmark. And the divided back too. But it was still cold in January six years later.
Mike,
I really enjoyed this post. Those helmets crack me up. I have a Kaiser-Wilhelm-related post for tomorrow. Total coincidence.
Very interesting. And I love the handwriting. I know a woman who is in her late 80s who writes just like this. Perfect penmanship. Something sorely lacking today.
Great post. I do love the way that old postcards such as this capture a moment in history and remind us that ordinary people walked through such times.
I am really impressed that you can discern so many of the instruments in the postcard! I think this was a great post to remind us how different times were in 1906.
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