This is a blog about music, photography, history, and culture.
These are photographs from my collection that tell a story about lost time and forgotten music.

Mike Brubaker
{ Click on the image to expand the photo }

The Rain in Austria

11 December 2020

 


It's raining.
Nothing to be done
except complain.

Misery may not actually love company,
but it feels better when it's shared.



This humorous postcard was produced
by the
Austrian artist Fritz Schönpflug (1873 – 1951),
whose work I have featured several times now.
A native of Vienna, or Wien,
he was a keen observer of humanity.
This postcard's caption
roughly translates as,

Verichnupßte Kurgäßte
~
Sniveling Spa Guests.

It must have been a common scene
of tourists on holiday in Austria,
hence it's popularity as a postcard.
"Having a miserable time.
Wish we were back home."


Perhaps that was Rolf's sentiments
when he sent this to Fräulein M. Schaffer
of Wien on 6 July 1910.








But nothing compares to the misery
of a soldier marching in the rain.





Here a column of infantry
plod through the mud,
led by their regimental band.
The rain forces the poor tuba player
to bail out his instrument.

On this postcard Fritz Schönpflug adds a caption
in Hungarian, which was then one of many languages
in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
It reads:
Az egyenruha varázsa
~
The charm of the uniform.


It was never mailed but Schönpflug
puts a number 909 next to his signature
which stand for the year 1909
using the central European convention
of leaving off the 1000.






One century later,
here is what Wien looks like
in an Austrian rainstorm.
.
The video is called:
Überschwemmung 13.05.10,Wien,Lerchenfelderstraße Ecke Kaiserstraße !

Watch for 1:00.




And here's another rainy day in Wien
but with a better accompaniment.

I think Fritz Schönpflug
would have laughed at this happy fellow.
It was filmed on 21 May 2013,
Wien ist anders - "Singing in the Rain"






This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where it rains only virtually
and stays mainly on the screen.



5 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

What a fun silly video thanks to Gene Kelly (I imagined his dancing of course!) Good to see Viennese sense of humor is intact even in post cards. Happy Saturday!

La Nightingail said...

Great post! The postcards are fun, and the videos both a little scary (sometimes you get just a little too MUCH rain 'allofaonce' as my Grandma Louise used to say), and entertaining. You made me go find a YouTube rendition of one of Gene Kelly's best-loved dance numbers! :)

smkelly8 said...

I love these postcards!

ScotSue said...

Fun postcards, dramatic floods, and I loved the Viennese take on Singing in the Rain

Molly's Canopy said...

Excellent match for the prompt...and the weather must not have changed much since those postcard illustrations were created. I doubt whether "Singing in the Rain" would have made those spa guests happy. Have a wonderful holiday season and New Year!

nolitbx

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