I have told you on previous occasions about Postcrossing, the website that allows you to write and receive postcards to/from random members all over the world. One of the last cards I sent went to Vienna (Austria), to Friedrich Bock, who ranks 4th on most postcards sent from Austria.
In my postcard, I asked Dr. Bock if I could ask him some things about his hobby and he was kind enough to send me the following text and pictures:
The postcard – an Austrian Invention
The Austrian University Professor Emanuel Herrmann proposed in 1869 to the Postal Administration a totally new way of delivering post: 'To use cards by the size of a letter which may be sent open by the Post'. The idea was accepted and already the same year the first cards titled 'Korrespondenz-Karte' were printed. They were so successful that in the first month 1.4 million pieces were sold.
In 1885 private entrepreneurs too got permission to produce such cards. This was the birth of the postcard with a picture. In 2019 we will celebrate 150 years of postcards.
My grandfather (born 1883) spent his whole professonal life as a post employee. As a young officer he accompanied the special post waggon in the night train from Vienna to Trieste (now Italy, then the most important harbour in old Austria). Each time he wrote a postcard on arrival to my grandmother. I still have 63 of these. Here is one from 1911
Thank you very much, Friedrich, for this information and for sharing this postcard!
Very Interesting!
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