HATEMAIL: ANTI-SEMITISM ON PICTURE POSTCARDS
by Salo Aizenberg
The postcard was a revolutionary way for people to keep in touch. Prior to its development, postal authorities only allowed sealed letters. Like most new messaging tools, there was initial resistance both to the picture-less postal card, pre-stamped by the post office with one side left blank for the text, and to the more colorful picture postcard; postal authorities feared that a cheaper and shorter form of mailing would cannibalize the more profitable business of closed letters.
The postcard dates back to the 1860s in both the United States and Europe. In 1861, John P. Charlton of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, invented and copyrighted the pre-printed postcard. His invention had a pre-printed message on one side, which was usually an advertisement, and space for a stamp and an address on the other. Charlton quickly passed the rights to a certain H.L. Lipman, and the new postcards were imprinted with the phrase “Lipman’s Postal Card.” Although the copyright for this postcard was filed years earlier, the first known use was on October 25, 1870. The Europeans were no less in the postcard avant-garde. In October 1869, the Austro-Hungarian postal authority issued a pre-stamped postal card (Correspondenz-Karte) based on a recommendation by Dr. Emmanuel Herrman. A German named Heinrich von Stephan developed the same idea separately in 1865. In October 1, 1870, the Swiss and British postal authorities introduced their own pre-stamped cards.
In the same fortuitous year of 1870, a French stationer named M. Leon Bésnardeau produced the first picture postcard. Bésnardeau’s card was illustrated with military and patriotic designs for use by the French army then fighting the Franco-Prussian war. When the post office authorized these postcards, France unknowingly became the first nation to allow picture postcards to be sent. By 1872 nearly all countries in Europe had introduced government-issued cards, and the United States Post Office followed in 1873 (privately produced postal cards, such as the Lipman postcards, were already permitted). The low postage rates induced companies to buy large quantities for use as acknowledgments or price notices. Later, many companies added logos or small images promoting products, effectively transforming these government-issued cards into picture postcards. By the late 1880s, picture postcards had come into use in Europe; town and village views were the most common subjects.
The Paris Exhibition in June 1889, celebrating the public opening of the Eiffel Tower, was a milestone for postcards as well as for architecture. Few people at the time had been as high off the ground as the summit of that tower, and the opening event attracted worldwide attention. A French newspaper publicized a postcard with a small vignette of the tower that people could purchase and post from the top. This genius of a scheme proved widely popular. Eighteen seventy may be the official date for the birth of the picture postcard, but 1889 is the year it began to capture the imagination of the public. Figure C is an early example of an Eiffel Tower postcard. Other European countries quickly imitated the French innovation, and soon visitors could mail a picture postcard from the top of any summit. In the early 1890s, German postcard publishers developed a chromolithographic printing process, which allowed them to create high-quality multicolor postcards, further accelerating postcard usage. In the United States, the picture postcard made its debut at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago on May 1, 1893.
Over the remainder of the 1890s, picture postcard production expanded rapidly in both Europe and the U.S., fueled by the development of photography and the printing trades. The years 1895 through 1898 saw an explosion in postcard usage and stimulated what is known as the Golden Era of postcards, which lasted unabated till World War I. An estimated 200 to 300 billion postcards were sold over this twenty-year period, or ten to fifteen billion on average every year. In Great Britain alone, an estimated two billion postcards were purchased in 1906, or fifty for each of the country’s forty million residents. Similar statistics and descriptions of the “postcard craze” of the Golden Era abound. It is easy to understand how images and messages, both favorable and hateful, could be spread massively and quickly.
The manufacture of billions of postcards spawned an industry comprised of hundreds of companies employing many skilled workers. The Germans became the undisputed industry leaders during the Golden Era, supplying postcards for just about every country in the world, including the U.S. German-made postcards were of the highest quality, including the litho types that are still highly sought after by collectors today—especially the “Gruss Aus,” or “Greetings From,” multi-view cards from every city in the world. Many young German printers emigrated to Great Britain and the United States to establish businesses, utilizing the skills they originally learned at home. But there was an underbelly to the success: the Germans were also the unrivaled leaders in the production of anti-Semitic postcards, not only in terms of quantity and quality, but also in the virulence of the messages and images.
Postcards of the Golden Era depicted every possible topic from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the serious to the raunchy: cities, villages, and landscapes (the most common themes); ethnicities and racism—not only against Jews, but also against blacks, Asians, and others; politics, royalty, wars, and special events; industry, technology, and transportation; fantasy, satire, art, comics, and nudity; holidays, greetings, and religion; and everything else from natural disasters to sports. Instead of television and the Internet, postcards were the window to the events and peoples of our world.
Golden Era cards were not merely a means of sending a message. Half of them were saved by collectors who helped spur the development of postcards; as they actively sought new and exciting images, the publishers made every effort to meet their demands. Collectors asked acquaintances to mail them postcards from their travels, as evidenced by the large number of surviving examples with the phrase “for your collection” written on the reverse. Postcard aficionados proudly placed their acquisitions in albums serving as do-it-yourself coffee table books that expressed their taste and expertise in any subject they fancied. Collecting postcards was revealingly described by the media as a classless craze that swept the world.
World War I created a new reason to publish postcards, resulting in tens of thousands of unique images printed by all nations involved in the conflict. But after the Great War, the popularity of postcards declined significantly and the Golden Era ended. Reasons included the development of the telephone, increased postal charges, greater use of photographs in other media such as newspapers and magazines, as well as the economic difficulties of the postwar period. Germany, the leading postcard producer, was devastated by the war; the presses shut down. Only a few of the original printers returned to full-time postcard production in the 1920s. An epoch had come to a close. Postcards were still widely used in postwar times, but the quantity and diversity of the Golden Era would never again be replicated.
Fortunately, many Golden Era postcards survive to this day, providing us with an incredible visual window to a bygone world that cannot be met by any other medium. Motion pictures were in the earliest stages of development at this time, and of course there was no television. The development of photography went hand in hand with the growth of the postcard industry, and, indeed, a large proportion of postcards were based on the work of professional photographers. However, photographs were not commercially produced in the same volume as postcards, and they were not mailed around the world. Postcard publishers often commissioned photographers to produce images specifically for postcard production. Thus many photos survive in postcard format only. Finally, most newspapers and printed media didn’t use photographs prior to 1910. For all these reasons, the photographic record is neither as extensive as the postcard record nor as available to historians.
Postcards also offer significant benefits to the historian that photographs lack: detailed captions that explain the picture; written messages that provide an historical context; postal cancellations and stamps that offer useful data; and, often, a colorized image from a time when black and white photos were the standard. In addition, many postcards were based on artistic works or drawings developed specifically for the postcard, providing the historian yet another visual medium. Political satire cartoons are an important example of such non-photographic elements. Nearly all of the postcards shown in this book are of the artistic or cartoon variety, but, in this case, they were used as weapons to display hatred towards Jews and all things Jewish.
The postcard dates back to the 1860s in both the United States and Europe. In 1861, John P. Charlton of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, invented and copyrighted the pre-printed postcard. His invention had a pre-printed message on one side, which was usually an advertisement, and space for a stamp and an address on the other. Charlton quickly passed the rights to a certain H.L. Lipman, and the new postcards were imprinted with the phrase “Lipman’s Postal Card.” Although the copyright for this postcard was filed years earlier, the first known use was on October 25, 1870. The Europeans were no less in the postcard avant-garde. In October 1869, the Austro-Hungarian postal authority issued a pre-stamped postal card (Correspondenz-Karte) based on a recommendation by Dr. Emmanuel Herrman. A German named Heinrich von Stephan developed the same idea separately in 1865. In October 1, 1870, the Swiss and British postal authorities introduced their own pre-stamped cards.
In the same fortuitous year of 1870, a French stationer named M. Leon Bésnardeau produced the first picture postcard. Bésnardeau’s card was illustrated with military and patriotic designs for use by the French army then fighting the Franco-Prussian war. When the post office authorized these postcards, France unknowingly became the first nation to allow picture postcards to be sent. By 1872 nearly all countries in Europe had introduced government-issued cards, and the United States Post Office followed in 1873 (privately produced postal cards, such as the Lipman postcards, were already permitted). The low postage rates induced companies to buy large quantities for use as acknowledgments or price notices. Later, many companies added logos or small images promoting products, effectively transforming these government-issued cards into picture postcards. By the late 1880s, picture postcards had come into use in Europe; town and village views were the most common subjects.
The Paris Exhibition in June 1889, celebrating the public opening of the Eiffel Tower, was a milestone for postcards as well as for architecture. Few people at the time had been as high off the ground as the summit of that tower, and the opening event attracted worldwide attention. A French newspaper publicized a postcard with a small vignette of the tower that people could purchase and post from the top. This genius of a scheme proved widely popular. Eighteen seventy may be the official date for the birth of the picture postcard, but 1889 is the year it began to capture the imagination of the public. Figure C is an early example of an Eiffel Tower postcard. Other European countries quickly imitated the French innovation, and soon visitors could mail a picture postcard from the top of any summit. In the early 1890s, German postcard publishers developed a chromolithographic printing process, which allowed them to create high-quality multicolor postcards, further accelerating postcard usage. In the United States, the picture postcard made its debut at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago on May 1, 1893.
Over the remainder of the 1890s, picture postcard production expanded rapidly in both Europe and the U.S., fueled by the development of photography and the printing trades. The years 1895 through 1898 saw an explosion in postcard usage and stimulated what is known as the Golden Era of postcards, which lasted unabated till World War I. An estimated 200 to 300 billion postcards were sold over this twenty-year period, or ten to fifteen billion on average every year. In Great Britain alone, an estimated two billion postcards were purchased in 1906, or fifty for each of the country’s forty million residents. Similar statistics and descriptions of the “postcard craze” of the Golden Era abound. It is easy to understand how images and messages, both favorable and hateful, could be spread massively and quickly.
The manufacture of billions of postcards spawned an industry comprised of hundreds of companies employing many skilled workers. The Germans became the undisputed industry leaders during the Golden Era, supplying postcards for just about every country in the world, including the U.S. German-made postcards were of the highest quality, including the litho types that are still highly sought after by collectors today—especially the “Gruss Aus,” or “Greetings From,” multi-view cards from every city in the world. Many young German printers emigrated to Great Britain and the United States to establish businesses, utilizing the skills they originally learned at home. But there was an underbelly to the success: the Germans were also the unrivaled leaders in the production of anti-Semitic postcards, not only in terms of quantity and quality, but also in the virulence of the messages and images.
Postcards of the Golden Era depicted every possible topic from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the serious to the raunchy: cities, villages, and landscapes (the most common themes); ethnicities and racism—not only against Jews, but also against blacks, Asians, and others; politics, royalty, wars, and special events; industry, technology, and transportation; fantasy, satire, art, comics, and nudity; holidays, greetings, and religion; and everything else from natural disasters to sports. Instead of television and the Internet, postcards were the window to the events and peoples of our world.
Golden Era cards were not merely a means of sending a message. Half of them were saved by collectors who helped spur the development of postcards; as they actively sought new and exciting images, the publishers made every effort to meet their demands. Collectors asked acquaintances to mail them postcards from their travels, as evidenced by the large number of surviving examples with the phrase “for your collection” written on the reverse. Postcard aficionados proudly placed their acquisitions in albums serving as do-it-yourself coffee table books that expressed their taste and expertise in any subject they fancied. Collecting postcards was revealingly described by the media as a classless craze that swept the world.
World War I created a new reason to publish postcards, resulting in tens of thousands of unique images printed by all nations involved in the conflict. But after the Great War, the popularity of postcards declined significantly and the Golden Era ended. Reasons included the development of the telephone, increased postal charges, greater use of photographs in other media such as newspapers and magazines, as well as the economic difficulties of the postwar period. Germany, the leading postcard producer, was devastated by the war; the presses shut down. Only a few of the original printers returned to full-time postcard production in the 1920s. An epoch had come to a close. Postcards were still widely used in postwar times, but the quantity and diversity of the Golden Era would never again be replicated.
Fortunately, many Golden Era postcards survive to this day, providing us with an incredible visual window to a bygone world that cannot be met by any other medium. Motion pictures were in the earliest stages of development at this time, and of course there was no television. The development of photography went hand in hand with the growth of the postcard industry, and, indeed, a large proportion of postcards were based on the work of professional photographers. However, photographs were not commercially produced in the same volume as postcards, and they were not mailed around the world. Postcard publishers often commissioned photographers to produce images specifically for postcard production. Thus many photos survive in postcard format only. Finally, most newspapers and printed media didn’t use photographs prior to 1910. For all these reasons, the photographic record is neither as extensive as the postcard record nor as available to historians.
Postcards also offer significant benefits to the historian that photographs lack: detailed captions that explain the picture; written messages that provide an historical context; postal cancellations and stamps that offer useful data; and, often, a colorized image from a time when black and white photos were the standard. In addition, many postcards were based on artistic works or drawings developed specifically for the postcard, providing the historian yet another visual medium. Political satire cartoons are an important example of such non-photographic elements. Nearly all of the postcards shown in this book are of the artistic or cartoon variety, but, in this case, they were used as weapons to display hatred towards Jews and all things Jewish.