Meet the Kaiser

And a few of his close associates--all in vintage postcards, of course

I’d like to do something else here for a moment, but first a bit of background: “very soon™” (in academic terms), a new piece will come out in a collaborative volume co-edited by my dear colleagues Heidi Hein-Kircher and Frank Sterkenburgh (see here for the publisher’s information).

My contribution, an essay on Lower Austria between 1750 and 1850, originated actually before the Covid Pandemic (hence the “very soon™” moniker above), and while the piece greatly benefitted from feedback and awesome copy-editing, at some point Frank and Heidi asked for suggestions for the cover illustration.

Since the volume focuses on Modernizing Europe’s Imperial Monarchies: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia in the Nineteenth Century, I offered one or more of the vintage postcards in the Erich Sonntag Postcard Collection.

While, sadly, of course, the editors chose another (awesome) illustration, I shall now share a few of the postcards here.

Meet the Kaiser (and then some)

Naturally, we’ll start in Central Europe before the Great War, with the below postcard showing Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and his new designated successor, Archduke Charles. Note that the below postcard was stamped on 17 Aug. 1914, which explains why it’s Charles and not Francis Ferdinand (who was shot in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914):

No such series would be complete without Kaiser Wilhelm II of German (and his six sons), seen here outside the Berliner Stadtschloss on a postcard sent on 27 January. 1915:

Of course, Wilhelm II was also shown in more “martial” contexts, as in the below Great War-themed postcard mailed—during the war, most likely by a unit of soldiers, as the below reverse shows:

1914—God [is] with us: Wilhelm II

To conclude this section, here’s another postcard from the Great War:

In steadfast Loyalty

Post-1945 Monarchs Look…Very Different

Of course, these martial themes went out of style after the Second World War, as the below specimens attest:

One of Tuck’s Postcards, mailed to my grand-aunt in 1953 (above).

Below, a postcard showing prince Rainier III of Monaco and his wife Grace (Kelly) with their two children (mailed in the 1950s):

And here’s the princely family of Liechtenstein (plus their dog):

And, finally, a quite young and happy Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands “on her wedding day”, as my grandfather noted on the reverse of this unmailed postcard: