1919 Germany Berlin Unter den Linden Palais Kaiser Wilhelm I Bibliothek Postcard

Title
1919 Germany Berlin Unter den Linden Palais Kaiser Wilhelm I Bibliothek Postcard

Front Description
A monochrome collotype postcard printed in warm sepia-brown tones on buff card stock, horizontal format.

The view looks along Unter den Linden, Berlin’s principal ceremonial boulevard, from an elevated vantage point, beneath a lightly clouded sky.

At the left rises the Palais Kaiser Wilhelm I — the Old Palace — a substantial neoclassical building of pale stone with a rusticated ground floor, tall pedimented windows, sculptural panels in relief set beneath the cornice, and a low balustraded parapet surmounted at the corner by a spread-winged eagle. Draped curtains are visible at the windows. A covered bridge or passage links the palace to the adjoining building at the rear, and a low iron railing with shrubbery encloses the frontage.

To the right stands the Königliche Bibliothek — the Royal Library, popularly known as the Kommode — its long baroque facade articulated with a giant order of engaged columns and pilasters, ranks of tall arched and rectangular windows, a projecting pedimented centrepiece and a rooftop balustrade crowned with urns and sculptural figures, above which rises a large dark curved roof.

Between them, at the centre of the boulevard, stands the equestrian monument to Frederick the Great — Christian Daniel Rauch’s Reiterstandbild — the mounted figure of the king raised on a tall sculptured pedestal within a railed enclosure.

The central promenade of mature lime trees in full leaf recedes into the distance, with ornate cast-iron lamp standards carrying globe lanterns at intervals.

The streets and pavements are thronged with figures of the period: women in long skirts, coats and broad-brimmed hats, men in dark suits and hats, and a uniformed policeman. In the foreground a group of pedestrians is caught mid-crossing. Traffic includes an open-topped double-decker motor omnibus with passengers on the upper deck, a horse-drawn covered delivery van, a horse-drawn cart, and at the right a period motor car with a folding hood and large-spoked wheels.

Printed across the lower margin in dark type: Berlin — Unter den Linden – Palais Kaiser Wilhelm I. und Bibliothek

The card shows overall toning, a small dark blemish at the left edge, faint surface creasing, and light wear and softening to the edges and corners.

Back Description
Divided-back postcard reverse, printed in black on buff stock.

A vertical dividing line, formed of small squares at top and bottom, runs down the centre of the card.

Printed vertically along this line: Kunstanstalt Max O’Brien & Co., Berlin NO 18. 188 at the upper portion, and 1919. at the lower portion.

Upper right, a stamp box outlined in a dashed rule.

Right-hand side: four dashed address lines, the third overlaid with a solid heavy rule.

Lower right, the printer’s reference number: 8608

At the upper left, a faint handwritten pencil notation reading approximately “1.20” — a dealer’s price mark rather than a message.

No message, address, stamp or postmark is present — the card is unused and postally unwritten. The paper shows overall buff toning, scattered fibre inclusions in the stock, and light wear and softening to the edges and corners.

Estimated Era
1919.

The dating is fixed by the printed date on the reverse, which gives the year of publication as 1919, alongside the publisher’s imprint of Kunstanstalt Max O’Brien & Co. of Berlin NO 18, with the series number 188 and printer’s reference 8608.

The photograph itself is somewhat earlier, dating from the years immediately before or during the First World War: the dress of the pedestrians — long skirts, tailored coats and large hats for women, dark suits and homburgs for men — together with the open-topped double-decker motor omnibus and the early motor car with folding hood, all point to the period around 1910–1915. The card was thus produced from an existing photographic negative shortly after the end of the war.

The buildings shown are the great institutions of the avenue as they stood before the destruction of the Second World War: the Palais Kaiser Wilhelm I, residence of the first German Emperor until his death in 1888, and the Königliche Bibliothek of 1775–80. Rauch’s equestrian monument to Frederick the Great, unveiled in 1851, stands in its original position at the centre of the avenue, where it remained until removed for safety in 1950.

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