Easter postcard
Easter postcards (Easter cards) are postcards with Easter motifs.
The custom of sending Easter postcards to relatives, friends and acquaintances seems to have become common around 1900. While only a few Easter postcards were sent out in 1898, the number increased sharply worldwide in the years that followed. The postal regulations initially only allowed the address on the back next to the postage stamp, which led to lettering and thus a 'spoiling' of the picture side. From 1905 onwards, the post in Germany and Austria allowed the rear to be divided into the address field and an open space for personal messages. In 1906 this division was decided internationally at the Universal Postal Congress in Rome.
Easter is usually celebrated on the postcards as the awakening of nature from its 'hibernation'. Children, lambs , chicks and eggs , spring landscapes and spring flowers, especially catkins, serve as motifs . The Easter bunny as a personified symbol of fertility was often portrayed in connection with eggs. Young girls and children were seen as carriers of happiness and hope. During the time of the First World War, the children were replaced by uniformed soldiers as a symbol, and a military appearance of the Easter bunny was common. The following motifs can be found on the religious Easter postcards: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, Christ as shepherd and the Lamb of God ( Agnus Dei ).
The cards were produced using the chromolithographic process or screen printing or were phototypes. Embossing , sometimes in gold and silver, was used for finishing . The 'real' photographs , i.e. photo prints, were partially (stenciled) colored . The photo postcards worked with staged scenes, mostly against a painted background, and montages . Before the First World War, German publishers and art print shops and artistic institutions were leaders in the production of Easter postcards.
The years between 1898 and 1918 are considered the heyday of the elaborately designed motif cards. The turmoil of the Second World War resulted in a sharp reduction in the number of Easter cards being sent . While the number of cards increased slowly afterwards, it has decreased sharply in the last ten years as a result of competition from telephony and e-mail.
literature
- The ABC of luxury paper. Production, processing and use from 1860 to 1930. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer 1984, pp. 130f. ISBN 3-496-01023-1