City street scene with German and Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg flags — the Dual Alliance — and a group clustered around a kiosk, likely reading war news and casualty lists. By RS (BS?) 1915. Postmarked October 9, 1916.
RS (BS?) 15Reverse:Postmarked October 9, 1916.Künstler-Postkarte herausgegeben vom Central-Komitee der deutschen Vereine von Roten KreuzAbgabe fur den Wohlfahrtszweck 3 1/2 Pfennig.Farbenbuchdruck von Döring & Huning, Berlin, SW. 48.Artist Postcard published by the Central Committee of German Associations of the Red CrossLevy for charitable purposes 3 1/2 pfenning.Color letterpress by Döring & Huning, Berlin, SW. 48th
"You must imagine a building like the Post Office in New York, for instance, or the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago, with a band of white paper, like newspapers, spread out and pasted end to end, running along one side, round the corner, and down the other. Not inches, but yards, rods, two city blocks almost, of microscopic type; columns of names, arranged in the systematic German way — lightly wounded, badly wounded — schwer verwundet — gefallen. Some have died of wounds — tot — some dead in the enemy's country — in Feindesland gefallen. Rank on rank, blurring off into nothingness, endless files of type, pale as if the souls of the dead were crowding here."
Excerpt from 'The Great Days' in Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, a journalist from the neutral United States. In February, 1915 Ruhl wrote from Berlin of the Great Days — die große Zeit — 'days of achievement, of utter sacrifice, and flinging all into the common cause.' The German capital is 'an all day's express journey from either front', and, despite the casualty lists, Ruhl finds Berliners strong in their conviction they are fighting a defensive fight, and will prevail. He also points out that the German papers, unlike the British or American, publish little 'news', but are 'working all the time to create a definite public opinion.'
Antwerp to Gallipoli by Arthur Ruhl, pp. 95, 96, copyright © 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1916
15-02-08, February, 1915, casualty, casualties, wounded, dead
