A sun-drenched dirt path curves gently past the timber-framed Alpine inn of the Sepp Schmidt Hütte at 1,135 metres on the Hohe Wand plateau in Lower Austria — rail fencing, blossoming shrubs, and a distant barn completing a scene of idyllic mountain hospitality that drew Viennese hikers in their thousands every summer. Mailed around 1940 from this very inn — its pre-printed Alm-Gastwirtschaft letterhead stamped in the upper left — the card was sent to Johann in Neunkirchen with an affectionate note signed "Hansi" and including a warm "Bussi" (kiss). The 6-Pfennig Deutsches Reich stamp bearing the profile of Adolf Hitler is a sobering reminder that by 1940 Austria had been absorbed into the Reich — a significant piece of Austrian postal history under Anschluss.