Antique & Vintage Postcards

Real photo postcard of Vienna's roofscape looking toward Stephansdom — a sea of Historicist mansard rooftops and chimney pots, the great Gothic south tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral rising above everything, the hills of the Wienerwald visible on the horizon. This is Vienna during the Anschluss years: the publisher "Donauland" was a Nazi-era brand operating out of Wien III, active during Austria's incorporation into the Reich as the Ostmark. Stephansdom itself survived the war only narrowly — in April 1945 retreating German forces set fire to buildings around the cathedral, and the roof collapsed in the blaze; the tower seen here intact would be gutted within a few years of this card being made. Kept but never sent.