Dappled light falls through mature horse-chestnut trees onto the grand Ringstrasse pavement as the monumental curved facade of the Neue Burg — the last wing of Vienna's Imperial Hofburg complex — fills the frame in this quietly majestic real-photo postcard. The equestrian statue of Archduke Charles, hero of the 1809 Battle of Aspern, stands sentinel before the rusticated stone arches, while a lone cyclist and a handful of pedestrians give the scene its unhurried 1940s scale. The Neue Burg was completed only in 1913 after decades of construction, and by the time this photograph was taken it had already witnessed Hitler's triumphant balcony speech in March 1938 announcing the Anschluss — lending this image a charged historical atmosphere beneath its serene surface. Unused, clean condition; published by Donauland, Wien III.