Antique & Vintage Postcards

Still waters mirror the medieval stone arches and slate-roofed wings of Nürnberg's Heiliggeistspital — the Hospital of the Holy Ghost — one of Germany's largest and most beautiful surviving Gothic charitable institutions, its twin bridge-arches straddling the Pegnitz river as they have since the fourteenth century, flanked by tall poplars whose reflections dissolve into the dark water below; the photograph is a strikingly fine Kupfer-Tiefdruck (copperplate gravure) print with exceptional tonal depth, made with a Meyer Plasmat optical lens and published by Stoja Verlag — and the reverse bears the sobering designation "Stadt der Reichsparteitage Nürnberg," the city's official Nazi-era title as host of the annual Party Rally, dating this card squarely to the Third Reich period of 1933–1939. A small remnant of red adhesive tape is visible at the top edge of the front image.