---
title: '''Frohe Weihnachten und glückliches Neujahr'' Austro-Hungarian Christmas postcard (1914)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/frohe-weihnachten-kriegsjahr-postcard-1914/
description: A colour card shows five soldiers in greatcoats and packs gathered around a small Christmas tree with candles in the snow, one standing guard with a rifle.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[!['Frohe Weihnachten und glückliches Neujahr' Austro-Hungarian Christmas postcard (1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/frohe-weihnachten-kriegsjahr-postcard-1914.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/frohe-weihnachten-kriegsjahr-postcard-1914.jpg)

# 'Frohe Weihnachten und glückliches Neujahr' Austro-Hungarian Christmas postcard (1914)

A colour card shows five soldiers in greatcoats and packs gathered around a small Christmas tree with candles in the snow, one standing guard with a rifle. The tell is the domestic ritual set in the field: the men are drawn as ordinary, warm and at ease, so the greeting presents the war's soldier as a familiar person from home.

## Text on the object

Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Frohe Weihnachten
und glückliches Neujahr!
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
```

[← Försvaret främst (Defence first), Swedish election poster by Gunnar Widholm, 1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/forsvaret-framst-widholm-1914/) [यह सिपाही हिन्दुस्तान की हिफ़ाज़त कर रहा है (This Soldier Is Defending India), Indian Army recruiting poster, Bombay →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/indian-army-hindi-recruiting-poster-1914/)

## Using the same techniques

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- ['Get a move on old man!' (Harry J. Weston, Sydney)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/australia-get-a-move-on-1915/) (Australia · 1915 · Plain folks)
- [Бо війна війною (For War Is War), Sich Riflemen postcard series II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kurylas-bo-viina-viinoiu-sich-riflemen-postcard-1917/) (Austria Hungary · 1917 · Plain folks)
- ["Mora Dravca vsahniti" plebiscite postcard no. 9 (The Drava Must Dry Up)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mora-dravca-vsahniti-plebiscite-postcard-1920/) (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes · 1920 · Plain folks)
- [Город — мануфактуру, деревня — хлеб (Town: Manufactured Goods; Village: Bread)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kustodiev-city-manufactures-village-bread-1925/) (Soviet Union · 1925 · Plain folks)
- [l'Unità, January 1928: 'Resistere alla seconda ondata di riduzione dei salari! SCIOPERATE!' (front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/l-unita-sciopero-salari-1928/) (Fascist Italy · Jan 1928 · Plain folks, Name-calling). Content note: Clandestine Communist front page whose strike slogan uses a vulgar word ('A salario di merda, lavoro di merda!'), shown as printed.
- [Gandhi spins while addressing a crowd (1930)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gandhi-spinning-1930/) (British India · 1930 · Plain folks, Transfer)
- ["The Good Shopper" (Empire Marketing Board)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/good-shopper-emb/) (United Kingdom · 1930 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
