'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.
- Date
- 1914
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Austro-Hungarian wartime postcard (publisher not named)
- Country
- Austria Hungary
- Medium
- Postcard
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Austria Hungary
- Leader
- Franz Joseph I
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Reassure
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Plain folks
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (anonymous 1914 card; Commons PD-anon-expired, source ÖNB)
Austrian National Library (ÖNB), via Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
Frohe Weihnachten und glückliches Neujahr!
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
