Historical and modern postcards

The collection contains more than 2,500 Beethoven-themed pieces, starting from the 1890s, when the first picture postcards began to circulate, to the present day. With flair and imagination, they cover a wide range of genres: from portraits to landscapes, art to documentary, the gallant to the celebratory, the erotic to the political, the promotional to the humorous, all in different formats using different printing techniques. 

A large part of the collection includes exhibits from the “Golden Age of the Postcard”, featuring the famous “Gruß Aus” (Greetings from), produced from 1890 until the start of the Great War using chromolithography, a technique that involved overprinting colours up to 12 times!

The number of postcards (many of them postmarked) and the variety of techniques and genres gives us a fair understanding of how much Beethoven was loved, not only by publishers and printers, but also by ordinary people who liked sending mementos or greetings with his image. 

Used vintage postcards are particularly interesting, because the postmark turns them into documentary evidence of a specific time in people’s lives. They are a permanent record of an idea, an event, a mood, a memory, an expression of affection. Some do not have stamps or cancellations because privacy was important even in those times, so they were sent in sealed envelopes. Others bear dates and special Beethoven-themed cancellation marks. 

zoom_in zoom_in The first Beethoven-themed postcard, chromolithograph, 1897. zoom_in zoom_in Postcard sent on 13 March 1899 by “Emmy” who writes, next to Beethoven’s face: “Molto allegro e con brio”. Chromolithograph, Munich. zoom_in zoom_in Art Nouveau postcard with the Beethoven Monument in Münsterplatz, Bonn, postmarked 12 October 1905. zoom_in zoom_in Vienna, postcard with Beethoven Monument in Beethovenplatz, chromolithograph, postmarked 8 December 1898. zoom_in zoom_in Postcard with Max Klinger’s statue of Beethoven at the Vienna Secession in 1902, dedicated to the composer and enormously successful with the public. zoom_in A rare postcard from the early 1900s. Beethoven’s head made up of the characters from Fidelio. zoom_in zoom_in Erotic postcard with Beethoven’s face made up of female nudes, first decade 1900s. zoom_in zoom_in MICHAEL JEHNOW
Postcard dedicated to Beethoven composing the “Appassionata” Sonata, first decade 1900s. zoom_in zoom_in H. Delacroix, Danse antique inspirée par la 7me Symphonie de Beethoven, Salon de Paris, early 1900s. zoom_in zoom_in WALTER HAMPEL
Ode to Joy, allegory inspired by the Ninth Symphony, early 1900s. zoom_in zoom_in CARL NONN, German painter, *1876 – †1949.
Expressionist poster for the Beethoven Centenary in Bonn, 1927. zoom_in China, Beethoven Monument in Qingdao, early 2000s, with the notes of the Ode to Joy.
China opens up to Western music and Beethoven. zoom_in zoom_in Postal series of 16 postcards for the “Humorous Postcards and Drawings” exhibition, Paris, 1988. zoom_in zoom_in Sequins for Beethoven (portrait by Stieler) for New Year’s celebrations! (2018).