Monday, August 1, 2011

To Herr Stoltz

I have a small collection of very beautiful cards that were sent to Adolf Stoltz in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Most of the cards were sent from friends in his hometown of Markirch, Germany. The town of Markirch was located in the Alsace region of Germany, but is now part of France and known as Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines.

This card was sent on the 20th of December,1909 to wish Herr Stoltz a Happy New Year. The child on the front is carrying a giant 100 Mark note.

Here's the back of the card.

The message reads:

Your friend from home sends you a thousand greetings and kisses. Wish you and the Lutz Family good fortune and blessings in the New Year.  I hope to get a card to read soon. Work in Marckirch is very bad. Best Wishes  Georges Scherdel

According to this genealogy website for Sainte-Marie-Aux-Mines, Joseph Lutz and Adele Stoltz married in June of 1899.  Adolf may have moved to the United States with them shortly thereafter.

8 comments:

  1. What a beautiful card, and the handwriting is so neat.

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  2. Das ist gut! Such a lovely card and I had no idea that that area that was once Germany is now France! Maybe I understand a bit more of why my mother had a few bones to pick with France...I seem to remember that a part of Germany now was actually Poland....it's much like here as well. The State of Missouri actually was larger than it is today....Thanks for the great post! and thanks for your suggestion on the rest of the Greed, love and power story, which I might just spill a bit more of....! Have a great week ahead!

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  3. Charming card! Love the child holding the money. And the writing on the back is lovely.

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  4. Such a beautiful card and good to see some 'old' German handwriting which I can actually read (I'm sure you know the style which I can't read at all :))

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  5. Great card, the gold highlighting really makes the image jump, almost 3-D, and the crisp detailing on the mark note in front of the black background is very nice too. I assume the child is a boy- he definitely would have gotten picked on/beat up on my block if he wore that cute outfit on any day other than Halloween...

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  6. What a dramatic effect the black background gives. And great quality for looking that great after being around for over 100 years!

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