German Imperial Cigarette Card?

RON

RON

Well-known member
As this one was most probably made from a real photo, I'm posting it here...

Don't know much about it except that it was sold to me in one of my first militaria shows as a 'cigarette card' but I have no idea what excatly this is/was and if it's wartime or post-war or maybe WW2 (since it says on the reverse: Foto: Bundesarchiv). From what's on the reverse, I'm guessing these were used as currency by the military to buy cigarettes but that's it.

GermanCigaretteCard-WW1a.jpg

GermanCigaretteCard-WW1b.jpg
 
Good observation George! :thumb up:
You can also see the special steel scabbard the Germans developed for the captured Mosin-Nagant M91 socket bayonets (the Russians didn't have one!) on the sentry's belt...
 
Funny how monikers last the test of time. During the "Cold War" we still referred to Russian troops as "Ivan", just like the reverse side of your card.
 
These cards formed a kind of promotion, an extra advertisement, for the children of the smokers. The children or their parents could collect the whole series of these postcards.
In this period and also later in the 20th century adding all kinds of pictures to products, like cookies, or coffee or something else, was quite common in Europe. For Example: In Holland we had a cookies factory publishing in 1914 a series of postcards and small jig saw puzzles , representing Dutch soldiers during their mobilization. The pictues could be collected and sticked into the right places in a pre-printed book with texts.
In my youth, some 40 years later, they still added little comic books to "Bazooka" bubble-gum, etc, etc. :)
 
Thanks for the info. Pierre.
Do you think this is a wartime print or later (since it says on the reverse: 'Foto: Bundesarchiv')?
 
The photo says "Reichsarchiv", Ron, instead of the modern "Bundesarchiv", as far as I can see from here. So, it is possible a period image of about 1915-1918.
 
You're right Pierre, it doesn't say 'Bundesarchiv' but I thought maybe this was a WW2 card?
 
I don't know for sure, Ron , I would have to check if there is still something known about the cigarette manufacturer. It could have been WW2 also.
But on the other hand, the Austrian Corporal was more interested that his German youth of the 1930ies handled the more modern weapons of those times like the Panzerfaust, looking all forward to the promised coming victories instead of looking back to a lost war.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top