Postcard

Picture postcard to Julius Oppenheimer on military service at Ulm — picture side with message

10.11.1905from Heilbronn, Germanybetween Julius Oppenheimer, Elsa Oppenheimer2 pages

Original — Deutsch

[Gedruckte Bildseite:]
L. KAEMPFF   [Ladenschild im Bild]
Kaiserstrasse
Gruss aus Heilbronn.

[Handschrift, rechter Rand, von oben nach unten:]
Lieber Julius!
Mit deiner
Karte habe
ich mich sehr
gefreut u.
sage dir mei-
nen besten
Dank dafür.
Meinen
[?] sei-
ne Adresse
schreibe ich
[... illegible]
ist im La[za?]-
rett[?]. Herzliche
Grüße von Allen
Elsa[?]

[Handschrift, unterer Bildrand links, größere/ruhigere Hand:]
Musk[?]. R.[?] Oppenheimer
8 Bad. Inf. Regiment 169. 6 Comp. Lahr.

Translation — English

[Printed picture side:]
L. KAEMPFF   [shop sign in the photograph]
Kaiserstrasse
Greetings from Heilbronn.

[Handwriting, right-hand margin, running top to bottom:]
Dear Julius!
With your
card I was
very much
pleased, and
I send you my
best
thanks for it.
My
[?] his
address
I am writing
[... illegible]
is in the mili[tary]
hospital[?]. Warm
regards from everyone
Elsa[?]

[Handwriting, lower edge of the picture side, in a larger, steadier hand:]
Musk[eteer?] R.[?] Oppenheimer
8th Baden Infantry Regiment 169, 6th Company, Lahr.

Historical context

This is the picture side of a commercial view-card, "Gruss aus Heilbronn", showing the Kaiserstrasse; on an undivided-back card of this period the message had to be squeezed onto the picture side, which is what happened here. The card is addressed on the verso to an Oppenheimer serving with Infanterie-Regiment "Kaiser Wilhelm, König von Preußen" (2. Württ.) Nr. 120 in Ulm and was posted at Gemmingen on 10 November 1905 (see 001_018_0002), so the salutation "Lieber Julius" appears to be Julius Oppenheimer (b. 1882 Gemmingen), who would have been 23 and of military-service age. The writer appears to be passing on the address of a second soldier in the family — "Musk[etier?] R.[?] Oppenheimer, 8. Badisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 169, 6. Kompanie, Lahr" — written along the bottom edge, which matches the sentence "...seine Adresse schreibe ich...". The card therefore documents the Oppenheimers of Gemmingen in ordinary Wilhelmine provincial life, with sons serving in the imperial army, some 37 years before Julius and Elsa Oppenheimer were deported and murdered at Piaski in 1942.

On this transcription

Machine transcription (claude-opus-5) — not yet checked against the original scan. 6 passages marked doubtful in the text.

Re-read from the original scan on 2026-07-28. Legibility: fair. [?] marks are deliberate gaps, not transcription errors. The scan is low resolution (1560 px wide) and the message is written with a broad nib in a hurried Latin-cursive German hand, becoming badly crowded in the bottom right corner where lines overlap. Lines 1-9 ('Lieber Julius!' ... 'Meinen') are secure. The word after 'Meinen' (line 10, ending '...sei-') I cannot read: it is roughly eight letters, opening with a b/B-like loop and containing a descender loop; do not trust any reconstruction. Line 13 is fully illegible. 'ist im La[za?]-/rett[?]' (i.e. 'Lazarett', military hospital) is a partial reading: 'im' is clear, the following letters are consistent with 'Laza-' + 'rett' hyphenated across the line break, but the corner is overwritten and a human checker should verify this first. The signature reads 'Elsa' or possibly 'Else'/'Elise' — note that Elsa Oppenheimer (b. 1894) would have been only 11 in 1905, so this may be a child's card or a different Elsa; the given name is written over other strokes. 'Karte habe' could also be read 'Karte haben'; grammar favours 'habe'. In the bottom address, 'Musk.' (Musketier) and the initial 'R.' are both uncertain — the initial could be K; '8 Bad.' (8. Badisches) is supported by the fact that Inf.-Regt. Nr. 169 was indeed the 8th Baden regiment garrisoned at Lahr, and '169', '6 Comp.' and 'Lahr' are clear. Revised readings: The supplied metadata dates this card c. 1900 and links Elsa and Josef Oppenheimer; the Gemmingen postmark on the verso reads 10.11.05, i.e. 10 November 1905, and Josef Oppenheimer was not born until 1925, so he cannot be connected with this card. I first took the bottom-left line to be a postal forwarding/redirect address; on reflection it reads as the address the writer is passing on in the message body ('...seine Adresse schreibe ich...'), since the card itself was never readdressed. I also first read line 10 as 'Bruder' and rejected it — the stroke count is too high and I could not confirm it, so it stands as [?].