I spent the bulk of May in Berlin, one of my favorite cities in the world. One Saturday, we trekked out to a flea market on the Western edge of Berlin. One couple was looking for stuff to furnish a new apartment with, another was hunting family photo albums, but I had my heart set on finding something German, paper and cool. So, while Yukari dug around looking for glassware, I hit the stacks.
Tucked in between a children’s book and a random German novel, I hit paydirt. I found three colored envelopes, made of thin, folded cardboard, each with a different motif. Inside were cards, about the size of a 3×5 index card, printed on thin, yellowing paper, with a cool picture on the front and an explanatory paragraph on the back. Each set had a different theme: world history, cultural history of Europe and (wait for it) outer space! The very best part: they were printed in the early 30s and all of the text is written in fraktur.
I’m scanning them in as I get time, but here’s one awesome example. The arrow, pointing to a totally random point in a make-believe galaxy, says “Here’s where we live”. Click on it to see others:
