A sad-funny postcard from Schwarzburg

There is a charity shop in town called the SPCA. People can drop off everything they do not want anymore. Really anything. And they do. From the sales of the donated articles an animal shelter is funded and maintained. This shop is my Aladins cave. I buy many things there like ribbons, fabric and buttons that I use to decorate my handcrafted postcards. Today I found a pack of old color postcards - all written in german.

One of the cards comes from a city named Schwarzburg in Thueringen and was written at a time when this part of Germany was still socialist Eastern Germany. The Berlin-wall was still intact and the German people lived in two separate states.

The postcard is not dated and the sales price for this card at the time was DDR 0,20 Mark.

The text has been printed with a typewriter and is signed "Hildegard" at the bottom.

Hildegard is writing to a woman named Berta and to Mrs. Kopp. Both women obviously lived in West-Germany. Hildegard thanks these women for the gifts she has received. Clothes that she could not buy in East-Germany.

Strange things happen in life. In South-Africa in a charity shop I find a postcard written in german by a woman during the time of the cold war.

The picture No 3 in the right hand corner is the " Rehabilitation Center KARL MARX"

Hildegard will remain unknown to me, I d'ont know if she is still alive but her postcard is representing history better than any book could. Nearly every german familiy had a relative on the " other side". My grandfather's brother lived in East-Berlin and when he was 65 he was allowed to visit us but only himself and not his wife. NO visits to the WEST before the age of 65. He always took back with him to the other side a bottle of cognac, a packet of coffee and cigarettes.

Mein liebe gute Berta!
Meine liebe gute Frau Kopp!
Vom ganzem Herzen moechte ich mich herzlich bedanken fuer das herrliche Paket, war das eine Freude! Diese wunderbaren Sachen. Das gibt es bei uns nicht zu kaufen. Alles passt grossartig und gefaellt mir sehr.Ich muss euch wirklich loben, Ihr seid so lieb und gut mit mir. Die Kinder haben an meinem Geburtstag einen Ausflug nach Lichtenstein gemacht. Reiner besuchte eine bekannte Familie und ich musste den grossen Berg mit hoch. Dann nochmals 80 Stufen, ich war erledigt. Dann hatt ich auch noch das Pech, dass mein Stuhl umkippte, war der Boden so uneben, und ich kullerte den ganzen Abhang hinunter, der Hund hinter mir her, der dachte ich machte Spass, aber mir war nicht danach.Mir tut heute noch alles weh. Hoffentlich geht es dir und Frau Kopp gesundheitlich , was ich Euch von Herzen wuensche.
Nochmals innige und Herzliche Gruesse
Eure Hildegard