Austria as a book

Austria issued their first view cards in 1927, the last in 1996. In the period from 1938 to 1945 Austria was part of the Greater German Reich. Then, view cards were issued with the headline "Lernt Deutschland kennen (Get to know Germany)".

After WW II this slogan was changed into "LERNT ÖSTERREICH KENNEN! (Get to know Austria)" for all domestic cards and into "BESUCHET ÖSTERREICH! (Visit Austria)" - in two, three or four languages for cards with foreign postage indicia. In total some 7,000 view cards were issued.

Contrary to Germany and Switzerland, the ministry of economics took the extra cost over ordinary post cards in Austria and paid from its tourism promotion account. The ministry in Vienna followed the principle "who pays decides" and did not only decide on which regions or local communities were on the cards, but also what views. This created a lot of turmoil, especially in Graz, Austrias second largest city and the capital of Styria. They were denied a card in the beginning. In 1936, a real desaster developed from the plan to issue a card series with view descriptions in German, English, French, and Esperanto. As almost all of the description were faulty in English and French, the cards had to be replaced.

After WW II, a flood of view cards were issued in order to promote tourism and re-gain Austrias old strength as a holiday country. In the course of time, alternatives appeared such as websites and e-marketing and view card lost their former importance. In 1996 Austria issued the last set of cards.

The handbook covers almost 70 years of view cards. It displays documents and tells history as well as stories. It has the view descriptions of all Austrian cards and allows to identify the issue number of those cards which do not carry one. The handbook reports errors, overstatements of the local communities and it tells curiosities. A table lists the regions and cities which are on the views and tell the reader which views were used on more than one card. The DVD has pictures of all view cards ever issued in Austria.

. Medaille