As you know, most of the cards in this project are sent to me directly from islands. Others show uninhabited islands, and they're usually sent from mainland. Yesterday, while visiting the largest flea market in town, I found some old postcards and among them this one — sent from the German island Helgoland. Since I love visiting flea markets, and hope to find more of such cards, I'd like to include another category in my project — “vintage cards” that at some point were on islands.

As you can see the card was sent on 26th August 1935, when Germany was known as the Third Reich. (Please note that I publish the stamp only for educational purposes). The card is rather illegible, I can only see that it was sent to someone named Jenő who lived in Budapest's 8th district, and that it was written in Hungarian.

As it says in front of the card, the photo shows the west coast of the island, seen from the north.

Helgoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea, consisting of two islands - main island (Hauptinsel) and the dune (Düne), a smaller not permanently inhabited island. They are the only German islands not in the immediate vicinity of the mainland - it takes about three hours to reach them by ferry.

The island used to be called Heyligeland or "holy land", most probably because it was associated with the god Forseti. Nowadays it is a popular holiday resort and a dream destination for birdwatchers - the Heligoland Bird Observatory has recorded over 400 species crossing the North Sea.

Read more about the island.

helgoland

country

Germany

inhabitants

1,356

postcard sent

26.08.1935

distance travelled

~1081km