Costumed, in Germany
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This is a real photo post card with no information except the identity of the photographer, Rudolf Müller in Görlitz, a town in Germany (in what would later be East Germany), identified by the embossed logo in the lower right of the image, plus a very faint stamp on the back. But there is no post card logo to help determine the date, and no information about who these people are. I initially assumed they were a group of Weimar-era actors or cabaret performers, but I’m also thinking they could be a group of friends decked out for a costume party, with what look like stray streamers on the floor suggesting a celebration. The person on the far left appears to be a woman in drag, and it’s hard not to love the brick dress and the giant bow that make the woman on the right look like a windmill. Whoever they are, and whatever they are doing, this image delights me. [As a side note, there are plenty of examples of this photographer’s work online, but finding biographical information about him is tricky because it seems there was also a man with the same name in the same town who was the local bishop, and whose information shows up more readily.]
Pics of Then 
Great fun! The windmill costume is very clever.
IT is! And it’s so unlike all the others.
It looks to me like the boys put in way less effort than the girls, but since all three of them seem to be dressed as the same thing (urban street bandits? I’m getting 3Penny Opera vibes), I wonder if there was some theme to it that I’m not understanding.
Yes, I have no idea. Maybe there’s a theme (or, if they’re performers, they’re character-specific outfits), or maybe only the windmill lady bothered to put much effort into it. I’ve wondered if seeing them in color would help us understand, like if there are certain thematic colors or something. Hard to say.
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