Kaufbeuren train station
By: usermattw
Tags: antiques, Kaufbeuren, photography, train station, vintage photography
Category: Groups
Click here to view it larger.
This is a real photo postcard without any manufacturer’s logo, but handwritten on the back is “Kaufbeuren 1934”. Kaufbeuren is a town in the Bavarian part of Germany. I noticed the sign on the wall to the right, which says “Aktienbrauerei Kaufbeuren”. That’s the name of the historic local brewery, and I assumed this was a group portrait of the brewery workers. But the building doesn’t look like the brewery buildings I was seeing online, and I realized the sign might just be an advertisement, so I decided to keep digging. There are train tracks in front, and the lettering at the top of the wall is German for “waiting room”, so I thought maybe it was the train station. The current train station is more modern, but a search for the older station turned up this image here. Comparing details, I’m pretty sure that’s the same building. Having figured that out, I still don’t know who all these people are. Employees of the railway? It’s hard to be sure. But it’s a great set of faces to stare at, and connections and interactions to examine. And I love the way two guys threw themselves onto the dirt down front to honor that funny old vintage group photo posing convention.
Pics of Then 
They’re definitely in work clothes, but what kind of work? The women were probably kitchen workers who fed the men, who were doing manual labor of some kind. At least, that would be my guess.
Agreed about them being workers. There are a handful of men in what look like uniforms, which I assumed were somehow train-related, like porters or something. But now that I’m looking closer at the hats, I realize it might be Nazi insignia, though those details are somewhat blurry. I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t spot that before posting this, particularly given the year and location. I don’t know if these people are all related to the train station or railroad, or if it just happened to be a good place to take this picture. It’s still an interesting image.
yeah, the eagles on the visored uniform caps worry me. But apparently the railways weren’t taken over by the Nazi regime until the mid 1930’s, and I would have guessed most of the clothing here was a bit earlier than that. Although it could be that these work outfits are just not the height of fashion at the time. Could this 1910 August Sander picture give us any hope, though? Compare.
Okay, it’s not looking that great, but I still would like to find something from the 1920s or earlier in the 1930s to check, because it looks like there was something eaglish on the caps way before the Nazi takeover. I just realized the word “Bahnbeamte” could be helpful, but I’m out of time to keep searching right now. (What’s the German for “tantalizing rabbit hole”?)
DUH, I just saw that you put the date on here. Well, I was right that it was earlier than the Nazi takeover, which was supposedly 1937. But then why would Nazi eagles already be on the caps? Either I haven’t found the right explanation of the takeover, or the insignia is from something else. I did just find a photo from 1928, and the cap looks very similar to those in the 1910 Sander photo; not sure that helps.
Darn you, White Rabbit! must crawl out…
Haha, no worries, I love following you down rabbit holes. We’re operating under the assumption that whoever wrote the date on the back was correct. And we’re assuming that all these people are somehow affiliated with the rail system because the picture was taken at a train station. Reasonable assumptions, though we’re still left with questions.