The cancellations of Kitzbühel Part 3b

Austrian stamps and mail which depict aspects of the town of Kitzbühel (continued).

The 100th birthday of the painter Alfons Walde (1891-1958) was marked by a stamp (ANK2049) showing his painting of 'Kitzbühel in snow'.

• Here is a much larger, clearer and better illustration of the stamp...
• Here's a FDC and a Maxicard showing Kitzbühel town centre.

This 5 schilling multicoloured stamp was designed by Auguste Böcskör, to reproduce Walde's painting 'Kitzbühel in Winter', engraved by Maria Laurent and printed in both recess [black] and photogravure [light cobalt, yellow, lilac-rose, red-lilac and brown-ochre] in an impression of 2.75 million; comb perforated 13.75 x 13.75. Alfons Walde produced this painting in 1924 for an Innsbruck competition on the general theme of a 'Winter Picture'. This stamp commemmorates the centenary of his birth.

Alfons Walde, the son of a Tirolean art teacher, was born on 8 February 1891 in Oberndorf. His first landscape water colours were created in the technique of Late Impressionism. In 1910, Walde began to study architecture in Vienna, but felt drawn more towards the fine arts. He was influenced by Gustav Klimt and, particularly when painting nudes, by Egon Schiele, though he could not achieve Schiele's expressionistic qualities. After the first world war, Walde settled in Kitzbühel, and painted popular motifs from his homeland: the landscape and the rural population of the high mountains, and also the beginnings of winter sport tourism, skiers, bobsledders and holidaymakers. These latter motifs he also used for numerous advertisement posters he designed for the tourist trade. After the second world war, Walde was mainly active as an architect and designed a number of country houses and hotels. Whilst staying at his sister's house in Kitzbühel he suffered a heart attack and died on 11th December 1958.

Alfons Petzold was born on 24th September 1882 in Vienna. He was the son of Friedrich Petzold, a paper-hanger and upholsterer, and of the latter's wife; Maria Schusters. The boy received his elementary school education in Vienna and Szegedin and tben, at the age of 15 years, entered the grammar school of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Pressbaum. He did quite well at school but when he attempted to obtain a skilled trade he found himself persecuted by the masters and older boys so that he had to earn his living by manual labour which affected his health. The death of his father from haemoptysis caused him to fall ill with pleuritis and the death of his mother in a traffic accident led to a complete breakdown. For a time Alfons Petzold lived in doss-houses and in the sewers but was rescued from this existence by a friend, Ludwig Ruppmeier, who helped him back into a normal life. However in 1908 he succumbed himself to haemoptysis and almost died from this illness. As a boy Alfons Petzold had been encouraged by his mother to study German literature and poetry and he had written libretti for the Vienna stage. Now he combined his experiences as a worker and a socialist with his poetry and his poems were brought to the notice of Lady Mühlwerth-Gärtner and the actor Ferdinand Gregori. He was sent to a T.B. nursing home at Alland where he met his first wife Johanna Kraml in 1911. When she died in 1914 he married Hedwig Gamillscheg with whom he lived in Kitzbühel. His poems were published as 'Strange Music' (1909), 'Trotz alledem' (1911) and 'Der Stahlerne Schrei' (1916). Of his five autobiographic novels the most important was 'Das rauhe Leben' (1920) and he also wrote sketches and short stories. Alfons Petzold died on 26th January 1923 at Kitzbühel. Here is the FDC with a Kitzbühel cancellation.

This cover was carried on the 12th balloon flight, which took off from Kufstein and landed at Kitzbühel on the 24th August 1972.

This letter was sent from Hallein in Salzkammergut to Kitzbühel. Inside is the date 12 Feb 1873 which disagrees with the cancellation of the 9th, but as the writing is different it is presumably a filing record of its arrival. As an official letter, it travelled free. The backstamps record its progress via Salzburg and Worgl

This letter was sent from Kitzbühel on 9 August 1912 to a Miss Gossner, from a farming community, who had evidently applied for a job. The text is: "Sehr geehrtes Fräulein! Mit Beziehung auf Ihr geschätztes Schreiben vom 8.d.m. teile ich Ihnen in sofortiger Erwiederung desselben mit, dass bei mir gegenwärtig eine Schreibstelle nicht zur Besetzung gelangt; ich verfüge über bewährte Kräfte, von denen mir bisher nicht bekannt ist, dass sie Ihre Stellungen bei mir wechseln wollen. Dieses zur geehrten Kenntnisnahme." which I translate as "Dear Miss [Gossner], with reference to your valued letter dated the 8th of this month, I inform you in immediate reply to the same, that I do not at present have any job vacancies; I [already?] have reliable staff, from which I do not see how I can change your employment status. You are honoured that I have read your letter. Your most humble and obedient servant". His staff weren't all that reliable - the letter has two overtyped and two manuscript corrections to the typing, as well as several Austrianisms and miss-spellings!

This postcard was sent from the military hospital in Kitzbühel to somewhere in Steiermark. The picture is a photo of a man (presumably the sender) wearing military uniform with no badges or insignia; both his hands are bandaged and he is wearing carpet slippers. The card has the pencil date 14/12/1915, a KuK Not-Reserve-Spital * Kitzbühel cachet and a boxed Militärpflege Portofrei instead of a cancelled stamp.

This postcard with Kitzbühel cancels and a 10 heller Notgeld has cachets from two local huts; the ski club; and the mountain rescue! There is a standard Chamois cancel dated 15/3/1954 on the 5g stamp, but there was no such rate at that date (even Inland Printed Matter was 30g) and it can only have been applied to obtain the cancellation. I'd suspect it's a fundraising, or even a fun, item.

©Andy Taylor. Last updated 29 Nov 2000