Vor dem Sturm

I named this post “Before the Storm” because that is also the title of a novel by Theodor Fontane, which of all his works is my favourite; and because two of the objects presented date from the two years before the outbreak of the First World War. The third object presented, a field postcard, was written in the spring of 1918, long after the storm had turned into a raging hurricane. The motif on t…