April 30, 2018 Comments Off on Dreaming of the future: postcards from 1900 that imagined inventions of the year 2000 Views: 3787 Nostalgia, Postcards

The industrial revolution of the 19th century unquestionably enhanced the forward-thinking spirit of humans. It showed what new possibilities were out there thanks to new technologies and the array of new sciences that were just getting established at the end of the century and the beginning of the new one. Faith in technology was pumped to the degree that big ocean-liners such as the RMS Titanic were cherished (and mourned) at the global level.

This euphoria did not exclude Germans who obviously also had a vision for a future where technology will have its touch even to the most mundane of things, like walking down the pavement. As Rare Historical Photos also shares, a German chocolate factory known as Theodor Hildebrand & Son, founded in 1817 by the confectioner Theodor Hildebrand in the center of Berlin, took its bid to foresee the future. For the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, this factory produced a set of 12 futuristic postcards that imagined the country of Germany hundred years from then on. They used the postcards to market their best sweets at the fair, and this genuine marketing campaign eventually picked the name…

…Germany in the year 2000

As one can notice, some of the predictions turned out fairly accurate such as the postcards that depict ideas of personal airships, weather controlling machines or live broadcast of theater plays. Ideas from other postcards are disturbingly possible in the near future, such as going for some summer vacationing on the North Pole.

Theodor Hildebrand & Son themselves had experienced the benefits of new technologies. Merely two decades after this chocolate factory was founded, it became the first in the country (then Prussia) that used steam engines for the chocolate production line. They were able to produce more chocolate for a cheaper price. Thus their zest for a future with many new inventions as shown in the postcards.

We also thought to remind you of the Graf Zeppelin, the first aircraft in human history that flew over a million miles in the 1930s

(Photo courtesy: Hildebrands/Public Domain)

Tags: Berlin virtual memoirs, Germany, Hildebrand & Son, memorabilia, old postcards, Paris, postcards, postcards of the future, Virtual Memoirs Berlin