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The office-of-posting cancel is readable (just) as 1/1 WIEN 1, confirmed by searching Stohl in which no other office in Austria in the relevant period had a Schalterbuchstabe (counter letter) of ‘12b’: so it’s his ‘A2527ie’, of type ‘6t20’ which is a bridge with hours and minutes.
There is a clear 25 in blue crayon at the top left corner and the delivery address is Wien I / Kriegsministerium / Liquidatur. The card has the standard three creases, so that the item can fit in the pneumatic Büchse; they appear contemporary not modern. The cancel 1/1 WIEN 1 would only have been applied to items posted at that office, or posted in a red pneumatic-letter-box whose contents were taken to that office. The creasing was done by the Büchse-fillers (sometimes they chose to roll items) not the cancelling clerks.
Hence if this item did go through a pneumatic pipe, it can only be a pipe from Wien 1 to Wien 25; and the only sensible route for such a pipe is directly between the offices. This item is further confirmation that a service was routinely provided to office Wien 25, and strongly suggests that the provision was by means of a pneumatic pipe, not a foot messenger.
The message is handwritten in German and of a private nature, not official business. It says:
| Lieber Poldi! Ich soll dich für Schwarz um folgendes bitten: 1) Wenn Du ihn für heute Donnerstag Abend ein Rendezvous gibst, so bittet er dich, dass bis er kommt zu warten, er wird nämlich weil er länger Dienst hat, etwas später kommen, etwa um ¼ 11h. Ich würde wenn ich Zeit hätte dir Gesellschaft leisten, aber bin leider abgehalten. 2) Wenn Du ihn für Donnerstag noch nicht bestellt hast, tue es nicht mehr, sondern bestelle ihn für morgen Freitag irgend wohin u. schreibe gleichzeitig auch mir, damit auch ich dorthin kommen kann. Bestens grüssend, Max | Dear Poldi! I would ask you the following on Schwarz behalf. 1) If you make an appointment for today, Thursday, evening, he would like him to wait until he gets there, he will in fact get there a bit later, at around 10:15, as he is on duty longer. If I had time I would accompany you but am unfortunately unable to do so. 2) If you have not yet made an appointment with him for Thursday, don’t do it now, but make one with him for tomorrow, Friday, somewhere or other and write to me at the same time as well so I can also be there. Best regards, Max |
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