Ernst Freihoff may not be a familiar name to many, but to many girls who grew up in or spent time in Germany in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, his company’s Glanzbilder was an essential part of childhood. What are Glanzbilder? You may know them as Scrapbilder, Poesiebilder, Albumbilder, Rosenbilder, or even Oblaten. These colorful sets of pictures were printed on a 23 cm by 16.5 cm sheet, with little tabs between the images. What kind of pictures? Hearts, flowers, trees, Christmas Motifs, toys, and the most adorable animals. These pictures could be separated and traded or pasted into Poesie albums along with a poem.
My cousin helped me start my collection many years ago. We would ride our bicycles to the local stationary store and spend ages debating which ones we had to have. After buying them, we would carefully split some of the sheets in half to “double” the types of images in our collection. I still have an envelope full of them here at home, many still in the original cellophane. Looking through them always makes me smile.
But what started the Glanzbilder mania? How did people get caught up in collecting and trading these colorful pictures? Believe it or not, the story starts with Beef Extract…
Invention of Glanzbilder
In 1837, when Godefroy Engelmann patented his “litho-color press or color lithography imitating painting,” a color printing technique called a Chromolithograph, he was convinced his works would replace paintings. They didn’t. (Well, not really, unless you consider the 1972 Pink Floyd concert poster you had hanging in your dorm room to be fine art.) What DID happen is that more and more companies used Chromolithography, and over time, printing and paper became cheaper and cheaper. Suddenly, even people of average means could afford to have colorful pictures hanging on their walls (like your Pink Floyd poster).
Note—German playwright Alois Senefelder patented the lithographic printing process in 1799 because he needed a cheap way to reproduce his plays. He stopped at black-and-white. Engelmann took the idea and added 20 colors.
The first Glanzbilder were produced a few years later by the fine art printer Hagelberg, Berlin. That same year, 1860, he also created a portrait of Lincoln that you can find today in the Library of Congress collection. German bakeries set those early pictures on cakes and Lebkuchen as decoration. But because they were so pretty, people usually saved the pictures to use again.
“Leibing Extract” and the Collecting Craze!
My mom tells me stories about collectible pictures that came in certain products, like margarine, that kids went crazy for. Putting collectible pictures in products started in 1875 when a marketing genius came up with the idea to include a numbered picture with every jar of Liebing Extract (beef bullion). Suddenly, everyone HAD to have the whole set! Other companies learned fast, and by 1890, the collecting mania was a thing. Printers produced special books to collect and mount these advertising images.
Then, the collections began to blur. As the mania for collecting images grew, people got more creative with HOW they kept them. Collectors pasted the most beautiful pictures into journals or family albums as decoration. These memory albums or scrapbooks were used to preserve memories (which explains why the English name for Glanzbilder is “Scrap pictures”). Visitors might sign someone’s book and glue a Glanzbild next to the signature. (Remember, this was before everyone had a camera on their phone! Memories were preserved differently)
While the advertising images remained collectible, the Glanzbilder, pictures that exist just because they are pretty, gained importance.
Poesiealbum von Hedwig, 1901, Kurrentschrift, nördl. Niedersachsen
What are Glanzbilder?
Don’t confuse Glanzbilder with stickers! Glanzbilder aren’t backed with an adhesive. Instead, a set of images, all related by theme, gets printed on a 24.5 cm by 13.5 (or sheet size A57) glossy paper. The paper is then embossed, giving the images a dimensional feel. Then, the white space between the images gets mostly cut away, leaving tabs holding the images together. The “fancy” ones go back through a glitter process (these are everyone’s favorite… think about how your kids got excited about shiny Pokemon cards). The cutting (actually punching) and glitter are still done by hand.
Stationery stores sold the Albumbilder by the sheet, and people lined up to find the newest and prettiest ones. Common images were flowers or animals, but holiday images, especially Christmas pictures, are very popular.
What do people DO with the pictures?
Many Glanzbilder were collected because, well, they are pretty pictures. Most commonly, the images were glued into Albums, like Poesie Albums, along with a poem or saying. (What is a Poesie Album? Think of them as autograph books. You let a friend inscribe with a lovely poem or phrase, something to remember them by forever. Poesie Albums were all the rage. Again, this was before Facebook and before people had yearbooks to sign at the end of the school year).
Hannes Grobe, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons
Creative people took things even further. Christmas Glanzbilder glued to a bit of stiffer cardboard made beautiful Christmas Tree Ornaments or could be used to decorate a Christmas Card or letter. Decoupaging (gluing the pictures on a box and then covering them with clear lacquer) jewelry boxes or keepsake boxes was a great way to “pretty up” a plain box. You will still see people using them on Easter Eggs! And Mothers used them to decorate Schultüten for their children. If something could be decorated, a Glanzbild might just find its way onto it. Think of it as clip art in the days before computers.
Of course, Glanzbilder were traded on the school playground, sort of like Baseball Cards. People specialized in flowers or animals, wanting full sets of special images.
Keeping the Glanzbilder Tradition Alive
Although the peak of Glanzbilder trading happened between 1880 and 1910, in 1948, Ernst Freihoff founded the Ernst Freihoff Papierwarenvertriebsgesellschaft mbH (say THAT three times fast!) in Coesfeld. Why? According to company legend, he started the printing company with only 15 Glanzbilder designs. After seeing an older woman get misty-eyed when she saw the Glanzbilder he had produced, he decided to devote his business to the publication of Glanzbilder design. Over time, the company grew to produce over 260 different designs!
Today, Ernst Freihoff’s children still run the company in Coesfeld. They are the last of the German Glanzbilder producers still standing, and they focus on the “nostalgia” side of Glanzbilder. Company employees travel to Flea Markets, secondhand stores, and Ephemera Sales every year, searching for undiscovered Glanzbilder sheets to reproduce. Today the company produces 400 different designs! And they still do print runs the old-fashioned way, with the 24-color printers their father used. Punching out the spaces and glitter is done by hand.
Most Glanzbilder are bought around Christmastime to use as decorations. They also find their way into scrapbooks to enhance family photo albums. Thanks to the current trend of decorative journaling (it’s huge with my youngest and her friends), a whole new generation is buying Glanzbilder.
Did You Collect Glanzbilder? Do you still have them?
Some call them Kitsch, nostalgic old pictures of a time gone by. But for the many of us who still have a stack of Glanzbilder tucked away in a drawer, they are as important as a baseball card collection or stubs of concert tickets. They represent a time when we wrote poems in albums for our friends and included our favorite Glanzbild as a memory keeper. A remembrance of a simpler time, but printed in 24 colors and dusted with glitter!
Add to Your Collection Here
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Glossy pictures Poetry pictures Little Riding Hood Fairytale 7019
Glossy Pictures Poetry Pictures Nostalgia Animals, g7323Glossy pictures poetry pictures flowers glitter 7321Glossy pictures Poetry Nostalgia, dwarfs, fairy tales, 7 different motifs with and without glitter 7265, 7145, 7142, 7117, 7114, 7020 Ernst FreihoffPoetry Nostalgia, roses, fruit, grapes, pigeons, tulips, with and without glitter,7005, 7065, 7066, 7073, 7092, 7176, 7224, 7311Glanzbilder Poesieb. Nostalgia flower children, elves, 5 different motifs with and without glitter 7425, 7309, 7412, 7359, 7184Glossy Pictures Poetry Pictures Hansel and Gretel 7025 GGlanzbilder Poesieb. Nostalgia wedding, love, trutel pigeons, elves, 6 different motifs with glitter 7250, 7233, 7171, 7126, 7110, 7022
Easter Glanzbilder
For Paper Mache Eggs and Cards
German Embossed Vintage Style Scrap Die Cut Relief – Easter Egg Bunny EF7349Germany Paper Scraps Lithographed Die Cut Victorian Easter Rabbits 7256Gloss pictures 7300 ef 8 flower crosses (published in 2008)German Scraps – Easter, Chickens, Rabbits – Die Cuts, Cut Outs, Reproduction, Vintage Style, Junk Journal Paper Ephemera, Easter Ephemeraintage/Antique Easter Chicks w/Eggs Diecut Victorian Scrap 12 pcs
Christmas Glanzbilder
Glossy pictures Poetry Nostalgia Santa Claus, 9 various. Christmas motifs with and without glitter 7314, 7403, 7379, 7304, 7305, 7285 FreihoffGlanzbilder Poesiebilder Nostalgia Christmas tree, with and without glitter, 7390Glanzbilder Poesiebilder Nostalgie Santa Claus, with and without glitter, 7219, Ernst Freihoff, German Embrossed, Vintage Style, ScrapGlossy pictures Poetry pictures Nostalgia Santa Claus, 8 different Christmas motifs with and without glitter 7195B, 7051, 7218, 7220, 7271, EFGlanzbilder Poesiebilder Nostalgie Maria und Josef Krippe Weihnachten, mit und ohne Glitter, 7202, Ernst Freihoff, German Embrossed, VintageGlanzbilder 7331 ef 6 standing Santa Clauses, 10 Santa Claus heads and 2 Santa Clauses with sleigh (published 2010)
Glossy pictures Poetryb. Nostalgia Santa Claus, Christmas 6 different Christmas motifs without glitter 7385, 7071, 7160, 7153, 7159, 7258Glossy Pictures Poetry Pictures Nostalgia Santa Claus, 6 Different Christmas Motifs Without Glitter 7306, 7331, 7194, 7260, 7243, 7313
Valentine Motif’s
Perfect for making your own Valentine’s Day cards or notes…
Glanzbilder Poesie Nostalgia, Blumen 11 versch. Motifs with and without glitter 7393,7362,7351,7346,7344,7330,7279,7182,7111 Ernst FreihoffGlossy Pictures Poetry Pictures Nostalgia Cats , 7139Glanzbilder mit und ohne Glitter, Poesiebilder, Kinder, 7129, Ernst Freihoff, German Embrossed, Vintage Style, ScrapGlanz Poesiebilder Nostalgie Rosen, Taube, mit und ohne Glitter, 7232, Ernst Freihoff, German Embrossed, Vintage Style, Scrap, 27 x 17 cm
Hello
It was so lovely to find and read this article about Glanzbilder, although I never knew them by that name. I called them Oblaten. I grew up in England but had a German mum, and most summers of my childhood were spent in Germany. This was in the 60’s-70’s. I think I was also introduced to Oblaten through a cousin. I loved them and collected them in a book for years, and I still have some. A lot of your picture on your site were very familiar. It was lovely to see them again! (: Because I grew up in England I had no friends to share this with. It was something I did very much alone. Thank you for your article, it was so nice to read about the history and get a context, and to know I wasn’t the only child in the world collecting these little pictures!
My cousin called them Oblaten too. And like you, my friends (in the US) didn’t know them either. Maybe that’s why I still have them? There was no one to give them too or trade with