This card was sent from Michedorf, located about nine kilometres from Potsdam. The population is about 7500 people.  This card is a landscape painting by Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898). He was a Russian landscape painter and graphic artist. He is considered one of the most famous landscape painters of the post-reform era.  On 20 March 1898, he died suddenly of a heart attack is Saint Petersburg, sitting in front of a new painting. 

From the Bibliophilia: 100 LIterary Postcards  collection is a quote from Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness.  Heart of Darkness  was released as a serial in 1899. It tells of the Charles Marlow, a steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. It is a critique of European colonial rule in Africa. Captain Marlow is given an assignment to find an ivory trade worker named Kurtz. Kurtz works at a trading station far up the river and is suspected of "gone native."

I've received many cards from Cologne ( Köln) and sometimes forget what I have written about them. Since this card has a basketball playing racoon on it, I decided to check out Cologne's Basketball Bundesliga team. However, they don't have one, nor have they ever had one (as far as I can see). So down a league to the 2.Basketball Bundesliga, but no sign of a Cologne team. Cologne does have a team in the ProA, the second tier of professional basketball in Germany - the RheinStars  Köln.  RheinStars  Köln were founded in 1999 as the Cologne 99ers. They have also been the RheinEnergie  Köln and the  Köln 99ers. They have had their current moniker since 2013. They play in Motorworld Cologne, which has a capacity of 1700 people. They have won the German Championship once, three German Cups, and one BBL Champions Cup. RheinStars  Köln have only played in the ProA four seasons, playing at a variety of different levels starting with the 2.Regionliga, the 1.Regionli...

An American state card for Arizona. It shows that the state bird is a cactus wren; the state flower is the saguaro cactus blossom; the date of statehood was February 14, 1912; the capital city is Phoenix; and the population is 6 931 071. The sender is from Safford, a small city of just over 10 000 people, northeast of the  Pinaleño Mountains. Mining copper and gold are a big part of the local economy, and there is also an Arizona State Prison Complex here. Cotton is the main agricultural product and the city has a cotton gin.   

 

I just texted my colleague who speaks Mandarin and she explains that this card in Chinese culture, it is considered an auspicious beast, a symbol of protection, good fortune, and wealth. Many families and businesses display statues or images of it for luck.