Germany’s biggest treasure trove for postcards is in Cologne! Around 50,000 postcards are supposed to be stored in Walther Königs Postkartenladen.
When I was a teenager I used to buy my beloved black and white Willy Ronis and Robert Doisneau postcards here, and in fact, the shop opened its doors in 1981 as a branch of the famous Walther König art book publishers (whose flagship store is located today in Ehrenstraße 4, just a short walk away).
Some years ago, the postcards moved to the first floor of the shop. Nowadays, at street level, you find a nicely decorated modern gift shop with a notable selection of fancy gifts, stationary, design objects (e.g. by ferm Living or Normann Copenhagen) and Cologne souvenirs.
The upper floor has a totally different character: postcards everywhere! Some popular black and white postcards as well as those with fine art prints are displayed on the walls. But you can only discover the real treasure by browsing through the vintage cardboards with yellowed hand-written index cards. These amazing art postcards have been waiting here for decades to be found by you!
