How the German colonizers used postcards as a PR tool to promote their colonial power in Micronesia

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Our Islands Our People By Raquel Bagnol

In the late 1800s, postcards were among the world’s most powerful storytelling tools. Travelers mailed them from wherever they happened to be. These simple rectangles were the 19th-century version of Instagram, YouTube, or travel vlogs. Now, in the age of social media, people upload photos or videos, or go live, to share their travel experiences.

During the German occupation of Micronesia, postcards shaped how the outside world imagined the Pacific islands.

Dr. Dirk H.R. Spennemann’s 2006 research digs into what the postcards showed, why they depicted certain scenes and how they formed the world’s perceptions of island life. The study, titled “The Imagery of Postcards Sold in Micronesia During the German Colonial Period,” was published in the Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Austrian postal service introduced the first postcards in 1870. Soon after, Europe and the United States followed the trend. There were privacy concerns since the sender's notes were open for anyone to see. Yet, postcards quickly caught on and remained highly popular until the onset of email in the 1990s.

The Pacific was ahead of the trend. Postcards had been popular in Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii and Tahiti since the 1880s. These islands benefited from the thriving postcard market because they were the transit points along major travel and shipping routes.

Samoa became known for postcards featuring not just landscapes but also semi-clad women, a trend aimed at foreign buyers seeking “exotic” imagery.

Micronesia was considered off the beaten path. Its islands received fewer visitors and therefore had a much smaller postcard market.

The very first Micronesian postcards appeared around 1898, shortly after Germany colonized several island groups. The earliest postcards were those from the Marshall Islands, followed later by a series from Pohnpei, Yap, Palau and the Marianas. They focused on scenic views, island life and everyday culture.

Over time, however, postcards became a public relations tool for Germany. The newer postcard series highlighted Germany’s colonial presence in Micronesia. Cultural images were gradually replaced by administrative buildings, military posts, European-style streets, flags and other German-centric symbols aimed at showcasing the islands’ transformation under colonial rule.

Spennemann identified three postcard styles in German-era Micronesia. First, there were lithographed cards created by artists, some colorful and depicting idyllic scenes of the “South Seas,” while others displayed colonial power, featuring German flags, large official buildings and ships.

Next came the early photographic cards, which featured a collage of two or three small images of villages, harbors, landscapes and native people. The sender could write their messages beside the photos.

The third design was the full-face photo postcards, which emerged after 1907. These postcards were borderless, with a single image that filled the entire card, offering a clearer, more striking view of the islands and the unmistakable symbols of German colonial rule.

To understand why postcards mattered so much, think of them as the Instagram of their time. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, postcards were easy to send and widely shared. People collected them in much the same way we save and share photos with our phones today.

When sending postcards home, some travelers chose images that reflected how they wanted to be seen, such as "adventurous" or "worldly."

For people who had never visited Micronesia, postcards became their “window” into island life. However, it was a window built by outsiders, not the locals.

Spennemann analyzed hundreds of postcards from collectors, archives and auctions. The following themes stood out across islands: postcards from Pohnpei depicted images of German administrative buildings, groups of workers and lush greenery, portraying the island as orderly and fertile.

In the Marianas, the postcards emphasized education, churches, training centers, streets and harbors.

Postcards of the Marshall Islands included views of the lagoon, traditional canoes, churches and scenes of chiefs (irooj). Many were labeled “Gruss aus Jaluit,” which means “Greetings from Jaluit.”

The postcards from Nauru highlighted village scenes, traditional houses and children. Only a small number of postcards depicted mining activity on the islands.

Postcards from Palau mostly featured the famous bai or traditional meeting houses, making them strong symbols of Palauan culture.

Chuuk had only one known German-era postcard. It featured a church youth group from 1911. Yap postcards covered everything from landscapes to group portraits of men and women in traditional dress.

Across all postcards studied, Spennemann noted the dominant themes were as follows: 33 percent covered colonial topics; 26 percent showed landscapes; 24 percent featured ethnographic scenes including clothing, activities and daily life; and 5 percent showed exploitative images of women in semi-nude or sexually suggestive images.    These postcards were found only in Samoa and Tahiti.

Spennemann noted that the most essential aspect of the postcards was not what they showed, but what they did not show. For instance, none of the 17 German-era postcards in the Marianas showed the beautiful landscapes or iconic latte stones such as the House of Taga on Tinian.

The postcards were created by colonial officials, merchants or traveling photographers. The publishers of the postcards chose images that reflected their priorities, their worldview and their idea of what would sell. They hardly represented Micronesian perspectives or daily experiences.

Spennemann said that postcards with photographs by Marshallese photographer Joachim de Brum were among the few series rendered from a local perspective.

In the end, the postcards of German-era Micronesia are a reminder that images are not always neutral. A single picture can shape how the world views a culture, a community or a place. For most Europeans, postcards were their only link to Micronesia. What they saw was filtered, edited and limited to only what the postcard publishers wanted them to see.

P.S.: Postcards aren’t completely gone. In 1926, the USPS mailed out 1.5 billion postcards. That number dropped to 325.9 million in 2024, a huge decline, but still a reminder that even in a digital world, people continue to send little pieces of themselves and their adventures through the mail.

Raquel Bagnol is a longtime journalist. She worked as a reporter for Marianas Variety on Saipan and Island Times in Palau. Send feedback to gukdako@yahoo.com

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