Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
Today we see a typed letter from 20-year old soldier Paul Zerzawy, who has been in the Austro-Hungarian army for almost a year, interrupting his university studies (see October 16th post). He is writing to his 17-year old brother Robert, a high school student in Brüx, Bohemia. It amazes me that letters with no street address arrived at their destination. According to Wikipedia, the population of Most (the Czech name for Brüx) was more than 48,000 in 1910 and almost 52,000 in 1921.
Belgrade, 23 October 1916
My dears!
You can imagine what a joy it was for me to receive Robert’s telegram! Unfortunately, the address is so garbled that I cannot write to Erich right away. Please be so kind as to send me Erich’s address and all such details in a letter, if you haven’t already. Nothing new here, date of my return isn’t determined yet.
Paul
The ink stamp on the address side of the postcard says Imperial and Royal (K. u. k.) Military Government in Serbia, Statistical Office. According to a stamp collecting site, “K.u.K. stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich", ie "Imperial and Royal". The authorities responsible for common affairs acted "imperially and royally". All agencies of the Foreign and the War Ministries thus carried the abbreviation "k.u.k.", whereby the first k stood for the Kaiser (Emperor) of Austria, the second for the King of Hungary…. In the event of mobilization or war, the "k.u.k. Feldpost" swung into action. The army was k.u.k., so likewise the field post offices, the communication lines behind them, telegraphy, the entire vehicle fleet etc. This is simply because the Fieldpost was responsible to the War Ministry acting for both Austria and Hungary, and it directly to the Emperor-King.”
We saw correspondence from brother Erich in yesterday’s post. We saw the only letter I have from Erich written in 1916 in the July 14 post — perhaps he is referring to that letter. Or perhaps he has been captured and sent to Siberia, and the correspondence Paul refers to was the first they had heard of his fate – the first letter I have from Erich as a POW from January 1917.