Page (p. 224) from “Die zweite Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Hochquellenleitung der Stadt Wien” (The Second Emperor Franz Joseph High Spring Pipeline of the City of Vienna), Gerlach & Wiedling, 1910, Photoinstitut Bonartes, Vienna.

Page from “Das städtische Gaswerk Leopoldau” (The Leopoldau Municipal Gasworks), 1912, Photoinstitut Bonartes, Vienna.

Hans Moessmer & Sohn Publishing House, Grand Hotel Archduke Johann in Semmering, postcard based on a photograph by M. Strobl, Niederösterreichische Landesbibliothek, Topographical Collection.

Publishers

Exhibition at the Bonartes Photo Institute "Only the Biggest Construction Sites – Marianne Strobl's Photo Campaigns" 13. 8. to 21. 11. 2025

According to the legal situation at the time, both Marianne Strobl and her various clients needed publishers to reach a larger audience. The publishing house Gerlach & Wiedling, for example, published the official report on the construction of Vienna’s water pipeline, with construction companies contributing Marianne Strobl’s photos used in it. As a service to these companies, licensed printing houses produced brochures that were not intended for the book trade. For instance, Hans Mössmer produced the catalogs (expanded almost every year) for the construction company Ast & Co. Mössmer also published postcards that featured images by Strobl. Thanks to the frequency of mail delivery (up to seven times per day!), this was then the most cost-effective way of disseminating news, comparable to social media channels today. Specialized retailers offered thousands of cards from around the world – business-savvy innkeepers, hoteliers, or tourism regions profited from the mass phenomenon both through sales revenue and the advertising effect of sending them worldwide.

→ Next topic:

Reinforced Concrete Construction