Karpf`s department store, Hautzendorf 10 in Kreuttal: a typical shop for everything before it was replaced by local supply chains. © Stadler family

A / NÖ | Kreuttal online

Can you tell the difference between an “e” and an “n”? Probably not. Namely when you should read it on the billboard on the left in the picture. (The solution of the riddle: The word in Kurrent reads “Verlangen”, in German: “Ask for …”). In comparison, the phrase “with the crown” can be clearly deciphered, although it is written in smaller letters. At the when the foto was taken the children were still learning „Kurrent“ script and it was the mandatory cursive script. Soon afterwards, most schools gave them the freedom to choose between Kurrent and Latin script.

A lot of the local infrastructure is combined here in one place: the department store for almost everything – the billboards advertise fig coffee (honestly called a spice), shoe paste, detergent and soap, the shop also functioned as a tobacco shop, the post box was also installed here and, on the left the picture shows the dairy cooperative‘s house. Use the search term “department store” to click through to further pictures and you will even find the interior of this “institution”, the Karpf‘s department store.

You can discover all this and much more in the Topothek in Kreuttal in north-eastern Lower Austria. Special specialties are landscape pictures like the one with the children, which can only be returned to the place where they were photographed by people familiar with the area. These local specialists, who in turn obtain the images and expertise of the residents, are Maria Schmid, Monika Weixelbraun, Herbert Friedlmeier, Ingeborg Formann, Karin Czech and Anna Mondl in Kreuttal. They look forward to your visit in the history of Kreuttal!