This postcard is part of a set that shows a Prussian cavalryman wounded in battle, probably set in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71).
The poem at the top of the picture, entitled “Sunrise … Sunrise”, romanticizes the soldier’s encounter with death. It reads:
“Lie still, lie still
And accept the fate God wills!
I will fight bravely
And if death is my fate
I will die a valiant cavalryman.”