Unsent postcard depicting German conductor and composer, Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954), published in Stuttgart (apparently attached to a calendar?). I'd guess him to be in his 40s or early 50s at the time, which would put the photo (and card) in Weimar or Nazi- era Germany.
I wonder how he got the scars -- duelling? The Wikipedia article details his life, conducting, his somewhat shadowy relationship with the Third Reich, and includes the following amusing information:
"Furtwängler was famous for his exceptional inarticulacy. His pupil Sergiu Celibidache remembered that the best he could say was, 'Well, just listen' (to the music). Carl Brinitzer from the German BBC service tried to interview him, and thought he had an imbecile before him. A live recording of a rehearsal with a Stockholm orchestra documents hardly anything intelligible, only hums and mumbling."
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