One of Ross Verlag's first series

One of the earliest series by Ross Verlag - or Verlag "Ross" as then still was written on the postcards - is series 2001: twelve postcards with colour portraits printed on a white paper. The material used is heavier than the regular postcards. The series, published in 1919, features seven actresses and one actor of the German silent cinema. The card numbers are printed on the back of the cards. All the portraits in this series have also been used for sepia-tinted cards by Ross Verlag or by its predecessor Rotophot in the Film Sterne series.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/1. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier. See also: Film Sterne, no. 151/3.

'Modern' American actress Fern Andra (1893-1974) became one of the most popular film stars of the German cinema in the 1910s and early 1920s. In her films she mastered tightrope, riding a horse without a saddle, driving cars and motorcycles, bobsleighing, and even boxing.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/2. Photo: Becker & Maass. Also on Film Sterne, no. 138/1.

German actor Bruno Kastner (1890-1932) was one of the most beloved stars of the 1910s and 1920s. His parts as the elegant and charming dandy made him a heartthrob of the German silent cinema.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/3. Photo: Becker & Maass / May Film. Also on Film Sterne, no. 105/4.

Mia May (1884-1980) was one of the first divas of the German cinema. She starred in many films of her husband, producer, writer, and director Joe May.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/4. Photo: Becker & Maass / May Film. Also on Film Sterne, no. 105/1.

Mia May (1884-1980) was one of the first divas of the German cinema. She starred in many films of her husband, producer, writer, and director Joe May.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/5. Photo:  Becker & Maass / Hella Moja Film. Also on Film Sterne, no. 165/2.

During the First World War and the following years Hella Moja (1890-1951) was one of the most popular stars of the German silent cinema. There was even a Hella Moja serial and in 1918 she founded her own film company.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/6. Photo: Anny Eberth. Also on Ross Verlag, no. 233, c. 1919-1920.

Polish film actress Pola Negri(1897-1987) achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in German and American silent films between the 1910s and 1930s. In the late 1910s and the 1920s, she achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in silent films in Poland, Berlin, and Hollywood. Negri was an overnight sensation in Lubitsch'Madame du Barry/Passion (1919).


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/7. Photo: Becker & Maass. Also on Film Sterne, no. 194/3.

Lotte Neumann (1896-1977) was one of the most successful actresses in the early days of the German silent cinema. She also worked as a screenwriter and a producer.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/8. Photo: Becker & Maass. Also on Film Sterne, no. 150/2.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/9. Photo: Becker & Maass / Messter Film, Berlin. Also on Verlag Ross, no. 303/1.

Sturdy and blond Henny Porten (1890-1960) was one of Germany's most important and popular film actresses of the silent cinema. She became the quintessence of German womanhood, ladylike yet kindhearted and a not a little petit bourgeois. She was also the producer of many of her own films.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/10. Photo: Becker & Maass / Messter Film, Berlin. Also on Verlag Ross, no. 301/3.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 2001/11. Photo: Becker & Maass / Messter Film. Also on Film Sterne, no. 215/1.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, no. 2001/12. Photo: Becker & Maass / Eiko Film. Also on Verlag Ross, no. 232/2.

German actress, writer, and producer Hedda Vernon (1886-1925) appeared in more than 60 films of the early silent period. During the 1910s she was such a popular film star that she got her own Hedda-Vernon serial.

Source: many thanks to Mark Goffee of Rossverlag.com.