In a nutshell, I believe the "Bund der Deutschen in Niederösterreich" card depicts the fight of the German School Association, Deutscher Schulverein (DSchV) and was the name of a so-called "protection-league" for Germans, in all the Habsburg king's lands throughtout the greater Austrian Empire. Their battle was to protect and preserve the German language, culture, history and traditions within the sphere of German-speaking, territorial educational systems.
Their catchword was -
"And it will be by the German Spirit that the world shall be healed ... "
The card could have been printed slightly after 1880 and into the First World War, I'd assume?
Amazing to see the heroic-looking characters they chose to represent themselves and their individual plights, heh ... one gets the feel of old Teutonic warriors, and then eventually on into the twenties, they came to be represented by the brown-shirted SA warriors.
