Six oval portrait vignettes of named Paris Commune leaders surround a central engraved view of the burning Hôtel de Ville on this albumen CDV, issued as a German propaganda composite circa 1871. The card identifies each subject by name in printed lettering: Cluseret, Courbet, Delescluze across the top row, and Dombrowski, F. Pyat, and Milliere across the bottom. The title caption at the foot of the card reads "Die Zweite Pariser Schreckensherrschaft," meaning "The Second Parisian Reign of Terror," placing the Commune squarely within a conservative anti-revolutionary frame directed at a German-speaking audience.

Each portrait bust shows a bearded or mustachioed man in dark civilian dress against a plain ground, rendered in the tightly cropped oval format typical of period composite cards. The central vignette depicts the Hôtel de Ville in flames with figures visible in the foreground, rendered as a lithographic or wood-engraved illustration rather than a photograph, and captioned "Brand d. Hôtel de Ville," meaning "Fire of the Hôtel de Ville."

The Hôtel de Ville served as the headquarters of the Paris Commune from March 1871 and was destroyed by fire during the Versailles government's suppression of the Commune in May 1871. The six figures named on the card were among the most prominent faces of the insurrection: Charles Delescluze was a French revolutionary leader and military commander of the Paris Commune; Gustave Courbet, the celebrated painter, served on the Commune's federal arts commission and was later accused of instigating the destruction of the Vendôme Column; and Gustave Cluseret served as minister of war.

Reverse bears a pencil notation "122" in the upper left and the dealer or catalog markings "2/28/12," "LOGFIZ," and "Eb" in the lower margin. No photographer's imprint is present.