Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

The Soviet Zone of Germany produced a massive variety of issues over a relatively short period of time - some more "official" than others. There was a wide variety of local "town" issues, and several "Postal Districts" issuing stamps between 1945 and 1948 when the first zone-wide stamps were issued following the currency reform.

In this thread, I will show examples from time to time, mainly of the local and District issues, along with examples from the currency reform of 1948.

Some of these will have been seen before in other threads, but I think it would be interesting to see examples in one place.

And if other members have stamps from this interesting area, please feel free to join in...

I'll start with a recent pick-up:



A series of 8 se tenants from West Saxony. These were printed in large sheets with panes of each of 4 values making up a sheet (the values are 3, 5, 6, 8, 12 pfg). Several combinations exist, and where the panes adjoin, you get se tenants.

A total of 8 different se-tenant pairs (all shown here) can exist.

West Saxony also produced a set of stamps for the 1946 Leipzig Spring Fair. The set of 4 stamps were issued variously perforated and imperf and with different orientations of the watermark.

They were also issued in miniature sheet format as shown here.

This registered money transfer cover shows a mixed franking with stamps of East Saxony (3, 6pfg), the US/UK/Soviet "trizone" issues (5, 15, 30, 2x40pfg) and Province of Saxony (12pfg).

The Province Saxony stamp is locally-perforated (known as "Postmaster Perf"), and is hard to find on cover

The cover is franked at 151pfg, which is 1 pfg overfranked, and my gut-feeling is that this is "commercial" not "philatelic".

The last of the "Saxonies" for now...

This postcard shows 5 of the so-called "Saxony Blacks" - an authorised de-facing of the Hitler Head stamps (and in the case of the 5 pfg at the right, a Hindenberg Head) using corks, potatoes, fingerprints etc. These were authorised by various district offices within Saxony as a cheap and easy way to produce stamps and use up existing supplies.

Also on the card is a Lobau local (with the "D" obliterator).

This is certainly philatelic as a rate of 67pfg is nonsensical - and the reverse of the card is blank.

Other towns - in this case Muhlberg - defaced the Hitler stamps by adding slogans - "Blood and trauma..." being a typical example.

In some cases, only a few hundred stamps were available to be overprinted before local stocks became exhausted.

Genuine postal usage of these is rare, but mint examples like this can be found more easily.

Great thread Gavin! I look forward to seeing more in the future.

I like seeing the se-tenants and the defaced Hitler stamps. Is there any chance you could show us a bigger picture of the Lobau local?

_________________
Nigel

Thanks Nigel

That scan was "borrowed" from the ebay lot - I've got some more of the Lobau locals somewhere - I'll try to find them and scan some up soon.

So soon after the war Leipzig probably was a 'mess' .

Hard to imagine the post office could so quickly swing into production of philatelic items like souvenir sheets, given the austerity of wartime (ie. re-use of envelopes) and the shortages of everything that continued for years (for East Germany about 45years ).

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

This is a great thread Gavin. Even though I don't have any material from this period myself, I've always been interested in the postal history of these terrible times.
So keep them coming.

Thanks, Andrew,

Of course if you're a "purist" you can try and get copies of the "trizone" covers posted in each of the three zones, but that might be taking things a bit too far for many collectors

Hi!

I think this is also from this period!? I found some of this kind in a larger bulk of covers and postcards. Maybe there are some more, but as I don`t collect them I never had a closer look.





Greetings

I've long been interested in building a collection of the Hitler heads and the post-war obliterations, but the thought of wrestling with Michel when I don't read German puts me off a bit (I like to think I understand what I'm reading when I peruse auction catalogues from Germany ).

More examples and illustrations of those would be much appreciated. There's enough just of those out there to keep the thread going a long time I imagine.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Gav .... were those sparrigummi from this area .....loved those scans somenoe loaded here once!

Glen,

Absolutely - it might've been me that scanned the Spargummi ones up - I'll try and add the scan here later.

Member Norvic mailed me to suggest that the orange triangle may indicate a "cash-on-delivery" item as these do elsewhere.

I've seen these described as "Money Transfer" covers, but that may be a mis-translation from German. The inscription in the triangle is "Nachnahme"

Would be grateful for any clarification and explanation as to how these work.

Gavin, my dictionary translates Nachnahme as "cash, or collect (US), on delivery, COD".

_________________
Nigel

Found it:



These are examples of the Thuringia ("Thuringen") issue with "Spargummi" or "Economy Gum". Gum, like everything else was in short supply, so the ingenious solution was to only gum part of the stamps.

The "golf ball" pattern" shows circles without gum - only the "mesh" between was gummed. Effectively this halved the amount of gum required.

This issue is very complex to collect - there are varieties with "Spargummi" and full gum, several different paper types, various shades, perf and imperf types and many constant flaws.

Josto showed a pair of the 12pfg value on cover earlier. Needless to say, it is virtually impossible to identify whether used/on cover stamps had "Spargummi" or "Vollgummi"

Nigel, thanks for that - and thanks to Norvic for pointing it out to me in the first place.

An issue from Mecklenburg-Pomerania ("Mecklenberg-Vorpommern") showing "victims of fascism" - a popular political theme in the areas under Soviet control.

I love the almost naive/crude art of the designs of this issue. There are many constant flaws on this issue and probably at least as many unlisted transient flaws.

As with many of these things, this set is much easier to acquire mint than used, and genuine postally used (ie non-philatelic) covers are very rare.

Great thread. I've got some of the sparrigummi issues, and never understood what I had.

_________________
Ken

I like this set very much - I've never seen any of them outside of the catalogues and the colours are much more vivid than I would have expected.

On a related topic did you see that Freya von Moltke, the last of the German Kreisau Circle resistance group, died this month at the age of 98?

_________________
Nigel

Two covers from Grossraeschen. Both feature similar communist emblems.

The first is probably philatelic, as are most covers of this issue. It is slightly overpaid at 114pfg for a 108pfg Registered rate. The postmark on this one was only in use for a period of a week, 23 October being the last date of use.

The second cover is the later issue, used at Zittau and correctly rated at 108pfg, so possibly "commercial". Most of the local issues were valid, or at least tolerated, for use throughout the zone and combinations, such as this with the 8pfg "trizone" stamp were perfectly legitimate. This cover shows two of the three paper types for this issue - the 40pfg on white paper and the 60pfg on grey (there is also a "coated" paper variety).

A pair of Storkow 12pfg locals used on a mixed-franking cover with four 6pfg Berlin Bears. The Storkow stamps are mis-perfed and cut-to-shape.

Misperfs are common on this issue - well-centred copies are harder to find than most of the spectacularly poorly centred ones. The small scan shows a block of 30 of the same stamp with progressively poorer centring from right to left.. The perforator seems to have been set up by someone who had never actually checked what size the stamps were. (apologies for the poor scan on this one - it was from the ebay lot I picked up)

A cover featuring a se-tenant strip of Strausberg locals and a couple of Berlin Bears. The 42pfg rate is OK but the cover is clearly philatelic (Hennig was a dealer in Germany) and there's now an ebay user in the Dominican Republic selling masses of Hennig covers (that's where I got this one).

The stamps were sold with a premium for rebuilding, and also issued in large sheet format - the scan isn't to scale, the stamps on the sheet are the same size as the ones on the cover.

Interestingly, Michel lists the se-tenants (and a block/"miniature" sheet issue) as legitimate for postal use, but puts the large sheet in the "Private Creations" section.

Last one for tonight, and the Eage Eyed amongst you will note that this one is my Avatar.
One of a set of 4 Rebuilding ("Wiederaufbau") stamps issued by the city of Meissen.

This one is just about a perfect offset (or "setoff", or "Abklatch"), caused by the sheets of stamps being stacked before the ink was properly dry.

And incidentally one of my personal favourites. It's not expensive, or particularly rare, but I love the colour, the design and the "quirkiness" of it. On more than one occasion I've asked dealers if they've got anything from the "dim and dusty corners of Germany", and this is EXACTLY the sort of thing I'm after.

More soon...

Gavin, what's the value of these covers? Not cheap I'm sure.
I like the two from Grossraeschen but since the printing is so " simple " aren't there a lot of fakes and even if the stamp is genuine but worth a lot more on cover, how about the postmark?

Never heard of the spargummi stamps before, something new learned today. Brilliant solution to wartime shortages!

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Lithograving, looking at the two from Grossraeschen, on the first one, the stamps catalogue at 12 Euro each on cover, but with that "emergency postmark" which was only used for a week, Michel rates that postmark at 100 Euro. I'm sure a lot of cancels on Soviet Zone and Locals were forged, but Michel does not specifically mention it for this issue or postmark, and this one has the right "feel", aging etc.

On the second cover, the 40pfg on white paper is listed at 2 Euro on cover, and the 60 pfg at 3.50 Euro, which seems ridicuously low for a stamp of which only 270,000 were issued (total for all paper types). IIRC, I paid about £5 for that cover - in spite of the catalogue value, experience suggests that they are very difficult to find, so I still consider it a bargain.

Another example of "Spargummi" - this one is a full sheet of the Plauen local issue.

I'm not aware of this type of gum being used anywhere other than in the Soviet Zone, but I'd be interested if anyone knows of any other examples.

I hadn't seen them before, but I've seen something very similar to that design - is it possible that the 1920s(?) mesh watermark device was used to apply the gum?

_________________
Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

That's an interesting theory Ian but these bobs/diamonds/hexagons appear even in size and the mesh blobs/diamonds alternated in size row by row.

_________________
Nigel

The Soviets very quickly realised the value of stamps as a propaganda and fund-raising tool (as the Nazis had before them).

This example keenly fulfils both purposes. The stamps were issued for the district of Mecklenberg-Vorpommern, to promote Land Reform, ie stripping landowners of their land and putting it in the hands of the "peasants". The inscription on the stamps reads "Junkerland in Bauernhand", or "Junker land in Peasant hands" (a Junker was a landowner)

A "charity" premium (which would undoubtedly have been used for political purposes) was applied to these stamps.

This set is on a commemorative card, but is not a first day usage (the stamps were issued the previous month).

As far as I'm aware the mesh/lozenge watermarks of the pre-war German issues were purely for security purposes, and the gum on those stamps is certainly full and even.

It's quite possible though that the patterns were the inspiration for the inventors/developers of "Spargummi"

This selection of stamps from Fredersdorf shows a couple of different types.

The top row and the strip of three are stamps from the Berlin issue (Fredersdorf is close by Berlin) overprinted "Rettet das Kind / Fredersdorf b/Bln" or "Save the Children / Fredersdorf by Berlin". The stamps were sold at a premium of 6+4 pfg and 12+8 pfg, although the premium is not shown on the stamp. 7,250 of each value were overprinted in purple and the same number in black.

The smaller stamps at the right are examples of the locally produced types sold. There were over 100 different "emergency" issues produced in Fredersdorf, and these are some of the simplest designs. The stamps were hand-initialed by the postal clerk at the point of sale as a security measure, hence every one is effectively unique (look at the differences within each pair).

The used pair appears to use an old Nazi handstamp canceller - you can make out the letters "...mt" at the top (? part of "postamt" = "post office), and "...rf [b. Berlin]" at the bottom - it may be a forged cancel (the strip of three shows a typical Fredersdorf large oval cancel), but the forgers have done their homework if so!

A few more local issues today - firstly, a couple of examples from Finsterwalde.

The first scan shows a full set of 12 "on piece" - cancelled exactly one month after issue.

Also on that scan are four examples printed on the gummed side - Finsterwalde was another town that used Spargummi.

The second scan shows stamps of the same design, but slightly larger format issued as a miniature sheet, and with a higher "charity" premium on the stamps. Again, the premium was ostensibly for the "rebuilding" fund, but in reality more likely to have been a "political levy".

I promised NigelC I'd post up some more Lobau locals, so here are some mint examples.

Lobau overprinted/obliterated the Hitler Head issues and the Volkssturm issue, and these were valid from 20 May 1945 to 30 June. These were the only stamps valid in the town for that period; stamps held by the public were not valid for use.

From July to November, the Lobau PO went against the authority of the Dresden OPD (Head Post Office) and overprinted old invalid stamps brought in by the public which were then useable as postage. The PO would also backdate and cancel to favour on request. Michel lists these as "ND" ("Neudruck" or Reprint), and assumes that any unexpertised stamps or those expertised before 1992 have the "ND" valuations.

I have assumed all these are "ND", as they are unexpertised. Only approx 200 of the Volkssturm issue were overprinted, and even as a "ND" Michel lists at 70 Euro, so not all bad news

Another example of obliterated Hitler Heads, this one from the town of Glauchau.

Used at Oberlungwitz with, slightly bizarrely, a commemorative cancel to celebrate the local hosiery industry. I find it utterly fasciniating that within a few months of the fall of the Nazis and with Germany (particularly the Eastern parts) in such total disarray, someone found the time and inclination to produce something as seemingly frivolous as this.

This is one of my favourite items (but I could say that about most of these things)

Wasn't that for "eco-gum"?

Before we leave the HH obliterations for now, just time to show a couple of Saxony Blacks on parcel cards. "Saxony Blacks" were produced under order of the OPD (Head Post Office) to use up stocks of stamps. Anything could be (and was) used as the obliterator including corks, woodblocks and even inky thumbs. Some featured crude attempts at a "design", such as the first one here from Floha; others simply went for maximum obliteration, such as the Bernsbach example.

Also of interest on these parcel cards is the use of the district office's handstamp at the lower left of each card. These were pressed into service again some three years later to overprint stamps in the early days of the currency reform. Much more on these later...

Why frivolous? First of all Strumpf translates as stockings not hosiery. Strumpfwaren is the proper word for hosiery.
In those days not only girls and women wore woolen stockings. In villages and small towns especially southern Germany (Bavaria) and parts of Austria most boys & men wore shorts with stockings, even during the winter they wore long stockings with shorts and in some places lederhosen, no long pants. This mode of dress continued until the early fifties.
So obviously it was an important industry producing necessities which was needed especially for the coming winter to keep warm. They didn't have the American soldiers who traded nylons for sexual favours with the Fraulines.
Apparently Oberlungwitz was the main producer of stockings before & during the war.
After the war, the Russians dismantled all the machinery as they did with all the industry in their occupation zone and sent it to Russia where all probably rusted away.
By the way I really enjoy reading all your posts. You have quite a collection.

lithograving, thanks for your comments and background information that put this into this context - the stocking industry certainly takes on a much greater significance.

I shall look at this cover in a different light now - I had really only considered it in terms of "fashion" rather than "necessity", and I think I was slightly beguiled by the "sexy legs" on display

Well I guess even in those days they where aware of advertisement.
On the same subject, I've seen a few photos of even Hitler wearing Lederhosen with heavy knee stockings but none with full stockings.

Gavin, thanks for taking the trouble to post these Löbau stamps - I appreciate it. It's always find it fun to see stamps for real for the first time when I've only seen small black and white catalogue images before.

The forum has been fascinating and has made up look again at my old Michel Deutschland-Spezial catalogue. There's so much to collect in this area and I've seen very little of it before.

_________________
Nigel

Helo Gavin!

Am looking forward to a better understanding of the Soviet nummerials and the postmaster perfs and all that - care to give en english comment or sucht on the subject?

Kloster

Kloster was asking about the "Numeral" or "HOPs" [="Hand OverPrints"].

These on their own are a MASSIVE subject, but here's a brief overview to be going on with.

Firstly, a little bit of history...

On 18 June 1948 the 3 Western Zones of Germany (US, British and French) introduced a reformed currency, the "Deutsche Mark" to replace the earlier Reichsmark.

On 24 June, the Soviet authorities responded by instroducing the "Ostmark".

In the Soviet Zone, as an emergency control measure, the "workers" definitive issue (and remaining stocks of various other issues) were handstamped with the Postal District names and Oberpostdirecktion (OPD) numbers. There are over 1900 handstamps from 1100 Postal Districts. These overprints were only valid for a period of 17 days (24 June to 10 July) after which they were invalidated and replaced by centrally produced overprints "Sowietische Besatzungs Zone" on various issues.

The overprint typically consists of the OPD number and the town (or in the case of major towns/cities) the post office name. In this example, the overprint is "16 / Eisenberg". 16 was the city of Erfurt, so we can tell that Eisenberg was a town in the region overseen by the Erfurt OPD.

The valid OPDs for the Soviet Zone were:

3 Berlin
14 Dresden
16 Erfurt
20 Halle
27 Leipzig
29 Magdeberg
36 Potsdam
37 Schwerin
38 Stettin
41 Chemnitz

The overprints were predominantly on this "tri-zone" workers issue, but some exist on the earlier numeral issue, and a few on commemoratives such as the Leipzig fair or von Stephan issues.

Forgeries are numerous and in some cases difficult to identify. Lists are available showing which values were overprinted by which district, but even these cannot be taken to be 100% reliable.

Next, I'll show a few examples on cover...

First, a fairly standard 24pfg overprint from Meissen on a typical commercial "window" envelope.

This value is one of the most common on cover.

Another commercial cover, this one from Olbernhau to Frankfurt in the US Zone. Covers out of the Soviet Zone are not common.

Philatelic/exhibition pieces are, surprisingly, less common in this issues.

This card and cancel are for a pedagogical conference in Leipzig.

Note that the card has the Congress running from 5th to 8th July, but the cancel shows it from the 5th to the 9th. I wonder which was correct...