Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
On 25 July 1944 Goebbels is made Plenipotentiary for Total War. In the following weeks, he “preside(s) over a veritable torrent of activity"...
“Hitler himself intervened to limit the cuts that Goebbels sought to impose. Through Bormann, he requested that the Propaganda Minister consider in each case whether the ends justified the means, if this entailed significant disturbance to public services such as postal deliveries." (40)
In November 1944 Speer reorganises industry in the Ruhr. He faces many difficulties...
“Factories could not contact each other since the telephone system was not fully working, and the Reich postal service did not have the manpower to restore the system." (139)
Wilhelm Ohnesorge finds that in late 1944, his messages are not getting through...
“The regime’s unfolding of bureaucratic, controlling energy at all levels was little short of astonishing. Orders poured out. Every official, however minor, groaned under the suffocating load of paperwork on the desk (despite efforts to save paper). The Reich Post Minister wrote to all the offices of state, at both Reich and regional levels, complaining bitterly that the postal system was greatly overburdened through the increase in bureaucracy. ‘A swelling mass of communications like an avalanche’ was how he described it, at precisely a time when damage to the rail network and postal installations, together with the loss of personnel to the Wehrmacht, had gravely affected the efficiency of the service. His urgent entreaties to reduce the level of post fell on deaf ears."(145)
Hitler steps in to ease the Post Minister's travails...
“At the top of the bureaucratic tree, the head of the Reich Chancellery, Lammers,... had little more to do than remind Reich authorities of the Führer’s wish that the sending of Christmas and New Year greetings should be greatly restricted to minimize the burden on transport and postal services.†(162)
The war reaches its final weeks, and Ohnesorge struggles to keep the service afloat...
“A source of particular concern to the millions of families desperate for news of sons, brothers, fathers or other close relatives at the front was that postal services were in a state of near collapse. By late March, post offices had often been put out of action by bombing. Telephone, telegraph and rail communications had largely broken down for ordinary citizens, and often, too, for public authorities and businesses. The Reich Post Minister, Wilhelm Ohnesorge, laid down stipulations for ensuring a minimum postal service. If trains were unavailable, motor vehicles had to be used to shuttle post to the nearest functioning railway station. If no vehicles were available, local transport had to be requisitioned. In the last resort, the most urgent post was to be carried by bicycle or on foot in rucksacks.†(275)
and in Berlin
“Written communication between ministerial officials could often only be achieved now through a courier service.†(276)
It’s perhaps no more than you might have guessed, but at least these brief insights into postal history now have a sound academic source.
Page references are to the Penguin edition of 2012.
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It seems highly unlikely, and is anyway unproveable either way. Of course it is in the interests of certain stamp dealers to convince collectors that the cancelled 12th Anniversary stamps they have for sale at a hefty price have not actually been cancelled several weeks or months later!
Those of us who have these SS and SA stamps cancelled may be interested in the following information about them:
Here are some of the key findings published in Walch & Strobel’s booklet “SA-/SS-Briefe sind Nachkriegsproduktionen†("SA/SS Covers are Postwar Productions").
1. The first day of sale was April 21, not April 20. ALL April 20 covers are postwar forgeries that were sold for American dollars (this accounts for about 90% of all known covers).
2. All covers with Berlin W 73 c postmarks (without hour) are forged.
3. A Bedarfsbrief from Berlin-Charlottenburg 2 bn is known from April 25 (but not with SA/SS stamps).
4. Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1 ceased operation on the evening of April 21. All covers with 1a, 1d, 1q and 3d postmarks from the 24 and 25 are forgeries.
5. All covers with Berlin C25 h and C 25 u postmarks from April 20 and 21 are forgeries.
6. All Berlin C43 o covers from April 21 are forgeries.
7. All Berlin W8 ss covers from April 21 have backdated postmarks.
8. All Berlin W30 covers from April 21, 23 and 24 are either forged or backdated.
9. The last American bombing raid on Berlin was the morning of April 21. At midday the Soviet artillery barrage began. All communications between inner city post offices ceased at this point.
10. It was common practice for dealers to be supplied with new issues prior to the first day of sale so that they would have ample time to prepare covers.
I am not familiar with the postmark letter identifications used above, but some of you may well be.
Examples of the 'used' stamps, on pre-printed page (though the note at the foot is my own).
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When was the information first published (year) regarding the first date of sale for these final Third Reich stamps, being April 21 rather than April 20, 1945? I note that my Michel gives the date as April 21, published in 2007. And my 2011 Scott lists April 21, also.
I just looked at an older Michel, 2004 and the date is listed as April 20 for the SS, SA stamps, so I'm concluding that between 2004 and 2007, a change was made updating this info. This date change must have created quite a stir among collectors. I completely missed this change and have been laboring under the old date.
I recall many battles over the years among philatelists pro and con related to various covers dated April 20, 1945 franked with the SS or SA stamps postmarked Berlin.
Does the study referred to mention when these SS, SA stamps arrived in Berlin from the printing office in Vienna? What a journey that must have been. I'm wondering if only Berlin received these stamps? I see the study mentions that it was common practice for dealers to receive the stamps early--I wonder how early, and if only dealers in Berlin received the stamps?
Has anyone seen a cover postmarked outside of Berlin with these stamps?
On the speculative side, if the stamps arrived earlier than the date of April 21, 1945, would a diehard Berlin dealer already holding them in his possession prior to April 21, have risked his life to obtain postmarks from a functioning Berlin post office, knowing these would have likely been rarities. Oh, the joys of speculation.
Has anyone ever seen a "Hennig" cover franked with the SA SS stamps? If he had them in his possession, I'm surprised something hasn't surfaced--fake or otherwise.
It appears that philatelic officialdom has sided with, at least some aspects of this study. I'm sure the dust hasn't settled yet.
Bruce
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Sorry, I should have added a date. Walch & Stroebel's booklet was first published in 1995. My impression is that it is now considered authoritative.
There is a certain amount of faith required, and generally used, in imagining the situation in Berlin at that time. My own faith-based view (but also based on Kershaw, Beevor, and various accounts written at the time) is that no, there aren't any such covers. Others like to speculate the scenario that you quote, of some bedraggled yet sufficiently mercenary trader braving life and limb to acquire a genuine postmark at one of the post offices which were open that day, secure in the knowledge that one day it would be worth thousands. (I reckon the Russians caught him and his cover now lies in a safe in the Kremlin!)
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Certainly since a philatelic imprimatur has been granted for the change in the previously accepted release date, moving it from April 20 to April 21, one can only imagine the strife and heartache that caused among the holders of April 20 dated covers, since most I have seen along the trail on this veil of tears were dated on Hitler's birthday. Such covers would now be branded as fakes by philatelic officialdom rather than assigned a speculative question mark.
Bruce
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A certain amount has been written about the postal service in the last months of the Third Reich (much of it hopefully positing genuine postal use of the last two stamps issued). Ian Kershaw’s The End: Hitler’s Germany 1944-45, the definitive account of those times, has this to say, which I hope may be of interest:
On 25 July 1944 Goebbels is made Plenipotentiary for Total War. In the following weeks, he “preside(s) over a veritable torrent of activity"...
“Hitler himself intervened to limit the cuts that Goebbels sought to impose. Through Bormann, he requested that the Propaganda Minister consider in each case whether the ends justified the means, if this entailed significant disturbance to public services such as postal deliveries." (40)
In November 1944 Speer reorganises industry in the Ruhr. He faces many difficulties...
“Factories could not contact each other since the telephone system was not fully working, and the Reich postal service did not have the manpower to restore the system." (139)
Wilhelm Ohnesorge finds that in late 1944, his messages are not getting through...
“The regime’s unfolding of bureaucratic, controlling energy at all levels was little short of astonishing. Orders poured out. Every official, however minor, groaned under the suffocating load of paperwork on the desk (despite efforts to save paper). The Reich Post Minister wrote to all the offices of state, at both Reich and regional levels, complaining bitterly that the postal system was greatly overburdened through the increase in bureaucracy. ‘A swelling mass of communications like an avalanche’ was how he described it, at precisely a time when damage to the rail network and postal installations, together with the loss of personnel to the Wehrmacht, had gravely affected the efficiency of the service. His urgent entreaties to reduce the level of post fell on deaf ears."(145)
Hitler steps in to ease the Post Minister's travails...
“At the top of the bureaucratic tree, the head of the Reich Chancellery, Lammers,... had little more to do than remind Reich authorities of the Führer’s wish that the sending of Christmas and New Year greetings should be greatly restricted to minimize the burden on transport and postal services.†(162)
The war reaches its final weeks, and Ohnesorge struggles to keep the service afloat...
“A source of particular concern to the millions of families desperate for news of sons, brothers, fathers or other close relatives at the front was that postal services were in a state of near collapse. By late March, post offices had often been put out of action by bombing. Telephone, telegraph and rail communications had largely broken down for ordinary citizens, and often, too, for public authorities and businesses. The Reich Post Minister, Wilhelm Ohnesorge, laid down stipulations for ensuring a minimum postal service. If trains were unavailable, motor vehicles had to be used to shuttle post to the nearest functioning railway station. If no vehicles were available, local transport had to be requisitioned. In the last resort, the most urgent post was to be carried by bicycle or on foot in rucksacks.†(275)
and in Berlin
“Written communication between ministerial officials could often only be achieved now through a courier service.†(276)
It’s perhaps no more than you might have guessed, but at least these brief insights into postal history now have a sound academic source.
Page references are to the Penguin edition of 2012.
Login to Like
this post
re: Postal services in the final months of the Reich
It seems highly unlikely, and is anyway unproveable either way. Of course it is in the interests of certain stamp dealers to convince collectors that the cancelled 12th Anniversary stamps they have for sale at a hefty price have not actually been cancelled several weeks or months later!
Those of us who have these SS and SA stamps cancelled may be interested in the following information about them:
Here are some of the key findings published in Walch & Strobel’s booklet “SA-/SS-Briefe sind Nachkriegsproduktionen†("SA/SS Covers are Postwar Productions").
1. The first day of sale was April 21, not April 20. ALL April 20 covers are postwar forgeries that were sold for American dollars (this accounts for about 90% of all known covers).
2. All covers with Berlin W 73 c postmarks (without hour) are forged.
3. A Bedarfsbrief from Berlin-Charlottenburg 2 bn is known from April 25 (but not with SA/SS stamps).
4. Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1 ceased operation on the evening of April 21. All covers with 1a, 1d, 1q and 3d postmarks from the 24 and 25 are forgeries.
5. All covers with Berlin C25 h and C 25 u postmarks from April 20 and 21 are forgeries.
6. All Berlin C43 o covers from April 21 are forgeries.
7. All Berlin W8 ss covers from April 21 have backdated postmarks.
8. All Berlin W30 covers from April 21, 23 and 24 are either forged or backdated.
9. The last American bombing raid on Berlin was the morning of April 21. At midday the Soviet artillery barrage began. All communications between inner city post offices ceased at this point.
10. It was common practice for dealers to be supplied with new issues prior to the first day of sale so that they would have ample time to prepare covers.
I am not familiar with the postmark letter identifications used above, but some of you may well be.
Examples of the 'used' stamps, on pre-printed page (though the note at the foot is my own).
Login to Like
this post
09:31:39am
re: Postal services in the final months of the Reich
When was the information first published (year) regarding the first date of sale for these final Third Reich stamps, being April 21 rather than April 20, 1945? I note that my Michel gives the date as April 21, published in 2007. And my 2011 Scott lists April 21, also.
I just looked at an older Michel, 2004 and the date is listed as April 20 for the SS, SA stamps, so I'm concluding that between 2004 and 2007, a change was made updating this info. This date change must have created quite a stir among collectors. I completely missed this change and have been laboring under the old date.
I recall many battles over the years among philatelists pro and con related to various covers dated April 20, 1945 franked with the SS or SA stamps postmarked Berlin.
Does the study referred to mention when these SS, SA stamps arrived in Berlin from the printing office in Vienna? What a journey that must have been. I'm wondering if only Berlin received these stamps? I see the study mentions that it was common practice for dealers to receive the stamps early--I wonder how early, and if only dealers in Berlin received the stamps?
Has anyone seen a cover postmarked outside of Berlin with these stamps?
On the speculative side, if the stamps arrived earlier than the date of April 21, 1945, would a diehard Berlin dealer already holding them in his possession prior to April 21, have risked his life to obtain postmarks from a functioning Berlin post office, knowing these would have likely been rarities. Oh, the joys of speculation.
Has anyone ever seen a "Hennig" cover franked with the SA SS stamps? If he had them in his possession, I'm surprised something hasn't surfaced--fake or otherwise.
It appears that philatelic officialdom has sided with, at least some aspects of this study. I'm sure the dust hasn't settled yet.
Bruce
Login to Like
this post
re: Postal services in the final months of the Reich
Sorry, I should have added a date. Walch & Stroebel's booklet was first published in 1995. My impression is that it is now considered authoritative.
There is a certain amount of faith required, and generally used, in imagining the situation in Berlin at that time. My own faith-based view (but also based on Kershaw, Beevor, and various accounts written at the time) is that no, there aren't any such covers. Others like to speculate the scenario that you quote, of some bedraggled yet sufficiently mercenary trader braving life and limb to acquire a genuine postmark at one of the post offices which were open that day, secure in the knowledge that one day it would be worth thousands. (I reckon the Russians caught him and his cover now lies in a safe in the Kremlin!)
Login to Like
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04:41:12pm
re: Postal services in the final months of the Reich
Certainly since a philatelic imprimatur has been granted for the change in the previously accepted release date, moving it from April 20 to April 21, one can only imagine the strife and heartache that caused among the holders of April 20 dated covers, since most I have seen along the trail on this veil of tears were dated on Hitler's birthday. Such covers would now be branded as fakes by philatelic officialdom rather than assigned a speculative question mark.
Bruce
Login to Like
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