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Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
My question concerns the stamp applied to the indica, the preprinted postage. It appears to depict a soldier with helmet and bearing a flag. I've never seen this before. I have no clue about its significance. What can you tell me?
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It's just a smudged Postmark.The Pre Paid is a Germania.
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They did not use extra cancellers in Germany the way they did in the United States.
I'm sure it is nothing official. It could even have been applied much later than the postal marks, and it looks like it has been cut from a piece of rubber or even from a potato ...
-jmh
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Hi BWSchulz,
Another interesting item! 
This appears to be a forgery of an Aachen ASR "Arbeiter-und-Soldatenrat" overprint.
Stamps with an overprint similar to this were allegedly created by the Workers and Soldiers Soviet in Aachen in November 1918.
Here the overprint is wrong, as are the date and postmark.
I believe the only used stamps that are known are on piece rather than on cover or postal stationery.
In my old Michel catalogue there's an image of the genuine overprint and the comment that the stamps are a "fantasy production".
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NIgelc,
Excellent help as always. Thanks.
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Wow,
Nigelc is right here. The date is wrong but the overprint is right. So a Fake.
I have seen this kind of stamp about 30 years ago.
And this is the story behind it:
German Revolution 1918-1919
The various stamp issues were issued by revolutionary groups in Germany between the end of WWI and the Constitution of Weimar as established on August 14,1919. These stamps had their origin in the chaotic situation after the war when various separatist and anti monarchist Workers and Soldiers” Soviets took over local power all around the country.
The German Emperor Wilhelm II had been forced by his own government to abdicate at the end of WWI and he moved to the Netherlands. However, the Emperor was also the symbol of the unity of the country and his absence brought a vacuum of political power.
The German people, exhausted and tired of war, considered the monarchy the main stumbling block to peace and began to revolt in many places during the first days of November 1918. The revolt started with the mutiny of the German navy on October 29,1918. On November 9, Philip Schneidermann proclaimed a German Republic at the Berlin Reichstag at 2pm, another one was proclaimed by Karl Liebknecht, speaking for the
Spartakists from the balcony of the Berlin Castle at 4pm. On the same day the German workers began to strike and soldiers sympathetic to their cause joined the insurrection. Anarchy and chaos ruled Germany.
The Workers and Soldiers Soviets were formed during the first days of November 1918 and they claimed authority in competition with existing administrations and acted as revolutionary cells, occupying local authorities, administrations and post offices. This group immediately tried to extinguish all traces of monarchy, which resulted in short lived changes in postal traffic including the overprinting of postage stamps.
The ASR Stamps of Aachen 1918 is pictured above.
In Aachen, a town in Northwest Germany, the local “Arbeiter und Soldatenrat” (ASR= Workers and Soldiers Soviet) produced some overprint stamps in mid November, 1918. Nine denominations of the Germania stamps were overprinted with revolutionary illustrations. The overprints were applied to the 2, 2 ½, 3, 5, 71/2, 10, 15, 50 and 80 pf values. The overprint consisted of a knight wearing a long coat. The figure holds a flag of liberty in its” right hand. To the right is a broken sword and two unidentifiable blotches are said to illustrate the unsavoury rutabaga, nutrition for so many people during the war. The discarded crown of the Kaiser is illustrated below the figure and the rising sun appears above.
The overprint was made in wood or rubber and the ink was coloured black, red, gold and silver.
According to literature sources, the ASR stamps were used on official or military mail in the Rhineland area around November, 1918.
Apart from a few mint examples and some cancelled pieces, there are few in existence.
Besides the Aachen ASR Stamps, other overprints were produced by members of local Workers and Soldiers Soviets in the German Reich. In Saxony, for example, a Communist organization overprinted 10 and 25 pf Germania stamps with “Free State Saxony”.
Bibliography:
Philatelic Witnesses – Stamps of Revolutions
Author – Wolfgang Baldus
Publisher Album Publishing Company 293 p/p
German Revolution 1918-1919 Page 115
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And this is what a found in the city archive of Aachen:
Workers 'and soldiers' councils take over.
On November 11, 1918, the armistice at Compiègne ended the First World War for the German Reich. Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated in Berlin two days earlier, after workers 'and soldiers' councils had taken over in most major cities. Starting from the sailors' uprising in Kiel on November 3, this political movement had spread rapidly and reached Cologne on November 7.
Foundation of a provisional workers 'and soldiers' council
On the night of November 8th and 9th, a delegation from the Cologne Workers 'and Soldiers' Council travels to Aachen by train and establishes a provisional Workers 'and Soldiers' Council for Aachen in the station building. During the night the officers are relieved of their position and prisoners released. The following day, November 9, the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council met with Mayor Wilhelm Farwick, the Police President Karl von Hammacher and the Government President Adolf Freiherr von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels.
A city government is agreed under the leadership of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council, the main aim of which is to maintain public security and supply. This was necessary because in view of the impending armistice, the beginning of the soldiers' march back from the western front, the expected military occupation and the tense supply situation, which could easily lead to famine, all forces had to be pooled.
The "democratic and social republic" is announced
In its call "To the entire citizens of Aachen", the workers 'and soldiers' council announces the beginning of a "democratic and social republic" in Germany. He appeals to the discipline of workers and citizens and orders measures to maintain public security. The text of the leaflet also threatens to shoot burglars, thieves and looters who have been convicted. Following the call, the chief of police of Hammacher and Mayor Farwick "recommend" to follow the regulations of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council "provided that they relate to maintaining calm and order". Organizational information about the offices of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council in the administration building at Katschhof follows.
For the next three weeks, the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council remained the city's highest body. It was only on 30 November 1918 that the Belgian occupation dissolved him. In the meantime, the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council had managed to prevent a major crisis in the city by working with the administration and police. Daily life, on the other hand, normalized only slowly. Even though Aachen remained occupied for the next few years and the next few years were in crisis, November 9, 1918 marked the beginning of the first democratic republic in Germany.
City archive publishes source edition
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of the war in 1918, Thomas Müller and René Rohrkamp have now published a source edition for the city archive entitled "The end of the war in Aachen in 1918". November 1918 in Aachen is vividly described using 56 color-coded sources and supplementary material from the city archive. The book (A5 format, 176 pages, numerous colored illustrations) will be available from the second week of November at a price of 20 euros in the city archive, Reichsweg 30, during the opening hours of the reading room.
Issued November 2, 2018 by City Archive Aachen
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07:56:57pm
The help I receive on this forum has been remarkable. My thanks for that. Here is another puzzle. This is the 'send' part of a Kartenbrief, a letter card. It was mailed from Aachen, Germany, May 7, 1918, to Liege, Belgium. It has a received mark on the reverse dated May 18, 1918. Top left-center is a censor's mark. A Routing mark is within a diamond, bottom left.
My question concerns the stamp applied to the indica, the preprinted postage. It appears to depict a soldier with helmet and bearing a flag. I've never seen this before. I have no clue about its significance. What can you tell me?
Login to Like
this post
re: Another German Card Mystery
It's just a smudged Postmark.The Pre Paid is a Germania.
Login to Like
this post
re: Another German Card Mystery
They did not use extra cancellers in Germany the way they did in the United States.
I'm sure it is nothing official. It could even have been applied much later than the postal marks, and it looks like it has been cut from a piece of rubber or even from a potato ...
-jmh
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Another German Card Mystery
Hi BWSchulz,
Another interesting item!
This appears to be a forgery of an Aachen ASR "Arbeiter-und-Soldatenrat" overprint.
Stamps with an overprint similar to this were allegedly created by the Workers and Soldiers Soviet in Aachen in November 1918.
Here the overprint is wrong, as are the date and postmark.
I believe the only used stamps that are known are on piece rather than on cover or postal stationery.
In my old Michel catalogue there's an image of the genuine overprint and the comment that the stamps are a "fantasy production".
Login to Like
this post
09:49:27am
re: Another German Card Mystery
NIgelc,
Excellent help as always. Thanks.
Login to Like
this post
re: Another German Card Mystery
Wow,
Nigelc is right here. The date is wrong but the overprint is right. So a Fake.
I have seen this kind of stamp about 30 years ago.
And this is the story behind it:
German Revolution 1918-1919
The various stamp issues were issued by revolutionary groups in Germany between the end of WWI and the Constitution of Weimar as established on August 14,1919. These stamps had their origin in the chaotic situation after the war when various separatist and anti monarchist Workers and Soldiers” Soviets took over local power all around the country.
The German Emperor Wilhelm II had been forced by his own government to abdicate at the end of WWI and he moved to the Netherlands. However, the Emperor was also the symbol of the unity of the country and his absence brought a vacuum of political power.
The German people, exhausted and tired of war, considered the monarchy the main stumbling block to peace and began to revolt in many places during the first days of November 1918. The revolt started with the mutiny of the German navy on October 29,1918. On November 9, Philip Schneidermann proclaimed a German Republic at the Berlin Reichstag at 2pm, another one was proclaimed by Karl Liebknecht, speaking for the
Spartakists from the balcony of the Berlin Castle at 4pm. On the same day the German workers began to strike and soldiers sympathetic to their cause joined the insurrection. Anarchy and chaos ruled Germany.
The Workers and Soldiers Soviets were formed during the first days of November 1918 and they claimed authority in competition with existing administrations and acted as revolutionary cells, occupying local authorities, administrations and post offices. This group immediately tried to extinguish all traces of monarchy, which resulted in short lived changes in postal traffic including the overprinting of postage stamps.
The ASR Stamps of Aachen 1918 is pictured above.
In Aachen, a town in Northwest Germany, the local “Arbeiter und Soldatenrat” (ASR= Workers and Soldiers Soviet) produced some overprint stamps in mid November, 1918. Nine denominations of the Germania stamps were overprinted with revolutionary illustrations. The overprints were applied to the 2, 2 ½, 3, 5, 71/2, 10, 15, 50 and 80 pf values. The overprint consisted of a knight wearing a long coat. The figure holds a flag of liberty in its” right hand. To the right is a broken sword and two unidentifiable blotches are said to illustrate the unsavoury rutabaga, nutrition for so many people during the war. The discarded crown of the Kaiser is illustrated below the figure and the rising sun appears above.
The overprint was made in wood or rubber and the ink was coloured black, red, gold and silver.
According to literature sources, the ASR stamps were used on official or military mail in the Rhineland area around November, 1918.
Apart from a few mint examples and some cancelled pieces, there are few in existence.
Besides the Aachen ASR Stamps, other overprints were produced by members of local Workers and Soldiers Soviets in the German Reich. In Saxony, for example, a Communist organization overprinted 10 and 25 pf Germania stamps with “Free State Saxony”.
Bibliography:
Philatelic Witnesses – Stamps of Revolutions
Author – Wolfgang Baldus
Publisher Album Publishing Company 293 p/p
German Revolution 1918-1919 Page 115
Login to Like
this post
re: Another German Card Mystery
And this is what a found in the city archive of Aachen:
Workers 'and soldiers' councils take over.
On November 11, 1918, the armistice at Compiègne ended the First World War for the German Reich. Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated in Berlin two days earlier, after workers 'and soldiers' councils had taken over in most major cities. Starting from the sailors' uprising in Kiel on November 3, this political movement had spread rapidly and reached Cologne on November 7.
Foundation of a provisional workers 'and soldiers' council
On the night of November 8th and 9th, a delegation from the Cologne Workers 'and Soldiers' Council travels to Aachen by train and establishes a provisional Workers 'and Soldiers' Council for Aachen in the station building. During the night the officers are relieved of their position and prisoners released. The following day, November 9, the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council met with Mayor Wilhelm Farwick, the Police President Karl von Hammacher and the Government President Adolf Freiherr von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels.
A city government is agreed under the leadership of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council, the main aim of which is to maintain public security and supply. This was necessary because in view of the impending armistice, the beginning of the soldiers' march back from the western front, the expected military occupation and the tense supply situation, which could easily lead to famine, all forces had to be pooled.
The "democratic and social republic" is announced
In its call "To the entire citizens of Aachen", the workers 'and soldiers' council announces the beginning of a "democratic and social republic" in Germany. He appeals to the discipline of workers and citizens and orders measures to maintain public security. The text of the leaflet also threatens to shoot burglars, thieves and looters who have been convicted. Following the call, the chief of police of Hammacher and Mayor Farwick "recommend" to follow the regulations of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council "provided that they relate to maintaining calm and order". Organizational information about the offices of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council in the administration building at Katschhof follows.
For the next three weeks, the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council remained the city's highest body. It was only on 30 November 1918 that the Belgian occupation dissolved him. In the meantime, the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council had managed to prevent a major crisis in the city by working with the administration and police. Daily life, on the other hand, normalized only slowly. Even though Aachen remained occupied for the next few years and the next few years were in crisis, November 9, 1918 marked the beginning of the first democratic republic in Germany.
City archive publishes source edition
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of the war in 1918, Thomas Müller and René Rohrkamp have now published a source edition for the city archive entitled "The end of the war in Aachen in 1918". November 1918 in Aachen is vividly described using 56 color-coded sources and supplementary material from the city archive. The book (A5 format, 176 pages, numerous colored illustrations) will be available from the second week of November at a price of 20 euros in the city archive, Reichsweg 30, during the opening hours of the reading room.
Issued November 2, 2018 by City Archive Aachen
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