[Below: This is one return letter you wouldn't want to get... imagine writing your friend, who is a soldier, and you get this back, stamped on the envelope you sent:
'Zurück gefallen für Gross-Deutschland'
(Return - Fallen for Greater Germany). Now the family would already have been informed, by either the senior officer, the Party or a veterans' organization. You don't encounter these very often, so they must be somewhat rare for whatever reason. There are a lot of strange stamps and markings on this envelope and I'm not sure what they all mean. It was originally canceled on September 23, 1940. If you look up the feldpost number you find some unit information: Mobilization - April 28, 1940 - September 9, 1940 and that it is for the 2. Batterie Entgiftungs-Abteilung 104. Germany invaded France on May 9, 1940 and ended on June 22. This letter was postmarked September 23, 1940, but the soldier could have been dead for a while by the time this reached his unit.]
[Below: Close-up.]
[Below: Reverse of envelope.]
[Below: Letter within... so sad that he would never read this. Front/back]
[Below: Here is another 'Return - Fallen for Greater Germany' envelope. This is sent to a Leutnant Klaus Dold from the Bürgermeister of Villingen (a city in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany). The 'L' before his feldpost number signifies this is Luftwaffe. Specifically it was for the 'III. Gruppe Kampf-Geschwader 51'. This squadron was very active, participating in the West campaign, the Battle of Britain, the Balkan campaign and the German-Soviet war. From 1943 it was used in the Mediterranean, then in Reich defense and on the Western Front. It was canceled on January 21, 1943.]
[Below: Close-up of mayor's seal]
[Below: Close-up of 'Zurück gefallen für Gross-Deutschland'.]
[Below: Reverse of envelope.]
[Below: Here is another 'Return - Fallen for Greater Germany' envelope. This was sent by a family member sharing the same last name, but most likely they already knew the soldier was dead by the time they got this back. This was postmarked on November 28, (1942). The feldpost number shows it belonged to the '1. Kompanie Kradschützen-Bataillon 55', which during the Invasion of Russia it was subordinate to the 5. Panzer Division.]
[Below: Close-up of 'Zurück gefallen für Gross-Deutschland'.]
[Below: Reverse of envelope.]
[Below: Here are two envelopes from Third Reich newspapers. The first is from the 'Mülhauser Tagblatt - Amtliche Tagezeitung für das Oberelsass' (Official Daily Newspaper for Upper Alsace), June 23, 1944.]
[Below: Eagle close-up.]
[Below: Inside of envelope.]
[Below: Inside of envelope - with receipt flap on left pulled aside.]
[Below: The second of the two envelopes from Third Reich newspapers. This one is from the Metzer Zeitung (Metzer Newspaper). This is from Metz, a city in northeast France, located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany and Luxembourg. You'll notice the normal German Hindenburg postage stamp is overprinted with the word 'Lothringen' (Lorraine), the hotly contested area of two world wars. This was postmarked on June 18, 1941.]
[Below: Postage stamp close-up.]
[Below: Eagle close-up.]
[Below: Here is a very historical feldpost. It was sent late in the war, January 6, 1945 from the Grenadier-Regiment 426, who were trapped in the Kurland Pocket (western Latvia). It was one of the last German groups to surrender in Europe. Approximately 135,000 men surrendered after being ordered to do so. The men themselves were unbeaten, surrounded, behind enemy lines. The might of the Soviet armies could not break them.]
[Below: Reverse of envelope. How very, very fitting. This crude vignette says 'Wir kapitulieren nicht' (We'll Never Give up!).]
[Below: Vignette close-up.]
[Below: Here's a neat-looking Luftwaffe feldpost, sent from the 2. Batterie Reserve-Flak-Abteilung 323, on November 30, 1940, from France. I love the silver eagle stuck on here. I've also seen a gold version of the eagle.]
[Below: Eagle close-up.]
[Below: Luftwaffe unit ink stamp.]
[Below: Reverse of envelope.]
[Below: Letter within, written on the front/back of hard postcard-like cards.]
[Below: Here is an envelope from the Kriegsmarine-light-cruiser-KMS-Königsberg. A sad fate befell her when she was sunk during the battle of Norway (by British planes when she was already disabled). It was a miracle that only eighteen men were killed in the attack. This envelope is a reused example, where in this case, they merely pasted a piece of paper over the old information. You can just read under it (when you hold it up to a light), it says 'Marineintendantur; Stationstaffe Kiel'.]
[Below: Cruiser Königsberg ink stamp close-up.]
[Below: Cruiser Königsberg ink stamp close-up.]
[Below: Reverse of envelope.]
[Below: Postcard of the Königsberg.]
[Below: Text on back of postcard.]
[Below: The Königsberg while visiting Gdynia, Poland, 1935.]
[Below: The Königsberg while visiting Gdynia, Poland, 1935.]
[Below: The Königsberg.]
[Below: Here is an envelope from the auxiliary cruiser 'Widder', used by Germany's Kriegsmarine as a merchant raider in WWII. Her Kriegsmarine designation was Schiff 21. The name 'Widder' (Ram) represents the constellation Aries in German. During a five and half month period the Widder captured and sank ten ships. During the sinking of one British ship it was said that the Widder machine gunned the lifeboats. But like all war crime accusations against the Third Reich, one must be extremely skeptical of this, especially since this was based off the testimony of the sole survivor. But like in most Allied kangaroo courts the captain of the Widder was charged and convicted after the war and died in an Allied dungeon. After the war the Widder was stolen from Germany by Britain for 'war reparations'! Ha! Even better, in 1950 Britain sold it back to Germany! Ridiculous. Anyway, this was canceled on December 19, 1939. You'll also notice in the left hand corner the feldpost number, with the letter 'M' wrote in. This signifies Kriegsmarine. 'L' was used for Luftwaffe and nothing but the number for Wehrmacht.]
[Below: Widder ink stamp close-up.]
[Below: Envelope reverse.]
[Below: The Widder.]
[Below: Knight's Cross winner Hellmuth von Ruckteschell, the captain of the Widder. One of only two Kriegsmarine captains to be charged with war crimes.]
[Below: This feldpost belonged to the 12. Kompanie Kraftwagen-Transport-Regiment 616 and was sent August 11, 1944. But it's not the front of this that makes it interesting to us, but the back.]
[Below: Ink stamp close-up.]
[Below: Here's something I don't think I've ever seen before, a censored feldpost. For whatever reason these must be fairly rare, yet you would think there would be many of them. Hmm... The feldpost number comes back as 'Feldpost prufstelle AOK 18, which must be a feldpost censor. 'Dienststelle' means 'office' and 'Eingang' and 'Ausgang' mean 'entrance' and 'exit', which must mean how long the censor held this envelope. The censor tape says 'Feldpost prüfstelle', which means 'Feldpost inspection station'.]
[Below: Fairly uncommon, here is a feldpost with a cancel from a train. 'Zug' means 'Train' and 593 is the trains number. This was canceled on June 21, 1943. You can always tell the train cancels by their unique oval design. The reverse of this envelope is blank.]
[Below: Here is a very special Feldpost. It dates back to the final days of the war, in a cauldron of fire and darkness -- Brückenkopf Schwedt. It was a terrible, hellish period for German soldier and civilian alike. But it was also a time when the German spirit shined like a million diamonds. The defense of the Oder bridgehead at Schwedt was entrusted to the extraordinary SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny. In his book Otto Skorzeny - My Commando Operations, Skorzeny's experiences in these final days is revealed. To read this book is to learn just how special these men were in the face of almost certain death. What is fascinating about this particular Feldpost is it contains two letters from the front! Unfortunately they are written in Sütterlin, a type of German script which is nearly unreadable through modern eyes.]
[Below: A researchers paper inside the envelope.]
[Below: Letter #1 - front/reverse.]
[Below: Letter #2 - front/reverse.]
[Below: Otto Skorzeny - My Commando Operations.]
[Below: Here is a Feldpost from the German destroyer 'Erich Steinbrinck', named after a WWI German naval officer. It was postmarked in Hamburg on April 5, 1940. After being involved in several missions and repairs, it was eventually badly damaged by Allied bombs, putting the ship out of the war. After the war the 'Erich Steinbrinck' was given (stolen) by the Soviet Union as 'war reparations'. It was eventually sold for scrap in 1958.]
[Below: The ink stamp is interesting.]
[Below: Envelope reverse.]
[Below: The 'Erich Steinbrinck'.]
[Below: Here is a Feldpost from a very dark time in WWII -- The siege of Budapest, one of the bloodiest sieges of World War II. Against the tired and shattered German Army forces, Waffen-SS and Hungarian Army, were more than 1,000,000 communist soldiers. The story of the siege of the city and the hellish battles that took place is like something out of a nightmare. This envelope was postmarked on November 27, 1944, when Soviet troops were surrounding the city. It is made of flimsy reused paper. The horrid battles took place everywhere imaginable, from the sewers to graveyards. 28,000 German and Hungarian troops eventually tried to break out of the city, only 600-700 would make it to the safety of German lines.]
[Below: Close-up of ink stamp.]
[Below: Reverse of envelope.]
[Below: German and Hungarian soldiers on a King Tiger tank inside the city, October 1944. Only one Tiger II unit was stationed in Budapest.]
[Below: Hungarian troops man a 7.5 cm Pak 40 anti-tank gun in a Budapest suburb, November 1944.]
[Below: Here is a very common postcard of the series 'Lernt Deutschland Kennen!' (Get to Know Germany!). This idea began in the 1920s and carried on after the Third Reich. There is a large set with an Adolf Hitler stamp on the pre-paid postcard as well. Each postcard pictured a different locale around Germany. I'm not sure exactly how many different postcards were released of each set, but I've seen well over 100 of the Hitler ones. But what makes this special is the 'DRUCKPROBE' which means 'print test', which signifies it is an example used by the postal service to test certain things like ink, paper, etc.]
[Below: Close-up.]
[Below: Another DRUCKPROBE! This one uses the word 'MUSTER' which means 'SAMPLE'. This is a pre-paid envelope from the German territory of Württemberg. The stamp used here, printed on the envelope, was used from 1881-1919.]
[Below: Envelope reverse. Note the printing is upside down! Something they would fix on the released version I'm guessing.]
