[Below: Let's start this page with something a little different - an envelope from 'German Offices in China'. This was canceled in Peking, China on February 27, 1905. It was sent to:
Mr. W. Straight
Correspondents Associated Press
Tokio
c/o United States Legation
This was postmarked in Peking on February 27, 1905 and received in Yokohama and its destination of Tokyo on March 11, 1905 (Yokohama is a port city south of Tokyo). Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Close-up. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Reverse. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Here is an example of the insanity of the inflation in Germany in the 1920s. This uses official stamps issued in 1921. It was canceled on August 28, 1923 and uses every inch of the envelope and more for postage. Each stamp, overprinte 'Dienstmarke' (Service Mark), is only 300 marks, which is nothing compared to what was to come, with stamp prices being in the BILLIONS! Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Reevrse. Here we see additional 200 mark stamps laid over the 300 mark stamps! Click to enlarge.]
[Below: This was postmarked on May 21, 1937. Danzig was stripped from Germany, like so many other German lands, after WWI by the criminal Versailles Treaty. On September 19, 1939, after the invasion of Poland, Danzig returned to Germany. Note the stamp has a swastika and a sunburst design with the letters 'DLB', this stands for 'Danziger Luftschutzbund' (Danzig Air Raid Protection Association). Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Close-up. The cancel says 'DAPOSTA 1937 - Danziger Postwertzeichen Ausstellung' (DAPOSTA 1937 - Danzig Postage Stamp Exhibition). The reverse is blank. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Danzig Luftshutzbund Pin. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: The criminal Treaty of Versailles being ripped in half. Postcard.]
[Below: 1938/39 souvenir sheet from the WHW (Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes, or Winter Relief of the German People). Click to enlarge.]
[Below: 'Danzig ist Deutsch' (Danzig is German). Postcard.]
[Below: 'Danzig ist Deutsch' (Danzig is German). This postcard is a rarer version of that above.]
[Below: Danzig postal souvenir sheet canceled on December 5, 1937.]
[Below: Danzig postal souvenir sheet used on an envelope canceled on December 2, 1937.]
[Below: This cancel says:
'Danzig
Der Führer
Hat Uns Befreit
1. Sept. 1939'
(Danzig
The Führer
Has Liberated Us
September 1, 1939).]
[Below: This cancel says:
'Danzig
Grüsst Jubelnd
Seinen Führer und Befreier
Adolf Hitler
19. Sept. 39'
(Danzig
Jubilantly greets
its leader and liberator
Adolf Hitler
19 Sept. 39).]
[Below: The jubilant arrival of the Führer to Danzig.]
[Below: Excited youth wave flags and cheer for the Führer in Danzig.]
[Below: Women give flowers to German troops returning to Danzig.]
[Below: This is a neat, but strange envelope. It was canceled on October 21, 1921, in Hannover. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: 'Der neueste und größte Schlager für Erwachsene' (The newest and largest Schlager for adults). Schlager means basically a popular song. I'm not sure what this 'Die Goldene 18' was... maybe a song? Click to enlarge.]
[Below: 'Bubi-Spiele' (Young Boy Games)... not sure what this means. If it involves a boy, why do they show a girl, wearing a dress? Oh wait... nevermind, we have those in this day and age too! Haha... 'She' is holding objects that say, for example, 'Im Lande der Zwerge' (In the Land of the Dwarves) and Kinder Post (Children's Mail). No idea what all this means. Close-up. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: This is interesting. It was sent to Washington D.C. aboard the ship S.S. Manhattan, on its maiden voyage in August 1932. The S.S. Manhattan, and her sister ship, were the largest liners ever built in the United States. It cost a whopping $21 million (equivalent to over $441 million in 2023)! It was considered a very high cost during the Depression and a massive gamble, that would never pay off.
Her history would see her used for purposes other than as a pleasure ocean liner:
'On June 15, 1941 she was commissioned as USS Wakefield (AP-21) and became the largest ship ever operated by the US Coast Guard. In 1942 she caught fire and was rebuilt as a troop ship. Post-war, she was moored in New York in May, before decommissioning in June 1946. She was laid up in reserve at Jones Point, New York. She never saw commercial service again, and was sold for scrap in 1965.'
It's interesting that two German stamps are canceled on the top left of the envelope. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Close-up. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: The S.S. Manhattan.]
[Below: Okay, it's time for some flashy postcards. This one celebrates police on the front lines, which were under the control of the SS. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Reverse. It says: 'Zum Tag der Deutschen Polizei 1942' (On the Day of the German Police 1942). Click to enlarge.]
[Below: This is a postcard celebrating the 50th birthday of Adolf Hitler. What a beautiful cancel... Click to enlarge.]
