Gallery

Amplification on the Photos of the Zeppelin on page 47.

After the search for further pictures for my personal Luposta collection, I had found that both the pictures on Page 47 are photo-assemblies! The photo of Zoppot without the Zeppelin can be found of Page 94 of the book by Hans Lewald; Danzig, 'How IT Was' - 3rd Edition, 1979, published by the Droste Publishing House, Düsseldorf, ISBN 3 7700 0349 7. The original is from a private collection, per our sources.

The air photo of Danzig without the Zeppelin can be found as Picture 12, next to Page 48, in the book by rudiger Ruhnau, Danzig, History of a German Town, Holzer Publishing House, Berlin, 1938, Both postcards are from the art Publisher Carl Brinkmann, Breslau 1, the photo from Aerocartograph, Insitut AG Breslau 2, with Danzig under No. 5 and Zoppot No. 7. In Both cases, the same airship photo was worked in; as seen under the enlargement. Who made the photo assemblies may never be known. Also, the Philatelist Bureau Rau in Friedrichshafen, sales office for the Zeppelin picture series with souvenir postmarks as copies of the original Zeppelin cancels, let themselves be taken in by the hoax and published the card from Danzig as an original air photo under the number 163. In the past, I had already found two similar Zeppelin photos glued in the sky over Danzig and then copied. These cards also carried a round signum with the signature P, at that time stamped with the 5 Luposta stamps, having actually been sent of the outward trip 169 A und the return trip 169 B.

Dortmund, April 1984.
Hans Georg Mencke.
(Member of the ARGE Danzig of the German Philatelists Association).

*- The original book photo with the bogus card placed over the text.