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RESOLVING THE POSTAL REGULATION PROBLEM

For some time, we have been receiving and digesting helpful information on the question of the purple “20P Einl. Geb.” and some of the correspondence is quoted below.

One bit of knowledge that slowly sank in was the fact that there were printed Postal Regulations under which the Germans very methodically ran the distribution of mail. In reply to the “Was ist?” in Report No. 12, one member submitted the printed postal regulations of 30 Nov 1871, as reported in the next issue. In case you have forgotten, we printed an explanation of “20P Einl. Geb.” as being “20 Pfg. Einliefern Gebühr” and representing the 20 Pfg. that the rural mailman collected at the sender’s door to have the postman register the cover at the district’s post office. This appears under special fees and purple hand stamps in Paragraph XXV of the 1871 regulations. Our initial mistake was in substituting “Einliefern” for “Einlieferungsschein”, and we made another apparent error, as it appears in Report No. 13.

Subsequently, I received a letter (21 June 1977) from Dr. Bohne concerning further research and correspondence that he had conducted on this hand stamp and offered the following:
“...Mr. Schueler also had a conversation on this matter with Bud Hennig in Amsterdam. They are both in complete agreement with my original explanation that the rubber stamp refers to “Einlieferungsgebühr” and not “Einlieferungsscheingebühr” as mentioned in Bulletin No. 13. This fee was paid for acceptance of registered letters after the windows of the post office closed. However, in the larger post offices, one window was kept open after 18 o’clock (6:00 P.M.) for the purpose of accepting this mail. I would suggest that you correct the previous interpretations to avoid confusion among our group members.

Mr. Schueler points out tome, that these are the facts even though our “American friend” (you) will not believe them.”

Since we know absolutely nothing about postal regulations subsequent to the above-mentioned item of 1871, Report 13 said:
“,..the postal regulations of 1871 were still valid during the Free City era and we have found no superceding of this regulation as yet. This is not to say that none have been printed by the postal authorities, but we would like chapter and verse before changing our stand... If this (1871) directive was superceded, you will be the first to know, with our apologies.”

Again, in Report No. 14:
They have not yet told us when the Postal Regulation of 1871 was superceded so that an exact correction, citing the later regulation (and preferably a photostat of that section) can be published.”

 

Danzig Report  Nr. 16 – 4th Quarter - 1977, Page 2.