Gallery

 

The scarcest airmail postmark is that of Danzig 5 for the “S’idstrecke” [Southern region], as this was only used for sendings to Poland, Austria and other countries to the South.

The handstamp colour is generally black. Only the handstarnp of Danzig 5 was applied for a single day, on 10.7.1924, in violet blue ink. The special handstamp, No. 8 above, was on 8.6.1937, the last date of the Exhibition also applied in red (with the time designation “18-19”).

From 12.6.1933 the handstamp of Danzig 5 began to show a break in the outer oval under the letters “FT” of “LLJFTPOST’. This was not a complete break in the oval itself and also it appeared in different forms depending on the chance application of more pressure above or below. The line under can thus appear either as a full gap or simply a minor blemish. The illustrations show this damage to the handstamp in both forms.

The airmail postmarks, with the exception of No.8 above, were used throughout with 12-hour time designations, even though during their lifetime it became quite normal for handstamps to have 24-hour time designations. The new way has hitherto only been recorded on one day, 2.7.1939, in the Danzig 5 handstamp.

The airport handstamps
Danzig had only one airport handstamp in lasting use and this indeed was from 2.5.1935 to 14.3.1945 a normal double—circle handstamp, with the words “Danzig” in the upper part and “Flughafen” in the lower, whilst in the inside bridge there was the date in 24-hour time.

This handstamp arose naturally also on registered letters and here with special registration labels :

a) a registration label of Danzig 5 made up of a gummed label with the word “Flughafen” printed on it.
b) a special registration label with the words “Danzig-Flughafen” in a single—line.

During the International Airmail Exhibition (Luposta) from 23 to 30.7.1932 a special airport stamp was used, this being a large double— circle handstamp, with the word “Danzig” between the circles in the upper part, the word “Flughafen” below,in the upper segment “International.e Luftpost—” in the lower “Ausstellung”, and with the date in 24—hour time in the inside bridge.

With the airport handstamps one can also class in a broad sense the. .........

Air company handstamps
Such handstamps exist from the following companies

a) “Danziger Luftpost GmbH, Telefon 2746, Flugleitung Danzig”. The date was inserted in manuscript in blue ink. It exists with the date 19.6.1923 amongst others.
b) “Danziger Lloyd Luftdienst GmbH, Flugleitung Danzig”. Known with the date 27.7.1922 amongst others.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 62 - January - February - March - 1989, Page 17.