Gallery

 

FIGURE 13 - Duisberg, Germany, 22 June1940, to New York City

Boxed Aus dem Bnefkasten and postal regulation, reading Return to sender! this letter not in accordance with the directive on communications traffic of 2 April 1940”, applied at post office


The sender returned the letter to the post office, showed his identification, and it was accepted for transit. The postal clerk crossed out the Aus dem Brie fkasten and the An Absender zurUck regulation handstamps and wrote in the upper left corner, “This letter resubmitted at post office on 3 July” with his signature. The official Duisberg post office Dienstsie gel handstamps were then applied (the negative German eagles), and it was sent to the Berlin censor office and then to New York.

During the Second World War, new postal regulations resulted in a new use for the Aus dem Briefkasten marking. After April, 1940, all German mail to foreign countries had to be personally brought to the post office. If it was put into a mail box, it was marked as such and returned to the sender, or the sender was sent for. The cover in Fig. 13 illustrates all of the facets of this procedure very nicely on one cover. Unfortunately, the cover is not from Danzig, but the same regulations that fostered it applied in the (no longer) Free City. Similar covers from Danzig should exist.

While not common, the Aus dem Briefkasten marking was used for a variety of circums tances from the 1860s to at least the 1940s, and it is still possible to find examples on cover. It is also possible to determine how and why it was used, adding several levels of meaning to the postal history of each cover.
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SPECIAL SECTION: DANZIG VARIETIES LIST
RICHARD MINARD, our good member in Seattle, has graciously given us permission to provide all of our members with his list of the Michel varieties for the first 129 Danzig stamps

We’re sure that you will find this list most helpful when sti,idying the plate varieties for all of the stamps. Richard requests that we notify him of any corrections or additions to this list, and he promises to furnish us with the next fruit of his labors in the future. Many thanks!

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 97 - October - November - December - 1997, Page 11.