Galerie

 

Airmail — Forerunners
Every collector of Danzig airmail will also be interested in forerunners of official airmail commerce, just as every Danzig collector of covers and stamps is interested in the beginnings of mail in the Danzig Free State and the respective issue of its own postage stamps. The following pieces would take pride of place in a Danzig airmail collection

1) A postcard (private), printed on the left side of the face with the legend “Danziger Flugwoche 1912”. [Danzig Air Week 1912]. Light blue paper. With a picture of Danzig on the back.
2) A vignette for the “Ostmarkenflug” 20th to 23rd June 1914. Yellowo range, dark brown, grey and white in colour. The inscription shows the flight route Breslau-Posen Königsberg-Danzig.
3) A postcard and postage—stamp like vignette from the same occasion as above. With on the reverse of the card a symbolic representation (Icarus) as well as at the edge of the design the exact routing Breslau-Frankenstei Lie;njtz_G1ogau_Ljssa_pogen_Graudenz_Konigsberg Danzig-Elbing.

This card was issued in Liegnitz with a perforated, wine—red coloured vignette, also showing the Icarus motif, with the German flight route above and the Eastern provinces below. In Liegnitz this vignette was also stamped with a private oval handstamp bearing the inscription “Flugpost Breslau-Danzig/21.6.14/F, The colour of this handstamp is violet.

4) The flight Berlin-Schneidemühl--Danzig-Elbing-Konigsberg on 11.11.1919 and back on 12.11.1919. This flight was arranged because of then prevailing railway strike and was by way of some substitute for letter post. There are covers, flown both to and from Danzig, with no special distinguishing marks, and these are exceptionally rare. Nevertheless covers from Danzig are known which bear the designation “airmail”, it was apparently well-known in Danzig that this was an unique opportunity to send a letter by airmail. The cancellation date remains however the most likely way of identifying this flight.

Left: Oval Postmark DANZIG 5.     Right: Same, with damaged oval frame under FT.

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 62 - January - February - March - 1989, Page 8.