The Third Reich Study Group NEWS SHEET - German...

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In this issue :

DEAR MEMBER: A new CD available of the ‘John Rawlings’ News Sheets from No.1 to No.167. A brief report on the G & C.P.S. meeting held in London on 30th April 2017,

and of the members’ displays – pages 2 and 3

STATE of the MEMBERSHIP: Our growing list of New Members to the Group – page 4

ENQUIRIES:

New enquiries and Results of Enquiries – pages 4 thru 6

ANNE FRANK, 1929 – 1945 A brief article about a mystery cachet on a Dutch card by Steve Clark – page 7

RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA CARDS FROM THE EASTERN FRONT 1941/42

An article by Bob Jones – pages 8 thru 10

“ERNTEDANKTAG” 1933 – 1938 The Postal History of the German National Harvest Festival Celebrations

During the Third Reich (Part 1) by John Rawlings – pages 11 thru 16

ANOTHER BOHEMIA & MORAVIA SOUVENIR SHEET A new B&M souvenir sheet is found – page 17

AN UNUSUAL POSTCARD FROM ABROAD

A rather strange franking on a 1934/35 WHW Lottery card – page 18

A PARCEL CARD TO THE GESTAPO Tony Quinn shares one of his parcel cards – page 19

DIARY DATES !

The schedule for upcoming local meetings of the G & C.P.S. around the regions – page 20

EPILOGUE

A brief note from the editor with upcoming articles for the News Sheet – page 20

The Third Reich Study Group

NEWS SHEETGroup Leader:

John Rawlings, 58 Crantock Road, Catford, London SE6 2QP

June 2017No. 169

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News Sheet No.169 June 2017

Dear Member I have received many positive messages about my first effort at putting together our new News Sheet. Thank you, it is very encouraging. One recurring request has been how to get access to older News Sheets. Well – I have just finished the latest updated News Sheet CD. It contains ALL the News Sheets edited by John Rawlings from News Sheet No.1 (May 1974) to News Sheet No.167 (December 2016). These ‘John Rawlings’ News Sheets have been meticulously re-written with many of the illustrations replaced with colour ones where possible. This alone has taken Group members over 13 years to accomplish and these are now available on one fully interactive CD. For those of you interested in statistics:- it contains 3,151 pages with over 1,000,000 words and 6,656 illustrations of which just over 3,300 are in colour! To add to the versatility of this CD, it not only comes in the original A4 format, but also in U.S. Letter size for those of you that might want to print off a couple of articles. So it is your choice!

These CDs are available from me (Bob Jones) at £15 each plus p+p. At the time of writing, the total costs for the CD including the p+p are:

U.K. = £16.60 E.U. = £18.80

Rest of World = £20.25

Payment can be made by personal cheque (drawn on a U.K. bank) and made out to the ‘Germany & Colonies Philatelic Society’. Payment can also be made via PayPal sent to my account at: [email protected] There are no additional charges for a PayPal payment!

All profits go the Germany & Colonies Philatelic Society

The Third Reich Study Group Meeting in London, 30th April 2017 At our latest Study Group meeting a group of 20 of us ended up squeezed into a room suitable for about half that number (and without our usual refreshments) because of an unfortunate administrative error. However, everyone stayed on and enjoyed the varied range of Third Reich postal history on show. Since we only had space for four of the usual six exhibition boards it was, perhaps, just as well that only six members had brought material along.

Tony Bosworth started us off with two frames of items showing the handstamps, artist and photo cards and souvenir sheets produced for the anti-communist exhibitions “Bolshevism Unmasked” and “Soviet Paradise” which toured several German cities during the period 1937 to 1943 and Simon McArthur then followed with a detailed study of the Nachnahme (Cash on delivery) service, illustrating the wide range of rates and the various labels and markings peculiar to the service. Rex Dixon then concluded the first half with a frame devoted to one of the wartime sporting events which never actually took place - the Vienna Grand Prix of 1944. Commemorative stamps were duly produced and sold and orders placed with dealers but, in the event, the carefully prepared covers were simply returned in an envelope marked “No Race - No Handstamp”. They must have been very disappointed! After the war a series of enlarged copies of the stamps were produced in a whole range of colours and sold as essays at inflated prices and Rex showed us a number of examples from his own collection to act as a warning to us all.

After a pause for viewing I then began the second half with a frame relating to the Sea and Ship Post services used on board the ships of the German West Africa Line between 1933 and 1939 illustrating the initial use of the old style oval handstamps bearing roman numerals; the introduction of smaller circular datestamps on some ships; and the complete reorganisation of the system in 1936 which saw the introduction of new standard handstamps in which the individual ship was identified by a small letter (or pair of letters) below the date bridge.

John Rawlings

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News Sheet No.169 June 2017 Dear Member (cont.) New member Wesley Tierney then showed a frame of recent acquisitions on a variety of topics including Berchtesgaden (where Hitler had a mountain retreat); the Emergency Information cards of 1943; Hoffmann photo cards on several themes; and the Vienna Fairs.

The final display by Tony Hickey was devoted to the stamps, handstamps, artist cards and souvenir sheets used to publicise the Berlin Motor Shows.

Some selected items on display at the meeting are shown below:

Despite the problems everyone seemed to find something of interest but we hope that, on July 22nd, when Rex, myself, Simon and Tony Hickey will present a series of 3-frame displays all will be back to normal.

John Rawlings

Fig.1: From Tony Bosworth’s display showing a special postcard printed for the “Bolshevism Unmasked” exhibitions. Fig.2: From John Rawling’s display showing a card posted on board the German West African service liner “Wahehe”. Fig.3: From Tony Hickey’s ‘Berlin Motor Shows’ display. Fig.4: From Simon McArthur’s display showing a cover with dual franking and a Nachnahme (cash on delivery) label. Fig.5: From Wesley Tierney’s display showing a Hitler’s 48th birthday sheet from 1937 (Mi. Block 7).

Fig.5 Fig.4

Fig.3

Fig.1

Fig.2

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State of the Membership New Members We would like to welcome the following new members to our Study Group. They are: Wesley Tierney - Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, SG6 4NW

Chris Weddell - Lower Kingswood, Surrey, KT20 5RD

Derek Walker - Mount Grove, Sunderland, SR4 7NW

Gary Cheyne - Carluke, South Lanarkshire, ML8 5AU

Tony Moseley - Kingswinford, West Midlands, DY6 8LU

Sean Irvine - Belfast, BT9 6TS

Andreas Yennadiou - Dorman Way, London, NW8 0SD

Ray Mayes - Hove, East Sussex, BN3 4EA

Ian Greenwood - Romford, Essex, RM5 3YD

Paul Hitchen - Weaverham, Northwhich, Cheshire, CW8 3LH

Brian Priestley - Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 4XW

William Sells - Caister-on-Sea, Norfolk, NR30 5BW

Steve Osborn - Crawley, West Sussex

Don Boyall - Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

Larry Nelson - Mantoloking, New Jersey, 08738, U.S.A.

Dr. Chris Kolker - Norwich, Connecticut, 06360, U.S.A.

Robin Tapper - Orpington, Kent, BR5 1HF

Jim Graue - Valleyford, Washington, 99036, U.S.A.

Enquiries New Enquiries Enq. 3/17 Our member Bill Sells from Norfolk got in touch to ask if any of the other members know of a

publication dedicated to the special cancels and advertising applied by the Reichspost to mail on behalf of the Hitler Youth (4 examples below). I do not know of any publication personally but he would like to start a list of such items. If any member could help Bill please contact the editor. All cancels found will be shown in future editions of the News Sheet.

85 Our on-line membership now stands at:

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News Sheet No.169 June 2017 New Enquiries (cont.) Enq. 4/17 Tony Quinn writes to us with a query about a ‘prisoner’s postcard’ he recently found ‘unidentified’ in

a dealer’s box which turned out to be from one of the satellite camps of the notorious “V2 Dora Complex” (below). Information regarding the sub-camp “Sangerhausen” or indeed mail itself is hard to come by and he wonders if any of our members can assist with information or mail from this little known camp (here’s hoping!).

Tony says that what this card shows is that it is a ‘prisoner’s postcard’ from Sangerhausen (Saxony) a

sub-camp of “Mittelbau” (Central Works) from Augustin Toma, Prisoner Nr.29467, Born: 8.5.1899, Block 137, a Czech, to his wife in the German Protectorate of Bohemia & Moravia. With a 6Rpf. Hitler definitive stamp cancelled “Sangerhausen, 28.12.44”. Rubber stamp to left “Censored!” and boxed “Registered, Express and Cash remittances forbidden!”. On reverse prisoner’s message in tiny script and dated “24.12.44”. During its existence until April 1945, more than 40 sub-camps connected to the main camp of Mittelbau were established under the title “Mittellwerk AG” (Central Works Coy.) for the production of the V2 in the underground caves in the Nordhausen area. Around the time of the prisoner’s lettercard (November 1944) the output of 662 missiles (V2) was reached in that month (the highest monthly total recorded). In the month of November 1944 there were about 33,000 prisoners from 21 nations in the Mittelbau-complex (14,000 in the main camp) the peak number of 42,000 prisoners was reached in March 1945. Little is known about the sub-camp “Sangerhausen” other than the contractor’s name “I. Geyer & Sohn” the date of its “foundation” is unknown in the literature.

Ref: German Concentration Camps 1933-1945 (Tarnasen, Norway) 2000 by Eric Lørdahl: Volume 1. Enq. 5/17 I have a query of my own to ask. I have been collecting Souvenir Sheets from Bohemia & Moravia

for a few years and I am wondering where the collectors got their actual sheets from. I am talking about the larger ornate sheets like the one pictured in my article on page 16 of this News Sheet. Were these sheets available from stamp shops or collector’s groups? Maybe they were available from the post office itself (for a fee of course). It is just that there never seems to be any price marked on any of the sheets and I am pretty sure if it was from a stamp shop or collectors group the shop or group would also have had some sort of recognition on the sheet itself even if only a rubber handstamp on the back of the sheet. The only printing I can find is the printer’s details on some sheets and nothing about the origin. Any help or ideas about how they were obtained by the original collectors would be most welcome.

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News Sheet No.169 June 2017 Results of Enquiries Enq. 3/15 In another response to Graham Walker’s query in News Sheet No.162, Steve Clark has provided us

with an example of ‘bisected’ stamps on a cover from his own collection (below). It is a cover franked with 4 x 6Rpf Hindenburg Medallion stamps that have been bisected, only this time in a block of 4! It gives the possible impression of a mis-cut sheet of 6Rpf stamps, at the correct rate for an inland letter, but alternatively it could just be a philatelic item that the sender has got away with.

The sealed letter appears to have gone through the post, without postage due being charged. The

sender’s name (Absender) was written on the back. It was sent from Tanne (Harz) on 25.8.1939, just 1 week before WW2 started.

Enq. 1/17 Our member Ben Beede has written a response to Godfrey Skinner’s enquiry in the last News Sheet

about his Luftfeldpost cover. Ben says:

“The cover sent allegedly by the Supreme Court in Berlin to Bozen in occupied Italy with an airmail admittance stamp looks dubious to me.

Why would the stamp be applied? There was no Feldpost airmail service to Italy. Yes, an individual sender stationed in say Crete or the Aegean area might properly use one to expedite a piece of mail. A civilian agency in Germany would have no reason to use one. Where would it procure such a stamp in the first place? Military administrative offices might have them available, but hardly a civilian court.

I think the agency in Bozen is the Feldkommandatur 358. That conclusion was reached, too, by someone making an inquiry in 2007 in “www.Die-Feldpost-2-Weltkrieg.org.” There was no response to this query. Unfortunately, there was no illustration, but, significantly, the Berlin cancel was July 20th 1944, and the sender was the same court. There is a further problem. The Tessin volumes do not show a Feldkommandantur 358 in Bozen or elsewhere in occupied Italy.

Thus, we have a cover with an unnecessary stamp, a unclear cancellation, a routing label that no one has ever seen, addressed to a non-existent agency in Bozen.

We should assume that the cover, if it were really sent by airmail, was carried by Lufthansa. That brings up the question of why there is no adhesive or meter stamp to pay the airmail fee, probably 5Rpf in this case, or 10Rpf at most.

There is another question about how this cover was franked for mailing. There is no “Frei durch Ablösung Reich” marking, which was needed in lieu of adhesive or meter stamps for payment of postage. Governmental offices paid lump sums from time to time for most of their postage. Some fees, such as express delivery and airmail, were not governed by such arrangements”.

Our thanks go to Bill, Tony, Steve and Ben for their contribution.

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Anne Frank, 1929 – 1945

by Steve Clark Anne Frank was a German Jew born in Frankfurt on 12.6.1929, but she lived most of her life in Amsterdam. By 1940 Anne and her family were trapped in the Dutch capital following the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. They went into hiding in 1942 but were eventually captured by the Gestapo in August 1944. During 1942 - 1944, Anne kept a diary documenting her life in hiding. The 5 cent Dutch postal stationery card below (up-rated to 8 cent) was posted on 23.2.44 from Westerbork, a Nazi detention/transit camp in the Netherlands, whose function was to assemble Dutch and/or German Jews for transport to either a concentration or extermination camp. Anne Frank was one of the internees held at Westerbork from 8.44 – 3.9.44. She was then taken to Auschwitz, arriving on 6.9.44 and then onward approximately 1 month later to Belsen. She died from typhus at the age of fifteen (official date 31.3.1945).

The card was addressed to Vittel Camp (formed from requisitioned hotels) near Epinal in France. The correspondence, from a German woman separated from her daughter, has received a large green ‘Star of David’ cachet, which served as the local censorship applied to Jewish internment camp mail in the Netherlands. However, it is not clear if the card ever reached its destination in Vittel, as the 8 cents franking has not been cancelled and there are no arrival markings.

The 60pf German Bundespost postage stamp at right (Mi.1013), issued in 1979, celebrates the 50th birth anniversary of Anne Frank and shows her portrait together with her diary.

Westerbork was liberated by the Canadian 2nd Infantry on 12.4.1945, just 2 weeks after Anne Frank died. Since it was first published in 1947, Anne Frank’s diary has become one of the most powerful memoirs of the Holocaust. Its message of courage and hope in the face of adversity has reached millions. The diary has been translated into 67 languages with over 30 million copies sold.

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Russian Propaganda Cards from the Eastern Front 1941/42

by Bob Jones

During a typical cruel Russian winter of 1941/42 the Russians had started to make advances against the German army. The fighting was intense and all methods to find victory were explored. This article is about one of these methods – propaganda!

Shown at left is a map of the Russian and German lines and the Russian advances from 5th December 1941 to 5th May 1942.

The Soviet government began producing propaganda leaflets on 22nd June 1941, one day after German troops invaded Russia. The 7th Department of the Red Army, affiliated with the political divisions of the Army located in Moscow, was charged with the production of propaganda materials. The 7th Department in Moscow produced all strategic leaflets, and subordinate political units in the field distributed the leaflets and frequently themselves produced and distributed tactical leaflets. The Russian Army produced a large number of leaflets in the form of postcards, largely directed at German troops in Russia, but also, in smaller numbers, to other ethnic units fighting alongside the Germans. The output was prodigious, and eventually the Russians became the most prolific producer of propaganda postcards in the war. These postcards were air-dropped or fired by leaflet shells. A small number of cards bore civilian postage in the form of imprinted Hindenburg vignettes, but most bore some sort of military mail marking such as Feldpost or Feldpostkarte. The postcards shown here were produced in the winter of 1941-1942. Russian postcards (No. PP 127 Prop. 1/02 is shown at right) imprinted on the address side with a 6 pfennig Hindenburg stamp and the word “Postkarte.” To the left of the stamp is an imitated express label “Des Führers Weihnachtsbescherung” (“The Fuhrer’s Christmas Present”). Below the express label are short propaganda paragraphs. All printing on the address side is in green. The back (picture) side contains a drawing in bluish-black. These are the only postcards with an imprinted postage stamp. Each card was printed in Moscow on 10th December 1941 in a quantity of 500,000. Being strategic leaflets, these cards could be used throughout the Eastern Front. These cards are mentioned in the Hanspeter Frech catalogue (Privatpostkarten- Katalog Band I) and been designated catalogue numbers: PP 127 Prop. 1/01 to /05.

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News Sheet No.169 June 2017 Russian Propaganda Cards from the Eastern Front 1941/42 (cont.) The various propaganda messages found on these five cards read (in translation):

Card PP 127 Prop. 1/01 (Brot, Brot!) “With Hitler - want and death, without Hitler - peace and bread!” Distribution presumably began in late December 1941; a card annotated 14/1/42 points to its use in January 1942 in Poland. Sold HMA auction 17th October 1992, DM1400+20%.

Card PP 127 Prop. 1/02 (Die Heimkehr) “Healthy and with whole bones he went to war on Hitler’s orders. This is how he returns; a cripple, broken, battered, a ruin of a man. For what has this unfortunate offered his limbs, his health and his fortune? What is really worth it? German Soldier! Before it is too late – come to your senses. Allow yourself to be taken prisoner and the war will be over for you.” The earliest report of this card is December 1963. Sold HMA auction 17th October 1992, DM1200+20%.

Frech No. PP 127 Prop. 1/01

“Bread, Bread!” Frech No. PP 127 Prop. 1/02

“The Homecoming” Frech No. PP 127 Prop. 1/03

“Living room in the East”

Frech No. PP 127 Prop. 1/04

“O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree” Frech No. PP 127 Prop. 1/05

“She will be searching for you”

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News Sheet No.169 June 2017 Russian Propaganda Cards from the Eastern Front 1941/42 (cont.) Card PP 127 Prop. 1/03 (“Lebensraum im Osten”) “This is the living space that the German soldier found at the Eastern Front. Six feet under the soil and a birch cross on the ground. Like a shroud the snow covers the fallen, the wind whistles, the crows caw “Fraud!, Fraud!.” Hitler has lied to you, German soldiers. He has promised you the capture of Moscow but gave you maiming and death. On Christmas Eve German women weep for Hitler’s victims. You, who are left alive, finish with Hitler! Finish with the war!” The earliest report of this card is 26th December 1941.

Card PP 127 Prop. 1/04 (“O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum…”) “On Christmas Eve the whole family is gathered around the festively decorated fir tree. Only he, the soldier, is missing ... He’s lying now, thousands of miles from his home. Dead under a snowy Russian fir. HITLER sent him and millions of other Germans to their death. GERMAN SOLDIERS, who are still alive and are consumed on Christmas Eve by longing for your loved ones - Finish with Hitler! Put an end to the senseless war!” The earliest report of this card is 7th January 1942. Sold HMA auction 17th October 1992, DM1050+20%. Copy sold at the Cherrystone Auction of 28th October 2009 for $750.

Card PP 127 Prop. 1/05 (Sie wird Dich suchen) “Millions of victims fell. More and more German soldiers driven by Hitler to their deaths. In thousands of letters, German women ask the surviving comrades of their fallen relatives to tell them the place where the dearest of their dead found their last resting place. The German troops have no time to shovel the graves for the fallen. Dead bodies over dead bodies of German soldiers cover the snowfields of Russia. They freeze in the frost. Who will ever know under which hill the remains of Hans Schröder, Fritz Müller, Ernst Krause now rest and how they all are buried? GERMAN SOLDIER! If you do not want your wife, too, to despair of your grave, END HITLER’S WAR, GIVE YOURSELVES UP!” Distribution presumably began in late December 1941, but usage of this card has not been officially confirmed. Sold HMA auction November 1992, DM2300+20%. Copy sold at the Cherrystone Auction of 28th October 2009 for $750. In the Hanspeter Frech catalogue the following information is given for these cards:

“To be in possession of these picture-postcard leaflets was severely punished including the death penalty, which explains the relative rarity of these documents, which were, however, still remarkably often offered in the past five years.” (statement from 2003) During and following the war, Russian cards would occasionally appear at auction or by private sale, and, since the demise of the Soviet Union, the relative freedom of post-Soviet Russia has allowed entrepreneurs to acquire and disperse an increased number and variety of cards. However, most of the Russian postcards remain quite scarce today, and some are known from only a single copy.

Documentary proof of the existence and distribution of many cards has been obtained by careful searches of the Bundesarchiv/Militärarchiv in Koblenz, or other institutions in Munich and elsewhere that have gathered examples of cards since the end of the war. By a German decree of 4th February 1944, archives and libraries were not permitted to store enemy propaganda leaflets, and so much documentation from German sources was lost. However, many cards are listed in the Alphabetisches Verzeichnis Sowjetischer Flugblätter in deutscher Sprache (Alphabetic inventory of Soviet Leaflets in the German language), which was maintained by the German Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). Russian authorities continue to refuse requests for access to some of their wartime archives. Nevertheless, cards from the so-called “Central Series” of strategic leaflets are listed in a Soviet Union index that includes the index code number, date of production, and printing quantity of each leaflet. Acknowledgements:

I would like to personally thank our American member Herb Friedman for all the excellent in-depth information in this article and without his help, this article would not have been published in the News Sheet. Member Tony Hickey. Maps and images of the cards are from the internet. All spelling mistakes, grammatical errors etc. are all my own work!

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“ERNTEDANKTAG” 1933 – 1938 The Postal History of the German National Harvest Festival

Celebrations During the Third Reich

by John Rawlings Part 1: 1933 - 1935 One of Hitler’s first, instinctive, decisions after achieving power in January 1933 was to strengthen the Party’s ties with Germany’s farming communities. Their fervour and support would be vital in the drive for national self sufficiency that he knew lay ahead and, at a very early stage, it must have been agreed that an annual national festival held to acknowledge and publicise their work on the land would be good, both for morale in the countryside and for the economy in general. Once that decision had been made the next consideration for any committee or individual would have been to choose between a fixed venue and one that would move around the country from year to year. As we all know, it was the first option that won the day. As far as I know there are no surviving official records to explain this initial decision but the fact that it was made early in 1933, when the success and excitement of the Nuremberg Rallies of 1927 and 1929 were fresh in people’s minds may have been the deciding factor. The propaganda effect of these exercises in power and pageantry at a fixed site had been an enormous boost for the Party’s popularity and the growing infrastructure in the city promised even greater successes in the future. Why face the extra work and expense of starting afresh each year when one could use a purpose-built site. Whether the Rally ground itself was ever felt to be suitable for the new festival we simply don’t know but the vital link to farming and the land would have been missing and, since both the Rallies and the new National Harvest Festival celebrations were timed to take advantage of the late autumn weather, the possibility is unlikely to have come under serious consideration. The new government planned to stage the first of these new festivals in the autumn of 1933 so a suitable alternative site must have been identified at an early stage but quite when it was suggested and who brought it to Hitler’s notice is likely to remain one of the major mysteries of the period. Whoever it was must, however, have had a clear understanding of the nature and needs of the event being planned and a detailed knowledge of the Weser valley and the countryside south of Hannover.

The site finally chosen was the wide natural bowl south of Bückeberg Hill, as shown in the photocard in Fig.1.

Fig.1 Bückeberg Hill, with inset portraits of Adolf Hitler and Walther Darré, the German minister of Food and Agriculture. Designer and printer unknown.

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News Sheet No.169 June 2017 “ERNTEDANKTAG” 1933 – 1938 (cont.)

This long sandstone ridge, some twenty miles south of Hannover, rises to over 1,200 feet. It lies in open country and the fact that the German word ‘Buckel’ means ‘hump’, or ‘bump’, suggests that it was originally called the ‘Buckelberg’. In its present spelling it translates easily into English as ‘Humpback Hill’. As far as I can discover the area has no historical claim to fame but, five kilometres to the north west lies the small town of Hameln (Hamelin), traditional home of the Pied Piper, and, as collectors may discover, some local printers tried to benefit from their proximity to this new festival by producing postcards linking the old legend to the new event and hoping to sell them to the visiting crowds. It is difficult to be precise about the work required on what was a completely virgin site to accommodate the festival that was inaugurated on September 30th 1933. I know of no publicity brochures or site plans and the small number of Hoffmann cards produced and photographs taken through the five year period focus on the vast sea of eager faces rather than the facilities and infrastructure. However, I think it is safe to say that no major buildings were erected and little or no effort was made to cater for the comfort or convenience of ordinary visitors on site. As I understand it, all that was done was to provide two stages, the largest a circular area with a central raised platform or podium surrounded by portable seats for leaders and other dignitaries and connected by a 600 metre long path called the ‘Führerweg’. This was 5 metres wide and it often took Hitler more than forty five minutes to traverse because it allowed him the opportunity to stop and chat with members of the crowd. By far the most expensive and time-consuming jobs involved in preparing for this initial event would have been created by the need to build the roads, railway tracks and stations to provide easy access to the site for the huge crowds expected. Local towns, such as Hameln and Hagenohsen already had rail links but these were about five kilometres away from the planned arena. Online sources state that as many as eight new stations able to accept as many as 215 trains, (presumably for each annual event), were to be built but whether this was scheduled for completion by September 1933 or merely the expression of a long term aim I have been unable to establish. It would also have been necessary to extend the local cable networks to (at the very least) supply the site with telephone links and power for the microphones and loudspeakers of the public address system. Bearing all this in mind I was surprised to note (from the same online source) that work on Speer’s detailed plan for the site began only in June 1933 with the arrival of 1,800 men of the Labour Corps. As we shall see, over the following five years work on the site continued as the nature of the event developed and changed and attendances matched, and finally exceeded, even those of the Nuremberg Rallies. The first National Harvest Festival opened on time and we can only assume that 2 to 3 months proved sufficient to complete the initial work. All these events were commemorated by the sale of specially designed postcards and Figs.1, 2, 3 and 4 are all among those produced for the initial rally. However, as we have seen, not all are attributable to either the artist or the printer responsible. Fig.2 below shows the front of what seems to have been the only card officially commissioned for the occasion. The reverse carries a two-line statement in the top left hand corner saying “Einzige offizielle / Erntedanktag-Postkarte” (Only Official Harvest Festival Postcard). It was printed by the Stadte Verkehrs Werbung (Town Transport Publicity department) in Hannover. I have no details regarding the design or the printing of those shown in Figs.3 and 4.

Fig.2 Fig.4

Fig.3

Fig.5 The official cachet and postmark used on mail posted at the Harvest Festival celebration of 1933.

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By 1933 the Reichspost had already adopted a policy of providing its own mobile post offices to deal with mail posted at major exhibitions and sporting events and, that year, the new harvest festival celebrations at Bückeberg was just one of the 62 events to benefit from this service. Bückeberg itself was neither a town nor a village. It had no main post office nearby and was probably unique in that it was not even identifiable on any of the existing maps or gazetteers. The Reichspost solved this problem by giving it the title of Bückeberg bei Hameln (Bückeberg near Hameln) and having specially designed datestamps, such as the one shown in Fig.5 made and supplied to each of the special post offices which would be collecting, sorting and forwarding all the mail handed in during the three day event. These designs are all listed and illustrated under ‘Bückeberg’ in the Bochmann postmark catalogue but there is a lack of clarity in the individual entries and the small circular datestamp is not illustrated. As Fig.5 shows, it was a small circle with the word ‘Bückeberg’ at the top, ‘Hameln’ at the bottom and, in between the word ‘bei’ appears below the date. No attempt seems to have been made to differentiate the handstamps used by inserting small letters of the alphabet. Normally such publicity datestamps would also be used for a period before the event. However, when used by a mobile post office the period of use is always limited to the of the event itself – in this case, September 30th to October 2nd 1933. The first of the Bückeberg festivals proved an enormous success, with over 500,000 people attending over the three days and standing room only on the crowded slopes as Hitler stood at the harvest monument (a form of altar) to receive the symbolic harvest crown from the Farmers’ estate on behalf of the German people. By the following year it had become a six day event and new cards, such as those shown in Figs.6 and 7 below, were produced for sale both before and at the event. The card showing Hitler is particularly interesting since the view of ordinary citizens trying to peer over the heads of uniformed Party members lining the Führerweg seems to detract from the spirit of unity that the Party were trying to promote. Flags and banners dominate the skyline and are a foretaste of what was to come in 1935. The event would soon come to be called ‘Nuremberg on the Weser’. I was hoping that Albert Speer, the man mainly responsible for the planning and construction of this arena would provide a detailed account of his work here. However, in the 821 pages of his book “Inside the Third Reich”, published in English in 1970, he devotes not a single word to this major commission.

Fig.6 1934 postcard. Designer and printer unknown.

Fig.7 Hitler at the Bückeberg Harvest Festival of 1933. Published in 1934 by the Hannover Transport Publicity Department.

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The Harvest Festival event in 1934 began on September 28th and ended on October 3rd. Postal facilities were again provided by an unknown number of mobile post offices, and as Fig.8 below clearly illustrates, although the publicity element of the 1933 handstamp with its slogan and swastikas, was retained, a new datestamp was used in at least one of the mobile offices.

One would expect all the handstamps used this year to reflect this design change but a quick check in the Bochmann catalogue and the Reck and Schembra list of mobile post offices leaves me in some doubt. In the former the dates of the use of the 1934 datestamp are given twice, as if two handstamps were used, and in the latter, two different dates are given for the duration of the event and there is no reference at all to a handstamp bearing the letter ‘a’. I regret to say that I have only one card in my collection with a clear strike of this postmark and I hope that members will now check their own albums to see if a little collective research can throw light on this apparent anomaly. This year Hitler once again flew to Hannover on the first leg of his journey to Bückeberg and was then driven straight on to the arena to be welcomed by a 21 gun salute. The army were finding this wide grassy valley an ideal area in which to demonstrate their new weapons and their growing confidence and this new element of the festival programme would grow in importance over the following three years. With all the new transport links fully in operation the event proved even more popular with the German public and 700,000 are said to have attended. To some degree this increased interest in the new national event may have been due to the fact that 1935 saw the wider use of advertising in the form of cancellations such as the slogan shown in Fig.9, the postal stationery card shown in Fig.10 and the ordinary postcard shown in Fig.11.

Fig.8 Card posted at the festival on September 30th 1934, cancelled by the new double circle ‘a’ handstamp which lists the name of the office as ‘Bückeberg b. Hameln’ in the top of the

outer ring and includes the small letter ‘a’ in the lower.

Fig.9 Slogan postmark used in Karlsruhe 2 post office in September/October 1935. The message urges one and all to ‘Get out on the Bückeberg on October 6th 1935 (the last day of the Harvest Festival).

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Surprisingly perhaps, none of the major towns in the area, such as Hannover or Braunschweig produced such cancellations. Not even Goslar which, at the selfsame time, was celebrating its own role as Germany’s ‘Farmers’ Town’! Perhaps they felt that, since the event was proving so popular, there was no need for further expense.

Fig.10 Official postal stationery card Mi. P255.

Fig.11

Fig.12 Commemorative card produced for the 1935 Harvest Festival. Designer and printer unknown.

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The 1935 Harvest Festival celebrations took place over just two days, October 5th and 6th, and, since the public had probably been told in advance of the part that the armed forces were now to play in the event, they may well have turned out in even greater numbers than usual. Over the two days some 10,000 soldiers, supported by tanks and aircraft staged manoeuvres around and over the vast arena and, with the forest of flags and banners proudly waved by so many of the groups in attendance it must indeed have seemed that the Nuremberg Rallies had come to Bückeberg. This year, for the first time, the Reichspost publicised the event by producing a postal stationery card (see Fig.10) commemorating both the Harvest Festival celebrations and the opening of a new Museum of Folklore in Berlin. Appropriately the 6Rpf imprint featured one of the designs from the Winter Relief stamps issued on October 1st 1935, just before the festival began. Postal facilities were, as usual, provided by a number of special mobile post offices scattered around the site and a special new slogan handstamp had been designed for the occasion. The new slogan, ‘Ernte / Danktag’ set within a rectangular frame consisting of ears of corn is, once again clearly shown in the Bochmann catalogue, but again, the datestamps are not, and it is only because we have the illustrations in Figs.10-12 that we can be sure that at least two different types were used. Whether there were others only further collective research can reveal. The two designs used appear to be almost identical with those shown in Figs.5 and 8 but neither of the strikes of the single circle datestamp printed here are clear enough to be sure. However, with the use of a magnifying glass, we can be sure that there were at least two types of the double circle datestamps shown in Figs.11 and 12. Fig.11, taken from the Bochmann catalogue, has a hyphen between the words ‘Bückeberg’ and ‘Hameln’ but Fig.12 retains the ‘b’ (for ‘bei’) used in the 1934 version. Here then we have a rather odd example of Reichspost administration in which identical offices on the same site are being issued with different styles of handstamp. Perhaps there is some logical explanation for this but I must say that I cannot think of one!

Another of the cards sold at the show was the one shown in Fig.13 above, featuring portraits of the Führer, Walther Darré and Joseph Goebbels and views of the Bückeberg itself and one of the maypoles erected at the festival. We don’t know who designed the collage but the card was printed by Richard Schlothauer of Leipzig. During its initial three years the new event had (even if only in attendance figures) been amazingly successful but if such celebrations are primarily politically inspired, and have no solid links with the history and traditions of the country, they can, as we shall see in Part 2 of this article, turn out to be quite short-lived.

To be continued…..

Fig.13

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Another Bohemia & Moravia Souvenir Sheet

by Bob Jones

The sheet shown above measures 210mm x 290mm. There is a card in sepia showing Emil Hacha, 3rd President of Czechoslovakia (30th November 1938 – 14th March 1939) and State President of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (15th March 1939 – 9th May 1945) stuck to the sheet. The 3 stamps in the bottom row are all cancelled on 12th July 1942 at Prague 10 post office, the 2 stamps across the centre are both cancelled on 12th July 1943 at Prague 2 post office and the stamp at top is cancelled on 30th November 1943 at Prague 12 post office. These dates are anniversaries for: 12th July – His birthday (born 1872). 30th November – His 1st day as 3rd President of Czechoslovakia (1938). This sheet apparently took its creator a total of 16 months to create. It is also interesting to note that there are no dated handstamps relating to his time as State President of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia!

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An Unusual Postcard From Abroad?

by Bob Jones While looking in my collection of 1934/35 WHW Lottery cards for an example that I needed to replace an image in an earlier article, I came across the card shown below. It is card Mi P254 / 108 showing the ‘Saar Bend’ at Mettlach on the back. What is very unusual is the franking on the front. It was franked with a French 90c stamp and cancelled on 20th June 1935 in Marseilles and sent to an address in Bremen, Germany.

As these cards only had some of them pre-franked with an official Reichspost indicia, it just goes to show that the un-franked cards still had a use even from foreign climes. I wonder if the original purchaser of this WHW Lottery card went on business or pleasure to Marseilles and remembered that he had this card that could be used from there so avoiding having to buy a local postcard?

If any other members have any of these cards franked in this way, please send me images of any you have. Ed.

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A Parcel Card to the Gestapo

by Tony Quinn Our member from Southwark London, Tony Quinn, has sent us a very interesting parcel card sent to the Secret State Police (Gestapo).

The card (above and below) shows a Reichspost Parcel Receipt Card for a 7kg parcel, the sender Martin Plank, Fronau, Post Regenstauf (nr, Regensburg, Bavaria) dated 4th July 1944 and addressed to the Secret State Police (Gestapo) Room 146 in Regensburg. “Regensburg” deleted in blue crayon (by P.O.?) and a new address inserted in pencil manuscript “Concentration Camp Flossenbürg”, additionally a P.O. official slip attached detailing the new address of the recipient (the Gestapo) in “Flossenbürg Concentration Camp” and post office cancel “Regensburg, 7.7.44” forwarding the parcel. The Gestapo (Geheimestaatspolizei) maintained “Investigation and Interrogation” premises in all the German Concentration Camps (Konzentrationslagern). This parcel from Gestapo Outstation to Flossenbürg via Regensburg.

Thank you Tony for sharing your Parcel Card with the Group. Ed.

The front of the Parcel Card with the additional sticker applied.

The same view of the Parcel Card with the additional sticker attached “peeled” back to show the original address.

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Diary Dates for Regional Meetings The following dates have been arranged for G & C.P.S. regional meetings for the coming weeks. Please show your support and try to attend your local meeting. London Group 3rd June “German definitives of the last hundred years”, a display by Rex Dixon.

Scottish Group 10th June Joint meeting with Tyne-Tees Group in Edinburgh.

Tyne-Tees Group 10th June Joint meeting with Scottish Group in Edinburgh.

South Central Group 1st July “1936 Olympic Games”, a display by Tony Bosworth and Members’ displays.

South East Group 8th July “Zeppelins”, a display by Bob Larg.

North West Group - No planned meetings as yet.

South West Group 15th July “German definitives of the last hundred years”, a display by Rex Dixon.

Third Reich Study Group (London)

22nd July

“Postage rates in Bohemia and Moravia 1939-45”, a display by Rex Dixon.

“The Occupation and Liberation of the Netherlands”, a display by Simon McArthur.

“The Breslau Games 1938”, a display by David Taylor.

“The German Navy, 1933 to 1945” a display by John Rawlings.

Midlands Group - No planned meetings as yet.

EPILOGUE Well that is the second edition of the new on-line News Sheets done. I received good reviews of the first one and I hope this edition also finds approval with the membership. It was nice to have John Rawlings writing the report on the Third Reich Study Group meeting in London as he always did. The next issue (September edition) will be the start of collating all the Hitler Youth cancels etc. so please send me anything you have in regards to special cancels or ‘serienstempel’ (scanned at 300 dpi but any size is welcome). Also in the next issue will be Part 2 of John Rawlings’ article about the German Harvest Festival under the Nazis. Can’t wait to read that myself. So – don’t forget to keep sending in your enquiries about new stuff you have bought or seen or maybe have a go at writing a small article yourself. I am here to help in any way I can so don’t be shy! Cheers, Editor

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