Issued 1917,sent Sept.8th,1917. Cancelled by a railway-p.o. cancel. Train 1906,going from Oberhausen via Recklinghausen to Hamm. This is the latest postcard I own from imperial days.
Werner: Nice cancel on this one. Were those German railway post offices in the station or were they traveling post offices (railroad cars) like the RPOs (Railway Post Offices) in the U.S.? Don
Don, don´t know about the RPOs in the US. In Germany the Bahnpost directly descended from Post-Stage-Coaches.They were no post offices,but cars for mail-transport and mail-sorting.Nearly all mail was transported by trains. Smaller p.o.s gave their mail to the next railway-station and when a train came through,the mail bags were taken in and cancelled and sorted for the different destinations. On all post-waggons there was a kind of postbox for public use. So you could mail a letter directly on the station. Wikipedia states,that 1914 2400 mail-waggons were in service and 8000 people worked on them. Later the service declined due to the war and the following years of economic troubles. After WW II mail transport moved to air-planes and trucks. In 1997 all mail-transport on railways ended. Werner
Inland Card,sent Sept.27th,1902 to Germany. A international card would have been 10 Centimes.So postage due of 10 Pfennig was collected from the recipient. In Germany there were and are no postage due stamps. The fee to collect has to be noted on the letter etc. with a blue coloured pencil as above.
Postcards of Germany from the periode of the Weimarer Republik (Weimar Republic).The Weimarer Republic was declared on Nov.11th,1918 ending the monarchy.It lasted till Jan.30th,1933, the day Adolf Hitler was appointed as Reichskanzler. This first german democratic republic had a turbulent history. The lost war,an unjust peace-treaty (one of the reasons why there was and will be no peace-treaty after World War II),a hyper-inflation in 1922/23 and finally the World Economic Crisis from 1929 onwards. From 1930 the democracy was grinded down by the communists on the left and the NSDAP (Nazi-Party) on the right.No Reichskanzler could reach a parlimentary majority any more,but had to govern by decree,held in power by the Reichspräsident only.When in the 1932 elections the NSDAP became the strongest party,Hindenburg, the Reichspräsident,appointed Hitler as Reichskanzler.Within a few months the democratic system was abolished and the Nazi-dictatorship was established. However in respect of fine arts,scientifis achievements and other cultural fields the Weimarer Republic was one of the most fruitful periodes in the history of Germany.
This card is quite interesting.It is from a reply card from 1918,what was cut in two.The two parts were overprinted with an additional 7 1/2 Pfg.stamp.Aand,on the shown card The inscription Antwort (answer) was also overprinted,for a use as inland-card. Issued in 1919,it was send on Aug.24th,1920,when again the postal rates had been increased,now to 30 Pfg,what made necessary an additional 15 Pfg. stamp. Cancellation: Railway-Cancel
issued 1922,the card was sent on Feb.12th,1923. When issued the postage for a postcard was 1.50 M.When sent the rate had been increased from July 1st,1922 (1.50) in four steps to 25.- Mark (Jan.15th,1923).
Would be interesting what was written to O.P Basilius who was a high ranking Franciscaner member of that Order..
Here the backside of the hungarian postcard: My school-Latin is somewhat dusty,but is sufficient to know, that it is a card with New Year greetings. The card arrived in Paderborn in time on Dec.31st 5-6p.m.Would not be possible nowadays ! On the top left the embossing shows nicely.
