[Below: Here is a rare feldpost (soldier's mail) envelope/letter postmarked November 4, 1940 in Chemnitz (a city in Saxony, eastern Germany). What makes this rare is the blue ink stamp on the bottom/center. This is addressed to an 'unbekannter Soldat im Westen' (unknown soldier in the west). This is essentially a homeland support letter to a random soldier who perhaps wasn't receiving mail from anyone for whatever reason. The ink stamp is difficult to translate, the best I can make out is that it says 'Umgeschriftet bei den Wehrmachtbriefstelle' (Relabeled at the Wehrmacht Letter Office). Click to see more and read the letter within!]
[Below: I always liked the German feldpost envelopes that had the little 'FELDPOST' stamp on them. They were private purchase and are fairly uncommon, with maybe one out of many hundreds of random feldpost envelopes have one. Click to see more!]
[Below: Here is the very first NS envelope I ever bought, so this one is special to me, I love it now as much as I loved then. Ok, the front isn't so special, but take a look at the back...]
[Below: Cool huh? Out of the thousands and thousands of mountains of Third Reich material I've collected and seen I've never seen another like it. It is so neat I'm surprised there aren't more like it or similar.]
[Below: This is a neat envelope and fairly common.]
[Below: This one has a rare cancel, it says: 'Erster Shutz-Staffel Appell der Gruppe Ost in Berlin' (First Shutz-Staffel Roll Call of Group East in Berlin) from August 1933. 'Shutz-Staffel' is of course the SS.]
[Below: Close-up.]
[Below: They even made a poster for the meet up. Very cool.]
[Below: Another envelope with an SS cancel, except this one includes the SA and the NSKK. It was canceled on April 4, 1936 and the event was in Kiel, a city in Schleswig-Holstein, on May 23rd and 24th.]
[Below: Close-up.]
[Below: Here is a tinnie of the event!]
[Below: Here is an interesting envelope that has a few elements going for it. First, it is philatelic, which in the collector's world is not as good as a normally mailed item. Anyone could put together a 'rare' item, but when things are truly rare, they are usually naturally occuring. That aside, it's a neat-looking piece. This is a COD (Cash on Delivery) and includes the fancy tabs on the Red Cross stamps. More so, look at the stamp on the upper left, see that tiny star on the blank tab connected to it? That's a marker for the sheet position and is only found a few times on each sheet (100 stamps a sheet), therefore it is desireable and marks like this are collected avidly in the stamp world.]
[Below: Here are examples of the stars mentioned above. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: This one is so cool-looking. Once again philatelic, since a normal person wouldn't need to use that much postage, nor would they put the stamps in an artistic design. Those half stamps are called bisects, most all countries have used them from time to time, usually due to a stamp shortage. In this case, this was right after the occupation of the Channel Islands. I'm not sure who this Captain Hans Braun or what the Belomonte was?]
[Below: Envelope reverse]
[Below: Guernsey under German occupation postcard. This shows a different stamp than that above, this one shows the queen as well as the king.]
[Below: Close-up]
[Below: Ok, now here is something you very rarely encounter. I've only seen this one envelope myself, but I've read about these. Can you see what makes this envelope... strange? The 'EXAMINED BY' is Allied censor tape, as is the 'CIVIL MAILS' ink stamp. Okay, now let's look at what makes this so rare. The cancel on the Hitler stamp says it was canceled on March 27, 1945. The end days of the war. Now look at the 'Eingegangen', that means received, and the date March 26, 1946. Almost a year after it was first canceled. So what does this mean? It means that the post office was unable to deliver the mail due to the war and Allied occupation. In rare circumstance, mail bags were found full of mail, as in this case, many months later. Then the Allies permitted them delivered, actually using a Hitler stamp. In any other case the Hitler stamp would be destroyed in some way -- a blot of ink, words, cut-up, etc. Interesting huh?]
[Below: Close-up]
[Below: Postcard celebrating 50 years of Helgoland being German. This is canceled on August 9, 1940 and was released by the Strength Through Joy organization. It says:
'Grün ist das Land,
Rot ist die Kant,
Weiß ist der Sand,
Das sind die Farben von Helgoland!'
(Green is the land,
Red is the cliffs,
White is the sand,
These are the colors of Heligoland!)
Green, red and white are the colors of the Helgoland flag. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Close-up of cancel. This is neat, I've never seen a lobster cancel before. ]
[Below: Helgoland stamp sheet.]
[Below: Here is a large envelope, canceled on July 22, 1936 and sent to New York. Someone went crazy with this one, pretty neat-looking. Besides strips of stamps we can spot two pairs of stamps called... se-tenants, of course. This was sent registered from Harburg (a town in Bavaria).]
[Below: Back.]
[Below: Here is a very cool large envelope, canceled in August 1942 and sent to Zittau (a German state in Saxony). It utilizes strips of stamps called 'se-tenants' (French for 'joined together'). Many German stamps during the Third Reich had propaganda slogans attached to them, which were often discarded. This also contains what is called 'tęte-bęche' (a joined pair of stamps in which one is upside-down in relation to the other). This is of course philatelic. As a side note, every single possible combination is catalogued and priced in specialty catalogues. Some are very rare and pricey.]
[Below: Back.]
[Below: Here's an envelope with an Adolf Hitler tęte-bęche, canceled on November 12, 1941. The strange lines in the middle of the Hitler stamps are meant to be covered when it was folded and put into a stamp booklet. Originally they came in sheets, however, and a stamp collector probably got a hold of one and added it. Yet oddly it doesn't really look philatelic, it is messy, but who knows?]
[Below: Here's an example of a sheet of stamps before being made into a stamp booklet.]
[Below: An envelope canceled on September 19, 1938 showing a se-tenant and a tęte-bęche.]
[Below: Cancel close-up.]
[Below: Canceled on Novemeber 4, 1933, this is rocket mail. It says 'Nacht-Raketenflug' (night rocket flight) and 'Zielrichtung: Hexentanxplatz-Rosstrappe' (Destination: Hexentanxplatz-Rosstrappe). Hasselfelde is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.]
[Below: Here is a different cancel for rocket mail. ]
[Below: There were unofficial stamps made for rocket mail as well. ]
[Below: This postcard says 'Marschstaffel zum Reichsparteitag der NSDAP' (Marching squadron to the NSDAP party congress). This is interesting, I've never seen this cancel before. It's canceled on September 10, 1936.]
[Below: Close-up.]
[Below: Here is a beauty. This postcard is rare and very early, from 1921! This is worth over $1,000. It says:
'Allen Gewalten
Zum Trotz sich erhalten
Nimmer sich beugen,
Kräftig sich zeigen,
Rufet die Arme
Der Götter herbei!
-Goethe'
(All powers
In defiance of them
Never bow down,
Show yourself strong,
Call the arms
Of the gods!
-Goethe).]
[Below: Back of postcard.]
[Below: This is really cool-looking and eye-catching. Those cancels are masterfully done. This was canceled on September 26, 1936 in Bergedorf (Bergedorf is the largest of the seven boroughs of Hamburg).]
[Below: Close-up.]
[Below: Wehrmacht Signals stamps. The signals branch created and managed communications and information systems. The stamps says 'Heeres Nachrichtendienst' (Army Intelligence). These stamps came on a roll inside small army green metal cans. You'll note that the top stamp is pre-National Socialist.]
[Below: Strip of three.]
[Below: Roll of Signals stamps in original army green metal can.]
[Below: The signal stamps above are quite common, but very rare when found on an original envelope and tied by an original ink stamp. The term 'tied' means that the postage stamp or other other type of stamp has been ink stamped onto the envelope, versus a loose stamp simple pasted on the envelope which anyone could have done in modern times). This was sent on June 9, 1941 to Württemberg. Click to enlarge.]
[Below: Close-up of signals stamp and cancel. It says:
'Zur Beförderung Freigegeben'
(Released for Shipment).]
[Below: Close-up of unit ink stamp.]
[Below: Reverse of envelope.]
[Below: Making this piece even rarer, it even contains the original letter. Front.]
[Below: Letter reverse.]
