Service mail:
Concept of service mail: Service mail is mail from the German authorities, party offices and the associations of the NSDAP as well as the SS, police, NSFK, NSKK, Reichsarbeitsdienst, OT, NSV, the German Red Cross, the technical emergency aid and their relatives (authority traffic) which had to be specially marked as official mail by a blue cross diagonally on the letter or card, furthermore by adding, handwritten, by printing or rubber stamp, "Durch Deutsche Dienstpost", outlined in red, possibly with the addition of the official mail area. This group of participants is later In the course of the war it was expanded to include German companies in the service post areas that were approved on the basis of special applications for admission (business mail), and the Reich German followers of these companies (follower mail).
While mails purely for official correspondence were free of charge according to domestic German regulations, business and follower mail was subject to mandatory postage according to domestic German fee rates. A customs inspection for consignments of the official mail traffic was not planned. Letters were checked by the OKW's letter checking stations at random, but mostly only for business and follower mail. Field post items that were identified as such by the official seal or postmark of the sending unit or the unit to which the sender belonged were eligible for the field post fee reductions.
All official mail, including that of approved companies and their followers, was basically collection mail. Service mail was not delivered because enough German personnel could not be provided. All official mail had to be posted and picked up at the responsible DPA, the same applies to approved business and follower mail.
Also in the direction from the Reich to the service post area, all items had to be marked with the note "Durch Deutsche Dienstpost" and were routed to certain routing locations of the Deutsche Dienstpost from the home post offices 1942 had to be added as part of the address in the service mail of the entire eastern area. It was only from 1943 onwards that the reference location was omitted in the east; but we still often find it handwritten by the dispatching post office officials in the home area.
n the first months of the respective official mail traffic, the addition "Abholpostamt ...." had to be added to the address details for shipments to locations where no DPÄ was deployed. (Shipments were therefore also allowed to places where there was no DPA.) Cash on delivery service was generally not allowed. There were no delivery or express delivery charges, as there was collection mail.
In principle, not only the Reich and the respective service post area could participate in official mail traffic; German authorities, party service offices, approved companies and their relatives, for example in the East, could use service mail to all other occupied areas, such as the Ukraine, as long as service mail was already open there. The respective local admission of service postal areas for postal traffic was of course adjusted to the respective war and front situation and was announced in the official gazette RPM until mid-1944.
In addition to this task of official mail for official traffic and the private traffic of the approved companies and their relatives, briefly referred to as free or chargeable service mail, the task of re-establishing the general postal service after the occupation of a country occurred.
For example, a "German Service Post" was officially set up wherever civil Reichskommissare were appointed or where the areas were later to be incorporated into the Greater German Reich.
We can divide them into :
1) Niederlande
2) Norwegen
3) Ukraine
4) Ostland
5) Elsass
6) Lothringen
7) Luxemburg
8) Bezirk Bialystok
9) Distrikt Galizien
10) Böhmen/Mähren
11) Südsteiermark, Südkärnten, Krain
12) Befreite Ostgebiete
13) Teile der spätere General Gouvernement
14) Adria
15) Alpenvorland
1) The Netherlands
The Deutsche Dienstpost Niederlande started its activities on June 5, 1940.
Independently of the Dutch postal facilities, it was responsible for transporting the government mails, the mailings of the German staff and the entire field post.
Its leader was Werner Linnemeyer.
The following towns operated Dienstpost services up to and including the month of April 1945 :
ALKMAAR
ALMELO
AMERSFOORT
AMSTERDAM
ALELDOORN
ARNHEIM
ASSEN
BAARN
BERGEN OP ZOOM
BREDA
BUSSUM
DEVENTER
DORDRECHT
EDE
EINDHOVEN
EMMEN
GOES
GRONINGEN
DEN HAAG
HAARLEM
HARDERWIJK
HARLINGEN
DEN HELDER
HENGELO
HERZOGENBUSCH
HILVERSUM
IJMUIDEN (auxiliary office only)
LEEUWARDEN
MAASTRICHT
MIDDELBURG
NIJMEGEN
OLDENZAAL
ROOSENDAAL
ROTTERDAM
TILBURG
UTRECHT
VENLO
WINSCHOTEN
ZUTPHEN
ZWOLLE
As a German postal service, the German form of the town name was sometimes used, for example DEN HAAG for 's-Gravenhage, or HERZOGENBUSCH for 's-Hertogenbosch.
Examples :
DDPN Amsterdam 20-04-1943 R-cover
DDPN Amsterdam 20-04-1944 R-cover
DDPN Apeldoorn 14-07-1943
DDPN Arnhem 15-08-1943
DDPN Bergen op Zoom 09-06-1944
DDPN Den Bosch 10-08-1944
DDPN Den Haag 16-03-1942 Newspaper wrapper
DDPN Deventer 14-06-1941 R-cover
DDPN Eindhoven 10-06-1944
DDPN Groningen 13-11-1944
DDPN Haarlem 25-08-1942
DDPN Harderwijk 07-11-1944
DDPN Hilversum 15-12-1944
DDPN Leeuwarden 21-10-1943
DDPN LUFTGAU POSTAMT Amsterdam 25-12-1944 R-cover
DDPN Roermond NO DATE
DDPN Rotterdam 21-07-1944
DDPN Utrecht 07-03-1944 R-cover
DDPN Venlo 14-05-1944 R-cover
DDPN Winschoten NO DATE
DDPN Zwolle 11-09-1944
2) Norway
The main service post office in Oslo was established on 11-07-1942.
Branch service post offices existed in May 1945 in Drontheim, Narvik and Tromso.
DDPO Oslo 20-03-1945
DDPO Oslo 26-02-1945
DDPO Oslo 20-??-1943
3) Ukraine
At the time of its greatest expansion, the Reichskommissariat Ukraine comprised 340,000 square kilometers with around 17 million inhabitants.
The Reichskommissariat was divided into 6 general districts.
1) Volyn and Podolia General District. The administrative seat was in Rowno.
2) Zhitomir General District. The administrative seat was in Shitomir.
3) Kiev General District. The administrative seat was in Kiew.
4) Nikolayev General District. The administrative seat was in Nikolajev.
5) Dnepropetrovak General District. The administrative seat was in Dnjepropetrowsk.
6) Crimea General District. The administrative seat was in Melitopol.
DDPU Winniza 28-09-1943
DDPU Chersson 13-07-1944
DDPU Kiev 16-1-194?
4) Ostland
Ostland included a number of areas, namely:
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, White Ruthenia, Pleskau area.
DDP Ostland Tuckum ESTLAND 14-05-1942
DDP Ostland Minsk 13-08-1942
5) Elsass
With the invasion of the german troops in Alsace, the mail traffic of the french postal administration ceased, as far as it had not been restricted for reasons of the above mentioned evacuation of the civilian population.
The population was therefore without official mail until mid-July 1940.
Basic for the establishment of the DPA in Alsace was the service regulation of the RPD Karlsruhe of June 29, 1940, which was issued just a few days after the end of the armistice with France.
There were a total of 48 post offices in Alsace.
DDP Elsass 23-07-1940
DDP Elsass Alt-Kirchen 27-07-1940
6) Lothringen
DDP Lothringen Forbach 30-10-1940
DDP Lothringen Saarburg 30-10-1940
7) Luxemburg
With the invasion of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg by German troops on May 10, 1949, the development of the postal service after the end of the hostilities took a similar course as in neighboring Lorraine.
Buildings were hardly destroyed by fighting.
Germany was very interested in restarting heavy industry in southern Luxembourg, which was so important for the war effort.
In addition to the military administration, the German civil administration and the NSDAP and their branches soon established themselves in the capital and the districts.
DDP Luxemburg Luxemburg-stadt 01-01-1941
Through FELDPOST (SS-member) Vianden 19-10-1940
8) Bezirk Bialystok
Bialystok was the capital of the former Polish countryside of Podlasie. In 1919 this old border area between Lithuania, Old Poland, Ukraine and Belarus became part of Poland.
In 1939, after the occupation of Poland by German troops, it fell back to the USSR in the agreement between Germany and Russia on the partitioning of Poland and became the Bialystok Voivodeship.
Letters and postcards are very rare.
9) Distrikt Galizien
With the incursion into Russia on June 21, 1941, German troops crossed the san on both sides of Przemysl and occupied the eastern part of Galicia, which had fallen to the USSR when Poland was partitioned in 1939. Lemberg (Lwow), the actual capital of Galicia, which had already been occupied once in September 1939 by German troops in a hard battle with Poland, but then surrendered to the Russians, was conquered again.
Letters and postcards are very rare.
10) Böhmen/Mähren
DDP Bohmen Mahren Prague 04-08-1942
DDP Bohmen Mahren Beneschau 18-11-1942 SS-feldpost
DDP Bohmen Mahren Kladno 16-09-1942
DDP Bohmen Mahren Ulmutz 27-09-1941
LOOK AT THE GERMAN VIKTORIA SIGN...........
I realize that all those districts mentioned here mean little or nothing to you.
That's why I took a time-out and put a map in this post that lists all these areas.
The promised map :
Especially present-day Poland was very divided into districts during this period of time.
Danzig - Westpreussen
Sudauen
Ost-preussen
Soldau
Zichenau
Bezirk Bialystok
Wartheland
General Government
District of Galizien
In the middle :
Böhmen / Mähren
Sudetenland
The same in the south with districts as :
Süd Kärnten
Süd Steiermark
Krain
Adria
Alpenvorland
And in de west :
Elsass
Lothringen
Saargebiet
Eupen
Malmedy
Luxemburg
Interesting Thank you
11) Südsteiermark, Südkärnten, Krain
On April 6, 1941, German troops entered Yugoslavia, occupied the entire country and moved on to Greece. From the former Yugoslavia, the Croatian satellite dataat was formed with the capital Agram (Zagreb), while the southeastern part of the country, supposedly belonging to Macedonia, was added to Bulgaria.
The formerly Austrian, ceded in the Treaty of Trianon 1920.
Parts of the Südmark, some of which were former Austrian crown lands such as the Krain, were connected to the Austrian south-east district of the Reich.
From the rest a new state "Serbia" was formed, which remained under military administration until the end of the war.
Under a special commissioner, the above-mentioned parts of the South Mark were separated from Serbia and after a short time transferred to the civil administration of the Reichsgaue Styria and Carinthia.
The headquarters of the service post office was in Marburg / Drau, where the commissioner for the occupied territories was also based.
Other DPÄs were in Krainburg for Oberkrain, Cilli and Rann / Save for Carinthia and Unterdrauburg and Pettau for Lower Styria. The area around Ljubljana was subordinated to the Italian military administration, later to an Italian civil commissioner, who also exercised the post authority there.
Letters and postcards are rare
12) Befreite Ostgebiete
13) Teile der spätere General Gouvernement
The deployment in the integrated eastern areas, Upper Silesia, Reichsgau Wartheland, Danzig-West Prussia, in the Zichenau district, Sudauen district and in the remainder of Soldau
By decree of the Reichs Post Ministry dated September 13, 1939, a German Service Post Poland was set up, which was renamed to “German Service Post East” after a few days at the instigation of the Führer, who, as is well known, wanted to erase the name “Poland” from the map.
It is too complex to tell about these many districts.
So I'm sticking to the General Government district here.
DDP Osten No Date
DDP Osten BLANSK No Date
DDP Osten NEUMARKT 05-12-1944
14) Adria
Only established in October 1943 with the seat in Trieste and essentially encompassing the province of Veneto and part of Istria.
Service post offices and post offices were not established in the Adria district.
The individual DPÄs were given final stamps in German form with the inscription "Deutsche Dienstpost Adria" when they were set up.
The dissolution of the DPÄ took place on April 30, 1945 at the same time as the surrender on the southern front.
Unless captured or murdered by partisans in the increasingly threatened area, the staff moved to Klagenfurt after the proper handover of devices, stamps, etc. to the Italian Post Ambter.
DDP Adria 23-12-1943
DDP Adria Laibach 02-02-1944
DDP Adria Fiume 17-07-1944
DDP Adria Gorz 10-02-1944
DDP Adria Laibach 21-01-1944
15) Alpenvorland
Only established in October 1943 with headquarters in Bolzano and encompassing the Italian provinces of Bolzano, Trento and Belluno.
The DDP Alpenvorland also worked until April 30, 1945, the day of the capitulation on the southern front.
The individual DPÄs duly handed over their offices and facilities to the Italian local police and moved with the majority of the staff to Innsbruck.
DDP Alpenvorland Meran 07-06-1944
DDP Alpenvorland Riva 09-03-1944
DDP Alpenvorland St. Ulrich in Groden 14-06-1944
DDP Alpenvorland Trient 19-06-1944
I collect Hitler head stamps on and off cover, so I find much of this quite interesting, even though I sometimes struggle to keep it all straight in my mind!
Thanks for all the images you've posted here!
Hello again.
I will tell you about a new subject called "Durch Deutsche Dienspost"
Translated in "Through german Service mail"
As you are used to, first some general explanation about this subject.
Then any specific matters and finally examples !!!
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
Service mail:
Concept of service mail: Service mail is mail from the German authorities, party offices and the associations of the NSDAP as well as the SS, police, NSFK, NSKK, Reichsarbeitsdienst, OT, NSV, the German Red Cross, the technical emergency aid and their relatives (authority traffic) which had to be specially marked as official mail by a blue cross diagonally on the letter or card, furthermore by adding, handwritten, by printing or rubber stamp, "Durch Deutsche Dienstpost", outlined in red, possibly with the addition of the official mail area. This group of participants is later In the course of the war it was expanded to include German companies in the service post areas that were approved on the basis of special applications for admission (business mail), and the Reich German followers of these companies (follower mail).
While mails purely for official correspondence were free of charge according to domestic German regulations, business and follower mail was subject to mandatory postage according to domestic German fee rates. A customs inspection for consignments of the official mail traffic was not planned. Letters were checked by the OKW's letter checking stations at random, but mostly only for business and follower mail. Field post items that were identified as such by the official seal or postmark of the sending unit or the unit to which the sender belonged were eligible for the field post fee reductions.
All official mail, including that of approved companies and their followers, was basically collection mail. Service mail was not delivered because enough German personnel could not be provided. All official mail had to be posted and picked up at the responsible DPA, the same applies to approved business and follower mail.
Also in the direction from the Reich to the service post area, all items had to be marked with the note "Durch Deutsche Dienstpost" and were routed to certain routing locations of the Deutsche Dienstpost from the home post offices 1942 had to be added as part of the address in the service mail of the entire eastern area. It was only from 1943 onwards that the reference location was omitted in the east; but we still often find it handwritten by the dispatching post office officials in the home area.
n the first months of the respective official mail traffic, the addition "Abholpostamt ...." had to be added to the address details for shipments to locations where no DPÄ was deployed. (Shipments were therefore also allowed to places where there was no DPA.) Cash on delivery service was generally not allowed. There were no delivery or express delivery charges, as there was collection mail.
In principle, not only the Reich and the respective service post area could participate in official mail traffic; German authorities, party service offices, approved companies and their relatives, for example in the East, could use service mail to all other occupied areas, such as the Ukraine, as long as service mail was already open there. The respective local admission of service postal areas for postal traffic was of course adjusted to the respective war and front situation and was announced in the official gazette RPM until mid-1944.
In addition to this task of official mail for official traffic and the private traffic of the approved companies and their relatives, briefly referred to as free or chargeable service mail, the task of re-establishing the general postal service after the occupation of a country occurred.
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
For example, a "German Service Post" was officially set up wherever civil Reichskommissare were appointed or where the areas were later to be incorporated into the Greater German Reich.
We can divide them into :
1) Niederlande
2) Norwegen
3) Ukraine
4) Ostland
5) Elsass
6) Lothringen
7) Luxemburg
8) Bezirk Bialystok
9) Distrikt Galizien
10) Böhmen/Mähren
11) Südsteiermark, Südkärnten, Krain
12) Befreite Ostgebiete
13) Teile der spätere General Gouvernement
14) Adria
15) Alpenvorland
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
1) The Netherlands
The Deutsche Dienstpost Niederlande started its activities on June 5, 1940.
Independently of the Dutch postal facilities, it was responsible for transporting the government mails, the mailings of the German staff and the entire field post.
Its leader was Werner Linnemeyer.
The following towns operated Dienstpost services up to and including the month of April 1945 :
ALKMAAR
ALMELO
AMERSFOORT
AMSTERDAM
ALELDOORN
ARNHEIM
ASSEN
BAARN
BERGEN OP ZOOM
BREDA
BUSSUM
DEVENTER
DORDRECHT
EDE
EINDHOVEN
EMMEN
GOES
GRONINGEN
DEN HAAG
HAARLEM
HARDERWIJK
HARLINGEN
DEN HELDER
HENGELO
HERZOGENBUSCH
HILVERSUM
IJMUIDEN (auxiliary office only)
LEEUWARDEN
MAASTRICHT
MIDDELBURG
NIJMEGEN
OLDENZAAL
ROOSENDAAL
ROTTERDAM
TILBURG
UTRECHT
VENLO
WINSCHOTEN
ZUTPHEN
ZWOLLE
As a German postal service, the German form of the town name was sometimes used, for example DEN HAAG for 's-Gravenhage, or HERZOGENBUSCH for 's-Hertogenbosch.
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
Examples :
DDPN Amsterdam 20-04-1943 R-cover
DDPN Amsterdam 20-04-1944 R-cover
DDPN Apeldoorn 14-07-1943
DDPN Arnhem 15-08-1943
DDPN Bergen op Zoom 09-06-1944
DDPN Den Bosch 10-08-1944
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
DDPN Den Haag 16-03-1942 Newspaper wrapper
DDPN Deventer 14-06-1941 R-cover
DDPN Eindhoven 10-06-1944
DDPN Groningen 13-11-1944
DDPN Haarlem 25-08-1942
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
DDPN Harderwijk 07-11-1944
DDPN Hilversum 15-12-1944
DDPN Leeuwarden 21-10-1943
DDPN LUFTGAU POSTAMT Amsterdam 25-12-1944 R-cover
DDPN Roermond NO DATE
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
DDPN Rotterdam 21-07-1944
DDPN Utrecht 07-03-1944 R-cover
DDPN Venlo 14-05-1944 R-cover
DDPN Winschoten NO DATE
DDPN Zwolle 11-09-1944
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
2) Norway
The main service post office in Oslo was established on 11-07-1942.
Branch service post offices existed in May 1945 in Drontheim, Narvik and Tromso.
DDPO Oslo 20-03-1945
DDPO Oslo 26-02-1945
DDPO Oslo 20-??-1943
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
3) Ukraine
At the time of its greatest expansion, the Reichskommissariat Ukraine comprised 340,000 square kilometers with around 17 million inhabitants.
The Reichskommissariat was divided into 6 general districts.
1) Volyn and Podolia General District. The administrative seat was in Rowno.
2) Zhitomir General District. The administrative seat was in Shitomir.
3) Kiev General District. The administrative seat was in Kiew.
4) Nikolayev General District. The administrative seat was in Nikolajev.
5) Dnepropetrovak General District. The administrative seat was in Dnjepropetrowsk.
6) Crimea General District. The administrative seat was in Melitopol.
DDPU Winniza 28-09-1943
DDPU Chersson 13-07-1944
DDPU Kiev 16-1-194?
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
4) Ostland
Ostland included a number of areas, namely:
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, White Ruthenia, Pleskau area.
DDP Ostland Tuckum ESTLAND 14-05-1942
DDP Ostland Minsk 13-08-1942
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
5) Elsass
With the invasion of the german troops in Alsace, the mail traffic of the french postal administration ceased, as far as it had not been restricted for reasons of the above mentioned evacuation of the civilian population.
The population was therefore without official mail until mid-July 1940.
Basic for the establishment of the DPA in Alsace was the service regulation of the RPD Karlsruhe of June 29, 1940, which was issued just a few days after the end of the armistice with France.
There were a total of 48 post offices in Alsace.
DDP Elsass 23-07-1940
DDP Elsass Alt-Kirchen 27-07-1940
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
6) Lothringen
DDP Lothringen Forbach 30-10-1940
DDP Lothringen Saarburg 30-10-1940
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
7) Luxemburg
With the invasion of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg by German troops on May 10, 1949, the development of the postal service after the end of the hostilities took a similar course as in neighboring Lorraine.
Buildings were hardly destroyed by fighting.
Germany was very interested in restarting heavy industry in southern Luxembourg, which was so important for the war effort.
In addition to the military administration, the German civil administration and the NSDAP and their branches soon established themselves in the capital and the districts.
DDP Luxemburg Luxemburg-stadt 01-01-1941
Through FELDPOST (SS-member) Vianden 19-10-1940
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
8) Bezirk Bialystok
Bialystok was the capital of the former Polish countryside of Podlasie. In 1919 this old border area between Lithuania, Old Poland, Ukraine and Belarus became part of Poland.
In 1939, after the occupation of Poland by German troops, it fell back to the USSR in the agreement between Germany and Russia on the partitioning of Poland and became the Bialystok Voivodeship.
Letters and postcards are very rare.
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
9) Distrikt Galizien
With the incursion into Russia on June 21, 1941, German troops crossed the san on both sides of Przemysl and occupied the eastern part of Galicia, which had fallen to the USSR when Poland was partitioned in 1939. Lemberg (Lwow), the actual capital of Galicia, which had already been occupied once in September 1939 by German troops in a hard battle with Poland, but then surrendered to the Russians, was conquered again.
Letters and postcards are very rare.
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
10) Böhmen/Mähren
DDP Bohmen Mahren Prague 04-08-1942
DDP Bohmen Mahren Beneschau 18-11-1942 SS-feldpost
DDP Bohmen Mahren Kladno 16-09-1942
DDP Bohmen Mahren Ulmutz 27-09-1941
LOOK AT THE GERMAN VIKTORIA SIGN...........
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
I realize that all those districts mentioned here mean little or nothing to you.
That's why I took a time-out and put a map in this post that lists all these areas.
The promised map :
Especially present-day Poland was very divided into districts during this period of time.
Danzig - Westpreussen
Sudauen
Ost-preussen
Soldau
Zichenau
Bezirk Bialystok
Wartheland
General Government
District of Galizien
In the middle :
Böhmen / Mähren
Sudetenland
The same in the south with districts as :
Süd Kärnten
Süd Steiermark
Krain
Adria
Alpenvorland
And in de west :
Elsass
Lothringen
Saargebiet
Eupen
Malmedy
Luxemburg
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
Interesting Thank you
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
11) Südsteiermark, Südkärnten, Krain
On April 6, 1941, German troops entered Yugoslavia, occupied the entire country and moved on to Greece. From the former Yugoslavia, the Croatian satellite dataat was formed with the capital Agram (Zagreb), while the southeastern part of the country, supposedly belonging to Macedonia, was added to Bulgaria.
The formerly Austrian, ceded in the Treaty of Trianon 1920.
Parts of the Südmark, some of which were former Austrian crown lands such as the Krain, were connected to the Austrian south-east district of the Reich.
From the rest a new state "Serbia" was formed, which remained under military administration until the end of the war.
Under a special commissioner, the above-mentioned parts of the South Mark were separated from Serbia and after a short time transferred to the civil administration of the Reichsgaue Styria and Carinthia.
The headquarters of the service post office was in Marburg / Drau, where the commissioner for the occupied territories was also based.
Other DPÄs were in Krainburg for Oberkrain, Cilli and Rann / Save for Carinthia and Unterdrauburg and Pettau for Lower Styria. The area around Ljubljana was subordinated to the Italian military administration, later to an Italian civil commissioner, who also exercised the post authority there.
Letters and postcards are rare
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
12) Befreite Ostgebiete
13) Teile der spätere General Gouvernement
The deployment in the integrated eastern areas, Upper Silesia, Reichsgau Wartheland, Danzig-West Prussia, in the Zichenau district, Sudauen district and in the remainder of Soldau
By decree of the Reichs Post Ministry dated September 13, 1939, a German Service Post Poland was set up, which was renamed to “German Service Post East” after a few days at the instigation of the Führer, who, as is well known, wanted to erase the name “Poland” from the map.
It is too complex to tell about these many districts.
So I'm sticking to the General Government district here.
DDP Osten No Date
DDP Osten BLANSK No Date
DDP Osten NEUMARKT 05-12-1944
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
14) Adria
Only established in October 1943 with the seat in Trieste and essentially encompassing the province of Veneto and part of Istria.
Service post offices and post offices were not established in the Adria district.
The individual DPÄs were given final stamps in German form with the inscription "Deutsche Dienstpost Adria" when they were set up.
The dissolution of the DPÄ took place on April 30, 1945 at the same time as the surrender on the southern front.
Unless captured or murdered by partisans in the increasingly threatened area, the staff moved to Klagenfurt after the proper handover of devices, stamps, etc. to the Italian Post Ambter.
DDP Adria 23-12-1943
DDP Adria Laibach 02-02-1944
DDP Adria Fiume 17-07-1944
DDP Adria Gorz 10-02-1944
DDP Adria Laibach 21-01-1944
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
15) Alpenvorland
Only established in October 1943 with headquarters in Bolzano and encompassing the Italian provinces of Bolzano, Trento and Belluno.
The DDP Alpenvorland also worked until April 30, 1945, the day of the capitulation on the southern front.
The individual DPÄs duly handed over their offices and facilities to the Italian local police and moved with the majority of the staff to Innsbruck.
DDP Alpenvorland Meran 07-06-1944
DDP Alpenvorland Riva 09-03-1944
DDP Alpenvorland St. Ulrich in Groden 14-06-1944
DDP Alpenvorland Trient 19-06-1944
re: Durch Deutsche Dienstpost / Through german service mail
I collect Hitler head stamps on and off cover, so I find much of this quite interesting, even though I sometimes struggle to keep it all straight in my mind!
Thanks for all the images you've posted here!