Allied field post in Germany after the First World War 1918–1935

This article deals with the Allied field post in Germany after the First World War 1918 to 1935 , taking into account the historical background. The main aspects are the organizational structures and procedures with which the occupying troops stationed in Germany after the Versailles Peace Treaty carried out the mail between the military and their home countries. The field post of the military units that were stationed in five voting areas to ensure that the vote on membership of the German Reich was carried out properly is also discussed . One focus is on the philatelic aspects.

Historical context

The First World War brought about various political upheavals. The Weimar Republic emerged from the German Empire . The Versailles peace treaty of June 28, 1919 assigned Germany the entire war guilt, changed the borders of Europe and intervened heavily in economic life with high reparation claims . The revolution had already started in Russia in 1917 and the USA entered a war in Europe for the first time in the same year.

On November 8, 1918, Marshal Foch finally announced the terms of the armistice . On November 23rd, colored French troops march into the southwestern Palatinate. At the objection of the German members of the Armistice Commission , they have to withdraw on November 27th. On December 1, 1918, the 2nd British Army and the 3rd US Army crossed the German border. Koblenz and Mainz are occupied. The occupation of the Palatinate begins. The commander of the invaded 8th Army is General Augustin Gérard (Chief of Staff Major Jacuot), who set up his headquarters in Landau on December 4, 1918 . The commander-in-chief of the French army is General Mangin , headquarters in Mainz . - The Treaty of Versailles requires the cession of the Palatinate district of St. Ingbert, parts of the district of Zweibrücken and Homburg and the city of Homburg to the Saar area. - British troops occupy the cities of Cologne and Bonn. The armistice is extended until January 17, 1919.

Division of the occupation zones in the Rhineland

The occupation of the Rhineland was completed on December 20, 1918. - Belgians occupy the area of Aachen, - British that of Cologne, - Americans that of Trier and Koblenz. - Italians are in the Palatinate and Rheinhessen for a short time. - The French in Mainz secure the right to co-determination in the other zones. - Rhineland Commission in Koblenz supreme civil authority. - A total of 50 foreign divisions are on German soil. The strength of the individual divisions was not exactly the same. One assumes an average size of 12,000 men. - The French came with two whole armies, the 8th Army under General Gérard and the 10th Army under General Mangin, in the southern part of the occupied area and further divisions in the north in the area of Aachen. - The Americans came with their 3rd Army under General Liggett . - The British and Belgians brought some divisions into the Rhineland.

The Kehl bridgehead, the ports of Mannheim and Duisburg are occupied on February 17, 1919. From March 18 to August 31, 1919, a British Air Mail Cologne - Folkestone was established. The British troops in Germany formed the BAOR, the "British Army of the Rhine".

The handover of the peace conditions to the German delegation will take place on May 7th in Versailles. In the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles is a peace treaty signed. - Simultaneous signing of the Rhineland Agreement. Occupation 150,000 men, 110,000 of them French, of which 30,000 were colored. 220 places are occupied, 154 by France. For every French and their relatives there are 15 Germans.

The Rhineland comprises the following three zones: 1st zone Cologne, planned evacuation after 5 years - 2nd zone Koblenz, planned evacuation after 10 years - and the 3rd zone Mainz, planned evacuation after 15 years.

The Allies

Note: Since the topic is very extensive, the Allies were divided into the respective sub-lemmas.

Field post in the voting areas

prehistory

On the basis of the Versailles Treaty, a vote was required in five German border areas (in Eupen - Malmedy , North Schleswig , East Prussia ( Marienwerder and Allenstein ), Upper Silesia and in Saarland ) on whether the inhabitants would remain under the government of the German Empire or come under that of the neighboring country wanted to.

The German Reichswehr had to leave the voting area. During this time, in addition to a remaining German police force, the occupation units specified in the contract had to ensure peace and security. The voting committees were composed of representatives from Great Britain, Italy, France and Japan. The voting troops were Great Britain, France and Italy. Originally the participation of the USA was planned, but they had not signed the Versailles Treaty and were therefore eliminated from such tasks.

Schleswig (with Flensburg)

As early as November 14, 1918, the German government offered to reorganize the border in North Schleswig . The Danish government refused, waiting for a peace treaty to be signed.

On January 20, 1920, 300 French Alpine fighters from the 2nd Chasseurs Alpines Battalion arrived from the Rhineland to occupy Hadersleben . Sønderborg was occupied by another department on January 21, 1920. A detachment of French Alpine fighters occupied Flensburg on January 25, 1920, together with a battalion of British troops (the "1st Battalion Sherwood Foresters"). Two officers and 35 men were stationed in Aabenraa . Tondern was assigned an officer and 30 men to be billeted.

The voting troops in Schleswig had no field post facilities. The mail was collected and transported home in closed mail bags. Documents with the inscription “Schlesvig Plebiscite Force” or “Flensburg Plebiscite Force” are known from the British, which were only postmarked after arriving in London.

The International Commission left Flensburg on June 16, 1920 ; for some time she maintained a processing office in Kollund.

East and West Prussia (Danzig)

South East Prussia and the Marienwerder area had to decide on July 11, 1920 whether to remain with Germany or to join the new Republic of Poland. The city of Danzig was declared a Free City of Danzig in the peace treaty .

Danzig

British and French troops (1st Bn The Royal Fusiliers, 10th Battalion Chasseurs Alpines) were stationed in Gdansk from February to November 1920 as a security force during the so-called interim period, as it was feared that the city would be annexed by Poland. When Danzig was officially subordinated to the Protectorate of the League of Nations on November 15, 1920 as a “Free City and Free State”, the troops could be withdrawn.

The command of the British headquarters for the troops in Danzig was supplied by the field post office "H 2". It was originally assigned to a unit. It served the headquarters of the II Corps in Leverkusen . When the headquarters were closed, it was converted into a permanent field post office, which remained in Leverkusen until November 22, 1919. The opening day in Gdansk is not known. The first documented date is on a letter dated February 16, 1920. The field post office in Danzig closed on November 26 or 27, 1920. After that, the post was regularly taken care of by the "Senior Naval Officer Baltic", ie via links of the Navy to London promoted.

Until August 24, 1920, letters up to 1 ounce and postcards were exempt from fees. After that, letters were charged at 2 pence for each ounce and 1 penny for postcards. British brands were to be used by the troops.

Cancellations with the stamp "H.2" on Gdansk stamps are almost always of a philatelic or memorial character. A censorship stamp was also used, namely the one with the number 7151. It served to confirm that postage was exempt, and there was no censorship .

The French troops in Danzig were subordinate to the SP190 in Memel , this Secteur Postal was only a field post address and had no stamp of its own.

The USA also initially had a small naval contingent in the port of Danzig. The mail from this unit was postmarked with a one-liner, "USNAVY PORT OFFICE, DANZIG, GERMANY" and forwarded by courier to Paris, where it was handed over to the US APO 702 for further delivery.

Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) - West Prussia and Allenstein (Olsztyn) - East Prussia

Conditions in these parts of the country were very tense. These parts were largely inhabited by Masurians, who were related to the Poles, but were Protestant and lived under German rule for a long time, so that they felt like Germans and Prussians.

The inter-allied voting commission had gone to the " Allenstein area", which had become historic after the battle of Tannenberg , to supervise the voting. The preparations for the election were very emotionally charged. Unrest and minor fights were inevitable.

The German Reichswehr left the voting areas between February 1 and 6, 1920. Only the German military hospitals were allowed to remain in the zones. Before the withdrawal of the German troops, however, the previous military police were dismissed from army service in order to reinforce the remaining border and security police , which, along with the Allied troops, had to maintain order.

Anyone over twenty years of age was allowed to vote regardless of gender. On July 11th, the vote took place and 87.4% of the population took part. Germany received 363,209 (97.5%), Poland 7980 (2.5%) votes.

Things were the same in the areas of Marienburg and Marienwerder.

Only Great Britain and Italy sent troops to these voting areas. There is talk of a small contingent of French in Marienwerder, but apart from the presence of members of the commissions and a few officers in Danzig, no evidence has yet been obtained.

The military command of the occupation troops was the British General Richard Haking , who had his headquarters in Gdansk, outside the voting area.

In Allenstein , British, French, Japanese and Italian administrators formed the commission. She took over the official business on February 14, 1920. An Italian infantry battalion (650 men) was stationed in Allenstein, Lötzen and Lyck, and the British 1st Bn Royal Irish Regiment, which was later increased to 800 men, in the cities of Allenstein and Osterode. Some companies were also relocated to other locations for missions . A British company was even deployed outside of the Deutsch-Eylau zone to secure rail operations to Danzig. At the same time as the British troops, the British field post office previously stationed in Düren in the Rhineland (APO p. 120) was relocated to Allenstein in early February 1920. It supplied the British battalion. The company in Deutsch-Eylau used this field post office or the command office of the British headquarters in Danzig to supply mail.

The field post letters to Great Britain were canceled with the stamp "ARMY POST OFFICE S. 120". Letters from soldiers were postage paid, letters from officers and registered letters had to be franked with British stamps. As far as is known, all field post letters were sent via the British main field post office "S. 40 ”in Cologne. The APOS 120 was closed again on August 13, 1920

The British troops left Allenstein on August 15, joined the Rhine Brigade in Mühlheim on August 18, and were relocated to Upper Silesia on May 30, 1921.

In Marienwerder the troops were commanded by the Italian Colonel Fenando Po, who was subordinate to a battalion of the Bersaglieri . The commission in this zone was made up of civilians (mostly diplomats). The Italian troops did not have a field post office in the voting areas (not even in Upper Silesia). Your mail was brought to Upper Italy by courier and from there it was forwarded by the official mail.

After the vote in both voting areas, which was largely for Germany, the Allies endeavored to withdraw their administration and troops as quickly as possible from the areas that had reverted to Germany. The date was July 31st. Only the uncertainty about the outcome of the Polish-Soviet war prompted the Allies (Lloyd George and Millerand) on July 27, 1920 (2nd Boulogne Conference) to keep their troops in East Prussia until the situation was resolved. Ultimately, the withdrawal date was set for August 10, 1920.

Upper Silesia

French and Italian troops were stationed in Upper Silesia from the start, with the first French arriving in mid-January. The French troops were (officially) in Upper Silesia from February 12, 1920 to July 10, 1922. The troop strength was 11,500 French and 2,000 Italians.

Because of the increasing unrest and the one-sided favoring of the Poles by the French, the first British troops were relocated to Upper Silesia in early March 1921 (four battalions from the Cologne area, including the Black Watch Regiment). These troops were reinforced by a British division because of the fighting that broke out after the referendum on May 28, 1921.

The British field post used the following field postmarks "ARMY POST OFFICE / S 64" in Gleiwitz and Tarnowitz, and "APO S. 120" in Opole. Proud also mentions the use of the APOS 110 stamp by the 2nd. Silesian Brigade from June 1921, but no document with this stamp has yet appeared.

The French 46th Division Chasseurs Alpins and the 22nd Battalion Chasseurs Alpins had a joint field post office with the number 184, where two stamps with the text "TRESOR POSTES * 184 *" were used. (different size of the stars). In addition, a stamp with a scratched-out number was used in 1920/21.

In the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Oberschlesien im Bund Deutschen Philatelisten eV, the long-time director Rolf Ritter knew 35 French, 12 British and 2 (!) Italian field post documents from this time by 1968

The Italians (32nd Infantry Regiment) had not brought a field post office with them. Locations of the Italians were u. a. Kreuzburg and Cosel, where there was an Italian field hospital. The soldiers' mail (only field postcards issued) were transported to Udine in closed sacks , where they were channeled into the normal postal service. These cards have an elliptical stamp with the following text: "TRUPPE ITALIANE / IN / ALTA SLESIA / - COMMANDO -".

Of course, in addition to these field postmarks, there are also troop stamps and stamps of the military department of the Allied Commission for Upper Silesia, as well as internal service stamps of the voting troops.

Saar vote

The " Saar Government Commission " set up by the League of Nations began its work on February 26, 1920. The French Councilor of State Rault, Prefect of the Marne Department, was appointed President. Belgium was represented by Major Lambert, Denmark by Count von Moltke-Huitfeld. Then there were the district administrator of Saarlouis, Alfred von Boch, and in March 1920 the former mayor of Winnipeg, the Canadian Waugh. In the course of the fifteen years there have been some changes in the members of the body that we do not want to go into further here.

On June 4, 1934, the League of Nations fixed the date of the referendum on January 13, 1935. An international tripartite commission should monitor the vote. In order to ensure peace and order during the election phase, to carry out the safe transport of the ballot boxes after the voting from the polling stations to the central counting in Saarbrücken, and not least to make the presence of the League of Nations visible, were before Christmas. The entire contingent was under the British Major-General JES Brind.

British field post

The British contingent was provided by the 13th Inf. Brigade (including the 12th Royal Lancers and the 1st East Lancashire Regt.), Which had previously been stationed in Egypt and has now been assigned to Saarland. The "Field Post Office 10" was relocated to Saarbrücken to ensure postal support. This field post office also came from Egypt. For better care, secondary post offices were maintained in various places that belonged to the security area of the British.

All normal letters posted, but also registered letters, were subject to a fee. The franking took place according to the tariff for soldiers letters at a reduced fee with British postage stamps. These stamps were sold by the field post office to the soldiers of the “British Contingent / Saar Plebiscite Force”. Only business broadcasts marked “On his Majesty's Service” were carried free of charge.

The sealed mail bags reached London via Calais and Dover . In London they were sent to the civilian post. A particularly large number of letters were sent to Egypt. Letters from Egypt to Saarland were franked with “soldiers' stamps”, which were stuck on the back of the letters like sealing stamps. The "Saarbrücker Landeszeitung" of February 8, 1935 reported "that the English and Italian troops were leaving the Saar area in the period from February 19 to 28, 1935".

Swedish field post

The Swedish Saar Battalion essentially consisted of the scaled-down III. Battalion and parts of the 1st Battalion, Stockholm. The 260 men were under the command of the 51-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Artur Georg Nordenswan.

After a big farewell in Stockholm and Trelleborg , the troops reached Merzig on December 22, 1934 . The staff and the Sillén company remained in Merzig. The Linton company was housed in the nunnery in Beckingen (12 km southeast of Merzig), and the Pluton company in Mettlach (12 km northeast of Merzig).

The real task, of course, came on January 13, 1935, the day of the vote. Apart from a few minor incidents, there were no incidents during the elections. After the polling stations had closed, the ballot boxes were brought to Saarbrücken, closely guarded. Around midnight, the 12th Company accompanied the train with the ballot boxes from Mettlach for the 42 km to Saarbrücken. A police officer stood every 500 meters along the route. Any intervention was therefore ruled out.

The field post office was set up immediately after arriving in Merzig. A private apartment on the first floor at Poststrasse 56 was available for this purpose. A large sign “FÄLTPOST” and a Swedish flag drew attention to this facility. The service could begin under the direction of postmaster Sven Svenmarck.

In his private life Sven Svenmarck was postmaster at the post office in Stockholm 7. He had already gained experience in the field post service. So he was used in the maneuvers 1927-28, 1930 and later again 1936-38. The field post office was under the general postal administration in Stockholm, which also had to pay for the postmaster's expenses. Obviously the postal administration in Sweden used the troops in Saarland to test their field post facilities in practice and to gain experience. The Swedish field post office had a very wide range of postal services.

The mail was sent in closed bags via Frankfurt a. M., Saßnitz and Trelleborg to Sweden. The connection to the units in Beckingen and Mettlach was established twice a day.

The members of the Swedish contingent received a field post letter (type M 2) and a field post card (type Mbk 4) per week. The field post letter of type "M 2" was an envelope made of brownish paper with a blue reply stamp of the type "small Reich coat of arms", with the addition "FÄLTPOST" without border lines under the flap. The field postcard is a card with the addition "MILITÄRBREVKORT" in black on white cardboard. "AVGIFTSFRITT" is noted in the stamp. A total of 2,084 field post letters and the same number of cards were distributed to the troops. The postal administration was compensated for this with 833.60 crowns . This corresponds to a price of 30 ore per letter and 10 ore per card.

Initially, only these shipments were accepted and carried. Further letters had to be handed over to the Saarland Post and affixed with Saarland postage stamps accordingly. The postage for these items was CHF 1.50 for ordinary letters and CHF 0.90 for postcards, the equivalent of 40 and 25 ore. Some of these letters were nevertheless handed over to the field post. The postmaster stamped them on the back with a rubber stamp and in some cases added his name before handing them over to the Saarland post office. Such a letter is still known from February 8, 1935, but it was clearly influenced by Svenmarck "philatelically". The stamp was only used in the early days. However, there are also mail items in which Saarland postage stamps have been canceled with the stamp of the Swedish Saar battalion, contrary to the regulations.

On December 23, 1934, one day after his arrival, Svenmarck made his inaugural visit to the British contingent. There he saw the use of British brands on broadcasts by the troops home, and this at the British domestic tariff. He informed the Swedish postal administration about this procedure and was also aiming for this solution for his post office. Since January 8, 1935, it was possible to post letters with Swedish stamps for domestic postage franked with 15 Öre. Of course, the post office stamp was used for the cancellation. From the time before the new regulation, programs with Swedish brands at the domestic tariff were already known, although this did not comply with the regulations. The government commission had already given its approval, but the written confirmation from the postal administration was still missing. But it had been given by telephone before the end of the year. Since Svenmarck had taken a small private collection of Swedish postage stamps with him, these were used and stamped - mind you: it wasn't official yet!

A few other orders of the postal administration from this time dealt with the service regulations of the field post, and all adjustments to the unusual circumstances were not settled until mid-January. Registered mail as well as telegrams, postal giro and the postal savings bank service were now permitted for domestic postage. There was a limit of 1 kg for parcels. The field post office received stamps worth 8,000 kr.

Exact information about the mail volume cannot be given. Statistics only cover the period from January 8 to February 16, 1935. However, the mail volume must have been considerable beforehand. The Christmas and New Years mail was certainly not insignificant.

According to estimates, around 20,000 items were sent over the entire duration, 2,769 of which were registered. This number also agrees with the data from the statistics from January 8th to February 16th. During this time, 11,230 letters, 3,135 postcards and 641 other items such as wrapper, printed matter, etc., a total of 15,006 items were accepted and transported. 604 deposits with a volume of 26,683 kr and 83 withdrawals with 1,804 kr were made on postal savings accounts.

At the same time, only 7,300 items, 601 of which were registered letters, arrived in Saarland from Sweden. Unfortunately, it is not known how many of them were from reply letters franked with the blue field post stamp (could be cut out under the envelope flap of the field post letter ) and addressed "Svenska Saarbataljonen Malmö-Saar". Very few of this evidence have been kept.

There was a great rush on the last day of opening (February 16, 1935). The service went on until late at night. On that day alone, 1,500 letters, including 463 registered items, were posted. The largest part was franked with several stamps, so that around 4,000 stamps had to be stamped on this one day. The last day is February 16, 1935. The final theses, however, continued until after midnight, as Svenmarck wrote in a newspaper article. A very small part of the items posted on February 16, 1935, were canceled on February 17, 1935, including registered items.

A receipt could only be found for the delivery of a stamp to the Saar battalion. Nevertheless, three different variants can be identified. The only difference was the date line, in which there are numbers in Antikva and Grotesk. The stamp "A" is the usual and genuine discount, it has the digits in Antiqua in the date and the digits in grotesque in the year, particularly well in the "3". There are different opinions about the use of the stamps “B” and “C”. The mail volume on January 13, 1935 was unusually large, with well over a thousand items of various kinds. According to information, about 2-300 letters that were later canceled were left behind. The date insert was "incorrectly" replaced. Inadvertently, the number “3” in Antiqua in the date was changed to a “3” in grotesque. Whether this stamping took place the next day or after returning to Stockholm cannot be determined retrospectively. The stamp marks are not wrong, but at least not completely correct.

The following incident is interesting in this context. A Stockholm stamp dealer bought 270 letters in 1936, which were addressed to the postmaster. All had a Saar stamp on the front. For shipments to Saarland, it was unusual for the field post to post an arrival stamp. After all, they are interesting philatelic documents. In an advertisement, 4.50 kr./piece were asked for. Only a few were sold. The unsold ones were sold abroad for 10 to 15 kr./ piece. This is certainly one of the reasons why so much evidence of this can be found abroad.

The last stamp listed, "C", is suspected to be false. He has not yet been seen on any service letter or on a registered mail. Instead, it can be found on unaddressed or poorly executed address - mostly in pencil - on military envelopes (type M 1 and also M 1) of the 1929 edition. It is assumed that it is a false postmark with the date from 13th January 1935. Others indicated that Svenmarck had bought another stamp to cope with the large amount of mail and the many requests for stamps on election day. We do not (yet) have any final certainty.

Another false stamp, probably made in Germany, was used to produce letters with Swedish and Saarland postage stamps. There is also only one date of this stamp, February 16, 1935, i.e. the last day. This stamp is both smaller in size and letters. The smaller star is particularly noticeable. Unaware of the regulations, collectors gave up consignments with Swedish stamps that were to be sent from Saarland to non-Swedish countries. The postmaster found a way of transporting these letters as well. Such items were sent to Sweden in the usual way and from there were sent to the normal mail route. Of course, the Swedish postage abroad had to be paid for these items. Nobody could have imagined how great the interest was in these Saar stamps. It wasn't just Swedish and German collectors who tried to get this discount. There were even stamp requests from America and other countries, which the postmaster took care of himself. Collectors sent letters with 5 or 10 kroner franking or asked for service letters. In one day the postmaster himself received 143 items, including 25 service letters. A soldier who wrote for a Swedish newspaper reported: “There is absolute stamp terror here. The main part of the extensive mail consists of mailings from people who are completely unknown to the troops and who identify themselves as avid stamp collectors. ”A sergeant sent 8 letters a day, his postage expenses were corresponding. The Swedish contingent left Saarland on February 18, 1935 at 7:00 a.m.

Italian field post and Dutch subsidiary postmarks used on the occasion of the Saar vote

Dutch field post

The Dutch voting force did not have an actual field post office. The assigned field chaplain, a Dutch military chaplain, also took care of the business of a field postmaster. His office was in Saarbrücken at Bleichstrasse 1.

In the beginning, the company failed to stock up on a sufficient supply of postage stamps, but on December 27, 1934, 2,000 stamps each at 6 and 1½ cents were delivered. We know from letters that these postage stamps were sold in the canteen of the “Nederlandsch Contingent Saartroepen” in Saarbrücken and St. Ingbert. It is assumed that the quantity of stamps met the requirement of two months.

The letters collected daily by the field preacher were sealed in letter bags and sent to Emmerich on the Lower Rhine. The bag flags were marked “Aan Emmerik-Amsterdam, from Commandant Nederlandsch Contingent Saarbrücken”. There was no field postmark of its own, so the items were only canceled by rail postmarks in the Emmerich-Amsterdam rail mail car. The letters can only be recognized by the details of the sender. On service letters with the coat of arms of the Marine Corps, the oval stamp "Saartroepen" was also removed. Registered mail was not allowed in the Dutch field post.

Italian field post

The Italian post office, like the British one, was in Saarbrücken. In addition to the sending of normal letters and cards, the posting of official registered and valuables items was also permitted. The issue of postage stamps was omitted because cash postage was possible. Only the official mail was sent postage free.

The Italian domestic tariff applied to private shipments. The recipient in Italy only had to pay the postage fee for letters that were not postage paid. A collection fee was not charged in this case. In the stamp, instead of the time, a number was given in Roman numerals, which indicated the year of the “fascist calendar”, which began with the march of Mussolini and his followers 'on Rome' on October 28, 1922.

The mail was sent to Milan (for northern Italy) and Rome (for southern Italy) in sealed bags.

The end of the voting time

On February 18, 1935, an agreement was reached in Naples between the Reich government and the Saarland Government Commission on the transfer of administration.

Preamble: After the League of Nations Council decided on January 17, 1935 to unify the Saar area with Germany and set the date of Germany's re-establishment in the Saar government on March 1, 1935, the Saarland Government Commission and the German government have to transfer the administration the following agreed:

Article 1: The administration of the Saarland passes to the German government on March 1st, 1935 at midnight .

Six further articles regulated the transition in the economic and legal areas.

literature

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Edward Wells: MAILSHOT - A History of the Forces Postal Service. Published by the Defense Postal and Courier Service, Royal Engineers, London, 1987, pp. 85, 88.

Evaluated sources

↑ Hans Andersen: North Schleswig (Plebiscit 1920) (= New Handbook of Postage Stamping . Issue 8). Frankfurt a. M. 1962.
↑ Michael Dobbs: FPOH2 in Gdansk - 1920 . In: FPHS Newsletter . 194, Winter, 1987.
↑ Werner Schulz: English occupation and field post in Allenstein / East Prussia during the referendum in 1920 . Braunschweig 1988 (manuscript).
^ Rolf Ritter: personal information ArGe Oberschlesien . Arrived October 23, 1986.

[1] Hans Andersen: North Schleswig (Plebiscit 1920) (= New Handbook of Postage Stamping . Issue 8). Frankfurt a. M. 1962.

[2] Michael Dobbs: FPOH2 in Gdansk - 1920 . In: FPHS Newsletter . 194, Winter, 1987.

[Schulz_Allenstein-3] Werner Schulz: English occupation and field post in Allenstein / East Prussia during the referendum in 1920 . Braunschweig 1988 (manuscript).

[4] Rolf Ritter: personal information ArGe Oberschlesien . Arrived October 23, 1986.