Field post of the Belgians in Germany after the First World War 1918–1935
See also: Belgian field post .
After the First World War, the victorious Allies occupied parts of the German Empire. The Belgian occupation zone bordered the German-Dutch border to the west, the Rhine to the east, and the Neuss , Grevenbroich , Stolberg and Eupen line ( eastern cantons ) to the south . Belgian troops occupied Aachen and set up a military post office there in December 1918. This later took over the tasks of a main field post office for the occupied area.
Eupen and Malmedy
The Eupen district , which was part of the 4th zone at the beginning of the Rhineland occupation, had been occupied by French units under the command of a Belgian officer. A first Belgian battalion, followed by another, occupied the Eupen district on May 6, 1919.
The county Malmedy was occupied by British troops and was part of the third zone. On August 12, 1919, Belgians replaced the English. The Malmedy district fell to the 4th zone.
On July 24, 1920, a referendum took place in the Eupen and Malmedy districts. There were lists on which people who opposed the Anschluss to Belgium could sign up. Due to external pressure, only 270 out of 33,726 eligible voters spoke out in favor of remaining with Germany. Thus, on September 20, 1920, the Belgian National Assembly was able to unanimously and without restriction decide to incorporate Eupen and Malmedy. The troops stationed in the Eupen and Malmedy area had no right to postage exemption , this only applied to the troops stationed in Germany.
Sanction area Duisburg
The reparations debt of the German Reich was set at the Conference of the Allies in Paris on January 29, 1921 ( Paris suburb agreements ) at 226 billion gold marks , payable in 42 annual installments. Allied troops occupied the Rhine ports of Düsseldorf , Duisburg and Ruhrort on March 8, 1921 because reparations payments were not paid on time.
The Belgians got Duisburg and Ruhrort, Düsseldorf got a French command. But a strong French troop detachment also remained in Duisburg. The headquarters of the Belgian-occupied Ruhr area was relocated from Sterkrade to Duisburg on February 1, 1924.
France and Belgium advanced with large numbers of troops. The average occupancy of Duisburg is given as 5000 to 10,000 men, including 2000 French, u. a. of the 168th Infantry Regiment and 4,000–5,000 occupation families. England sent a squadron and a tank division to Dusseldorf, which it soon withdrew.
Ruhr occupation
On January 11, 1923, French and Belgian troops marched into the Ruhr area because of outstanding reparations payments. On February 13, 1923, a customs border was established between the occupied territories and the rest of the Reich. The German population did not accept the occupation. The Reich government decreed passive resistance, which was only lifted on September 26, 1923 by the new Chancellor Stresemann. The circumstances had become intolerable. Germany barely had a chance to meet its payment obligations.
The "Belgian Ruhr Detachment" occupied the following cities and communities: Duisburg , Oberhausen , Mülheim , Hamborn , Sterkrade , Essen-Karnap , Gahlen , Voerde , Dinslaken , Walsum , Gladbeck , Bottrop , Buer and Osterfeld ; in the Recklinghausen district : Horst , Kirchhellen , Marl , Dorsten , Hervest and Holsterhausen .
Cancellation
The Belgian field post in Germany used both the usual posting stamps and a route stamp in the early days.
February 1, 1918 - February 15, 1920
The relocation of troops makes it very difficult to locate the early field post offices . Now the stamps were no longer assigned to the divisions, but to fixed field post offices that had to supply a garrison. There are also the stamps without a number, which were also used in the Rhineland. An assignment to certain field post offices should be possible using the field post address.
February 15, 1920 - November 27, 1929
On the basis of a government resolution of February 1, 1920, the mobile field posts assigned to the units and who had to participate in the troop movements were converted into permanent field post offices by February 16, 1920. They now had to supply the garrisons of a region with postal connections. There were stamps with differentiating numbers for every field post office.
From May 17, 1920, the field post office No. 10 supplied the troops in the Elsenborn camp for a maneuver. It was subordinate to the field post office in Aachen . From November 1, 1921 onwards, the occupation troops who were currently on target practice in the Elsenborn camp were only free of postage if the address was followed by "Temporarily in Elsenborn camp" on the incoming or outgoing letters. The office was closed on April 11, 1922 and the local post office took over.
Field Post Office No. "12" was assigned to the railway mail on the Aachen - Brussels line , probably since 1921 . This stamp is very rare, so little is known about it.
During the occupation, a number of inter-allied commissions were active within Germany, in which Belgium was also involved. Given the large number of these commissions, it would be difficult to make a complete list. They all had service stamps that were struck off the post to confirm the sender's privilege of postage free. The transport was carried out, if possible, by the Belgian field post, otherwise by the field post of the allies or the Deutsche Post.
postage
Since August 7, 1914, postage has been exempt for military personnel. This required a note such as “SM” (Service Militaire), “MD” (Militaire Dienst) or “FM” (Franchise Militaire) on the mail.
The postage exemption extended to letters up to 20 g and postcards to and from Belgium. The Belgian domestic tariff applied to other items and special services.
The state of war for the Belgian army officially ended on September 30, 1919. The postage exemption for military personnel was lifted with effect from October 31, 1921. Wounded or those in need of outpatient treatment in military hospitals and the Belgian occupation forces in the Rhineland were excluded.
The postal service of the ABO (L'armée Belge d'occupation) of the Belgian occupation forces was regarded as an internal Belgian postal service. Postage-free only applied to letters and postcards up to 20 g, not only to Belgium, but also to France, Great Britain, Italy and their colonies. Newspapers, printed matter, samples and business letters, on the other hand, had to be franked by military personnel. For this purpose, the Belgian postage stamps - edition from 1915, which was given the imprint "ALLEMAGNE / DUITSLAND" on September 20, 1919, was used. In addition, the corresponding brands were used without imprint. The stamps could only be used by Belgian military personnel.
Some cards and letters from April 1916 to April 1919 had a large double circle stamp with a diameter of 34/24 mm "CORRESPONDANCE PRIVEE / ARME BELGE" (Private Post / Belgian Army) with the royal coat of arms in the middle in purple and blue or red, followed by a district. The War Department had issued these stamps to uniformly refer to military use. After this time it was left to the military to put stamps into operation according to their own designs. In any case, from May 1919 on, a variety of shapes such as double-oval, double-circle or frame stamps or two-line stamps can also be found. In addition, there were also all kinds of official stamps that were knocked off the letters or postcards in order to indicate the sender's military status and thus to ensure postage-free delivery.
Saarland
After France had to withdraw its occupation troops from the Saar area under pressure from the League of Nations , an international railway protection force was set up, which also included a small contingent of Belgians. The DETACHEMENT BELGE DE LA SAAR with 68 men arrived in Saarbrücken on July 10, 1927 and was supplied by the French field post office SP 219 in Saarbrücken. From there the mail was sent to the Belgian main field post office No. 1 in Aachen. From August 31, 1929, the mail of the Belgian troops on the Saar was only routed via the railway mail "BRUSSELS - ARLON 1 - ETRANGER (abroad) / ZUG 16 / SP 219". This change was certainly made in view of the impending evacuation of the 2nd zone with Aachen in November 1929.
The Belgians left the Saar area on December 12, 1930. This ended the presence of Belgian occupation troops in Germany after the First World War.
swell
- ^ Naunin, Helmut : The occupation of the city of Duisburg by Belgian and French troops after the World War . Inaugural dissertation, Berlin 1930.
- ^ A b Bruns, Prof. Wigand: Aachen postal history in the mirror of the postmark (and additional information from the author) . Self-published, Aachen 1980.