Kretinga under German Occupation

I have found 2 postmarks of Krottingen (now Kretinga, Lithuania) from 2 different German occupations, WW1 and WW2, so I thought I would post these. As I have mentioned in my posts in the past, the German name of Kretinga is rather confusing. "Russ (Russisch) Krottingen" was for the present town of Kretinga and "Deutsch Krottingen" was the name given for Kretingalė. Both names were also spelled "Crottingen" with a "C" at the beginning. The ones cancelled simply "Krottingen/Crottingen" can be identified according to the stamp, when Memel stamps were used then it means that it was Kretingalė, when it was the Ostland overprint, then it was Kretinga.

I also have some other WW1 and WW2 occupation stamps still umposted in this blog so I would like to take the oppotunity to post them as well. 

 Mariampol 1917 (now Marijampolė, Lithuania)

Schaulen 1942 (now Šiauliai, Lithuania)

Klaipėda 1923

This is a registered cover sent in 1923 from Memel / Klaipėda to Bern, Schweiz (Switzerland) during the Lithuanian administration period. It is a business letter sent from Georg H. Jaeger who obviously has an office in Libau, present Latvian city of Liepaja but also in Memel according to this cover. The Memel address is Contre Escarpe 8a, a rather bizarre example of French street name in Memel, meaning a moat surrounding a fortification. This street was actually a part of Memelburg citadel and it is called Žvejų gatvė today.

Vilnius 1933

This is a registered cover sent in 1933 from Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Paris, France, during the Polish occupation period. "18e" written on the bottom right corner means that the forwarding address is in Paris 18e "arrondissement", one of the district in Paris. We also see that the cover has been registered in "Wilno 1.b".

Druskininkai 1969

This is a postcard sent in 1969 from Друскининкай / Druskininkai, Lithuania during the Soviet time to Zambrów, Poland. The sender writes the address as Woj. (voivodeship) Białystok/Balstogė but Zambrów as changed the affiliating administration several times, from 1975 it belonged to Łomża Voivodeship, from 1999 to Podlaskie Voivodeship.

Šiauliai 1938

This is a registered cover sent in 1938 from Šiauliai to Jaroměř, Czechoslovakia (now Jaroměř is part of the Czech Republic). The sender is "Šiaulių Savitarpio Kredito Prekybos Draugija", probably a local Šiauliai association for a mutual fund or kredit. There are several references mentioning about such mutual credit system getting popular in Lithuania after the Hyper-inflation in the mid-1920's.

Šiauliai 1972

I have posted before my collection of registered covers of Šiauliai branch post offices during the Soviet rule (here is the link) but I haven't been able to post any progress on that. Finally I have managed to find one new item, this is a registered cover sent in 1972 from the post office Шяуляй/Šiauliai 2 to Вильнюс/Vilnius. These branch post offices are harder to collect than I thought... Interesting arrival cancellations on the back of the cover, it looks like it first went to Вильнюс Опп./Vilnius Pps. then to Вильнюс/Vilnius 9 for actual delivery.

440th Anniversary of the Union of Lublin 2009

I just love this commemorative cancel! It's commemorating the 440th Anniversary of the Union of Lublin signed by Poland and Lithuania. It was an exclusive postmark for the post office in Lublin, Poland. the coat of arms of the commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania depicting the Polish eagle and the Lithuanian Vytis is just beautiful!

Švenčionėliai 1916

This is a German military field post (Feldpost) card sent in 1916 from Novo Svenziany (Švenčionėliai, Lithuania) to Chateau Salins in Lothringen, Germany (now Lorraine, France). Švenčionėliai was nothing more than couple of houses until the Tsarist authority built a railroad linking Vilnius and Saint Petersburg. The present Švenčionėliai station was build for the town of Švenčionys but because of the distance of 10 Km, a small sub-town started to grow around the station which eventually became "Novo Svenziany", the New Švenčionys.

From what I can see here, it looks like the picture was taken at the intersection of Priestočio g. and Švenčionių g looking to the west. It seems like "Svenziany Str." hasn't changed the name and Priestočio g. is more like a square rather a street like you see on the picture.

You certainly won't see this sign in present Švenčionėliai:

"Horse wagon, do not stop here"