Mažeikiai 1943

Bahnhof Mazeikiai?

This is cover sent in 1943 from Moscheiken (now Mažeikiai, Lithuania), Ostland to Riga, the present Latvian capital. It has been sent from a Bahnsleiter (station director) of Mažeikiai station (as you see on the back of the cover) to a Reichsbahninspektor (Reich Railway inspector) in Riga. The postmark cancelling the Ostland overprint says Moscheiken, the official German name of Mažeikiai in Ostland, but what surprised me was the Nazi cachet that says "Bahnhof Mazeikiai" and NOT Moscheiken. As you can see from the fact that the station director uses himself the name of Mažeikiai on the back, the use of Lithuanian name was not prohibited but we are talking about Nazi cachet which usually Germanizes every place name. It is possible that the cachet was made before the renaming process but still...

Kaunas 1924

This is a postcard sent in 1924 from Kaunas to Zele, Belgium. The name Zele sounds so cute! It's a town in the Flemish region with a population of little over 20000. The picture on the postcard is the Kaunas main railway station as it says in the trilingual description on the back. The building itself looks pretty much the same but the platform doesn't have any roof like they do now.

Kaunas 1916

Eisenbahn - Verkehrsamt Kowno /  Kowno Railway administration office

Kowno (Kaunas) 23 April 1916 Feldpost (Field Post)

This is a German military field post (Feldpost) card sent in 1916 from Kowno (now Kaunas, Lithuania) to München/Munich, Germany during WWI. You can find WWI German field post card without postmark time to time but this time I'm lucky, the sender wrote the location and date on the card: "Kowno 23. 4. 16". Usually there is a cachet of the affiliating unit on most of the field post card unless they are out in the field on action. This one is Eisenbahn - Verkehrsamt Kowno which can be translated as Kowno Railway administration office. During WWI, railways were the key strategic infrastructure so they were often run by the occupying military administration.

Vilnius 1910

This is a beautiful postcard of Троки / Troki (now Trakai, Lithuania) sent in 1910 from the post office Вильна Вокзаль / Vilna Vokzal (Vilnius railway station) to Рига / Riga. The picture is so beautiful that it makes you think of an artistic modern photography. Trakai castle was and still is a popular day trip site for tourists and Vilnius residents as well. The postmarks are interesting, the right one is a perfin cancel of Vilnius station, the middle one is a regular cancel of the same post office and the left one is a machine arrival cancel of Riga.

Lentvaris 1917

This is a WWI German field post (Feldpost) card of Landwarowo (now Lentvaris, Lithuania) railway station sent in 1917 to Ritheim (now spelled Rietheim), Germany. There is also a censorship cachet of Mülhausen (now Mulhouse, France).

Vilnius - Stotis 1915, 1916

A feldpost card of Bahnhof Wilna (Stotis Vilnius) sent in 1916 from the feldpost station 166 stationed in Vilnius.



Another feldpost card sent in 1915 from the 80th reserve division of the 266th infantry regiment of the 10th corp. The picture is also the station of Vilnius but viewed from the present Naujininkai side.

Kybartai 1916

A postcard sent in 1916 from the felpost station 166. This feldpost station was along with the 40th reserve corps, active around the border area which Kybartai is part of. They later move to Vilnius. Many might be wondering why i wrote Kybartai and not Wirballen (now Virbalis, Lithuania) as it says on the postcard. At the time this postcard was written, it was Wirballen/Virbalis railway station, but the town itself was far from the station. So later they renamed the station Kybartai(Kibarten in german) after the village near by. The present town of Virbalis does not have a railway station.

Pilviškiai - stotis 1917

A postcard of Pilwischki station, now Pilviškiai in Lithuania. It has been sent in 1917 as a Feldpost from the 346th Infantry-Regiment of the 1st Company, stationed at the time around Vilkaviškis. The station in the picture still holds the russian inscription "Пильвишки"(Pilvishki).

Kaunas 1928

A postcard of Kaunas main station posted in 1928 from Kaunas to Liebenau bei Reichenberg, Czechoslovakia, today Hodkovice nad Mohelkou in Liberec (Reichenberg) county.
Acquired in 2006 in Liberec, Czech Republic

Kazlų Rūda 1917

A field post card of Koslowa Ruda railway station posted in 1917. Koslowa Ruda is the polish name for Kazlų Rūda. The wooden station building on the picture still stands nowdays. It was an important railway junction where track split to Marijampolė direction and Königsberg (the present Kaliningrad) direction. As you see where there is the cancellation, the sender adressed to the filed post station 141 which was probably stationed at Marijampolė at the time.
Acquired in 2006 in Berlin, Germany

Panevėžys 1930

A picture postcard of Panevėžys station posted to Leipzig, Germany in 1930.
Acquired in 2007 in Berlin, Germany.