Kaunas 1935 - Hotel Metropolis

Berlin - Zentralflughafen / Central Airport transit postmark

Kaunas - Gelež. Stotis / Kaunas Railway Station 1935

This is an airmail cover of the Hotel Metropolis sent in 1935 from Kaunas to London. This Hotel Metropolis was the most prestigious hotel in Lithuania during the interwar period, where most of the important guests stayed. It has been nationalized in 1922, served many celebrities and state guests from Marc Chagall to Chiune Sugihara. The hotel is still operating today (but not "prestigious" as it used to be back then, at least when I've stayed there myself in 2005) at the exact same building which you can see on the cover hotel logo illustration.
Interestingly, the cover is addressed to a ship captain but sent to the office that owns the ship rather than the ship itself. The was no direct flight from Kaunas to London at that time I guess, so you see a transit postmark of Berlin Zentralflughafen / Central airport on the back of the cover.
The Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara / 杉原千畝 famous for issuing life saving visas to the Jewish people during WWII, spent his final days in Lithuania here. He stayed at Hotel Metropolis after the Japanese consulate was forcibly closed down by the occupying Soviet authority, continued issuing visas in the hotel room. Many witnesses stated that he even wrote visas at the Kaunas railway station platform when he was leaving Lithuania (and coincidentally, the postmark of this cover is Kaunas railway station!). Today you can see 2 commemorative plates to honor this event, one at Kaunas railway station and the other one at Hotel Metropolis.

Riga-Kybartai Railway post 1928 - Postcard of Dainų šventė in Kaunas 1924

Dainų šventė in Kaunas 1924 (high resolution)

T.P.O. (Pašto vagonas) Ryga - Kybartai 1928

This is postcard send in 1928 by the railway post Ryga (Lithuanian spelling for Riga, the Latvian capital city) - Kybartai from Kėdainiai to France. It is a real picture postcard and shows the Lithuanian traditional song festival called Dainų šventė. The one on the picture is the first one held in Kaunas in 1924, the Lithuanian version of Wikipedia for the entry "Dainų šventė" shows a picture of the same event taken from a slightly different angle.

Kaunas 1941

This super ordinary looking simple postcard is actually a pretty rare stuff. This is a postcard sent in August 31st 1941 from Kauen, Ostland (now Kaunas, Lithuania) to a unreadable location. The card is stampless, no indication of any kind that it is a military field post and no sign nor trace of any stamp being soaked. Actually, this is exactly how it supposed to be. According to "Deutsche Dienstpost 1939-1945 Handbuch und Stempelkatalog" written by Dr. H. Schultz, The post office of Deutsche Dienstpost Ostland in Kaunas opened in 26 July 1941, banned the use of the Lithuanian overprinted Nepriklausoma issue (at least in Kaunas) and established their own postal network. The German Reich stamps were introduced in September 1941 and finally at November 4th 1941, they have issued the overprinted Ostland Hitler stamps. The postcard in question has been used during this very short stampless period between 26 July and 1 September.

Kaunas 1941

Bilingual Ramygala / Рамигала arrival cancel

This is a postal stationery sent in 1941 from Kaunas to Ramygala, Lithuanian SSR. This card has much clearer postmarks than the previous one and the best part, is the Soviet Ramygala arrival cancel! I think I have written before but 1940-41 Soviet postmark of small Lithuanian towns are pretty hard to find. Again, on the back there is a Hebrew text which I have absolutely no idea what is it written about.

Kaunas 1941

Kaunas 1941 during the first Soviet annexation

Nazi censorship seal on the back of the cover

Postmark Kaunas Central 1941 with a 1940 Soviet stamp

This is an interesting cover sent in January 1941 from Kaunas during the first Soviet annexation to Frýdek-Místek, at the time, part of the German occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Very luckily, I have been in contact with one of the descendant of the relative of the sender of the cover, Dr. Oto (Otto) Landsberger, a Czech-Jewish Frýdek-Místek native, who traveled to Lithuania from 1940 to 1941 to help the situation. According to his memoir (unpublished), he often wrote to his relatives including his son Fritz who stayed in Frýdek-Místek. His 1940-45 journey that led him ultimately to Lebanon is really incredible.
The sender spells his hometown "Friedeberg Místek" which I think he deliberately misspelled it as part of the protest to the German authority without getting too much attention. The German name for Frýdek is Friede(c)k and Místek was Freiberg.

Krakės 1914

Postmark of Кроки / Kroki

This is an Imperial Russian postal stationery sent in 1914 from Кроки / Kroki (now Krakės, Lithuania), Ков (Kovna gubernia) to Ковна / Kovna (now Kaunas, Lithuania). Кроки / Kroki is also the Polish name of the town but it was also known as Krok in Yiddish. The text on the back is written in Cyrillic but the last word at the bottom look like it's Jewish (or is it not? I'm not sure...). During the prewar Lithuanian Republic, it was also called Krakiai.

Sarapinai 1912

Царицыно / Tsaritsyno cancel and Ковна arrival cancel

This is an Imperial Russian postal stationery sent in 1912 from Царицыно / Tsaritsyno (now Sarapinai, Lithuania), Ков (Kovna gubernia) to Ковна (now Kaunas, Lithuania), the capital of the gubernia. The name Царицыно / Tsaritsyno comes clearly from the term "Tsar", it is said that a Russian Tsar has stopped to have a rest during a trip to Germany because the village is conveniently located at the middle of the old road linking Kaunas to Kudirkos Naumiestis which was the major gateway to Eastern Prussia. Today the village is called Sarapinai, belongs to Marijampolės apskritis / Marijampolė County and counts only 33 inhabitants according to the 2001 census but back in the prewar period, there was a much larger Jewish and Polish population living there.

Kaunas 1920 - Postcard of Zapyškis

This is a postcard of Szapjeshischki (now Zapyškis, Lithuania) sent in 1920 from Kaunas to Germany. The German name Szapjeshischki probably comes from the Polish name of Zapyškis which is Sapieżyszki. The church you see on the picture is what makes this little town with a population of 250 famous, one of the finest surviving example of a gothic structure in Lithuania. If you ever have a chance to visit Kaunas by your own transportation, I would strongly recommend to make a short detour through Zapyškis to see this church of St. John the Baptist.

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.

Kaunas 1969

Postmark of the first cover

Postmark of the second cover

Section of Michel showing the souvenir sheet
What a beautiful piece!!

Another addition to my Soviet stamp collection today. Like I've mentioned many time in this blog before, in order to add Soviet stamps in my collection, it must have a Lithuanian topic on the stamp or having been cancelled in Lithuania. This souvenir sheet shown in the above image has been long time in my wish list but I wasn't able to get a copy cancelled in Lithuania. Not exactly how I wanted but I have finally managed to get at least 2 covers with a stamp cut out from the souvenir sheet in question. The 2 identical covers have been made by a philatelist on the occasion of the VII th philatelic exhibition held in Kaunas on 1969. Why did I buy 2 identical covers? Well... but why not...
The stamp itself has been issued for the philatelic exhibition held in Moscow on 1957 showing the Lenin library where the exhibition has been held. The one I have posted corresponds to Michel number 1979 which has a better color than the 1978 one. Coincidentally, Michel 1979 corresponds also to number 1979 in Scott as well.

Is that all??
I must say it is very poorly informed comparing to Michel, not surprisingly...

Kaunas 1936

These are 2 receipts of postal money order sent in 1936 from Kaunas to Surviliškis, a small town near Kaunas with a population of little over 300. I have decided to post those because the postmarks are very clear! The left one has been sent on March 6th from Kaunas centr. (centrinis paštas/central post office) to Surviliškis arriving on the next day, the right one on March 26th from Kaunas - Gelež. Stotis (geležinkelio stotis/railway station) to the exact same destination. The numbers with the inscriptions "Lt." (Litas) and "ct." (centas) on the top are the amounts (1 Litas = 100 centas) sent.

Kaunas 1934

Postally speaking, this cover might not be a particularly interesting one but the fact that it has been sent from the Direction Générale des Postes et Télégraphes de Lithuanie (Directorate General of the Post and Telegraph of Lithuania), makes it attractive.  Sent in 1934 from the central post office in Kaunas to the headquarters of the L' Union internationale des télécommunications or in English: International Telecommunication Union (I.T.U.) which has been created in 1865 but since 1947 a part of the United Nations.

Kaunas 1941

The cover itself is not in perfect condition but I have decided to post it because the postmarks are clear and stamps are undamaged. This is a registered cover sent on 31.3.1941 from Каунас/Kaunas to Ленинград/Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) during the first annexation to the Soviet Union. The cover arrived on 3.4 and delivered on 4.4 according to the arrival postmark on the back. Lithuanian has been annexed by the Soviet Union on 1940 and Nazi Germany took Kaunas on 25.6.1941, not even 3 months after this cover has been used.

Kaunas - pre-Aleksotas bridge

 pre-Aleksotas bridge

 Feldpost station 209 used in 1916

 This cards was used in 1916 but the picture was probably taken earlier than the first card.

You see the top of one of the twin bell towers of the white baroque church has been destroyed,

but in the first card you see it has been restored. 

 The same bridge from the other side of Nenumas river.

 Construction of Aleksotas bridge

I have noticed that many visitors of this blog come from websites that deal with old pictures and postcards. I haven't posted much comparing to the size of my collection because I didn't find those postally interesting, but since I have received several requests, I decided to post more postcards. Today, I have posted few cards of the bridges in Kaunas. There was a provisional military-made bridge approximately 100 meters east of the present Vytauto Didžiojo tiltas (Vytautas the Great bridge) which you see in the first 3 postcards. The last 2 postcards show you the construction and the completion of Aleksoto tiltas (Aleksotas bridge) which is called now Vytauto Didžiojo tiltas. All of the postcards are postally used by the WW1 German field post (Feldpost) station 209 except the last one which was printed during the First Republic.

Coat of Arms series - 1

Modern Lithuanian stamps are not really my speciality but however, there are several of them I really like. One of them are those Coat of Arms series, issued every year from 1992. It shows you different city coat of arms (except in the first issue, there is a national one) across the nation. 

 1992 issue - Kėdainiai, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania

This first issue is the only one with Talonas as the face value.

The size is slightly smaller than others.

1993 issue - Skuodas, Telšiai, Klaipėda

 1994 issue - Punia, Alytus, Perloja

1995 issue - Virbalis, Kudirkos Naumiestis

This issue is the only one with 2 stamps.

 1996 issue - Šeduva, Panevėžys, Zarasai

Zarasai has an eccentric coat of arms with an imaginary creature symbolizing the wealth of its nature.

1997 issue - Neringa, Vilkaviškis, Pasvalys

1998 issue - Kernavė, Trakai, Kaunas

Trakai's arms has a head of St. John the Baptist, just in case you are wondering... It supposed to symbolize the Christianization of the town.

1999 issue - Marijampolė, Šiauliai, Rokiškis

Very nice coat of arms of Šiauliai

This modern arms is based on the 1791 arms with the Samogitia bear (Šiauliai was the center of  the duchy Samogitia), Eye of Providence symbolizing parliament and the red calf of the House of Poniatowski, the royal family of King Stanislaus August Poniatowski who granted this arms.