Recent Acquisitions

Heydekrug, German Empire 1897 (now Šilutė, Lithuania)

Жеймели / Zheimeli 1913 (now Žeimelis, Lithuania), Ков (Kovna gubernia)

Wilno 1919 (now Vilnius, Lithuania) rare 1919-20 Polish occ.

Žarėnai 1924

Wilno 1927 (now Vilnius, Lithuania) rare Wilno 11 vertical line cancel 

Nowa Wilejka 1929 (now Naujoji Vilnia, Lithuania

Recent Acquisitions

Russ (now Rusnė, Lithuania), Ostpreussen (East Prussia) 1887

Серее / Seree (now Seirijai, Lithuania),
Сув/Suv (Suvalki Gubernia) 1910 

Rossienie (now Raseiniai, Lithuania) 1918,
during WWI German occupation

Rucken (now Rukai, Lithuania) 1920

Trakininkai 1918

This is a postcard sent in 1918 from Trakeningken, Kreis Tilsit (now Trakininkai, Lithuania), to Berlin. From my experience, a postmark of Trakeningken on a Reich stamp is pretty rare, I should say I'm lucky to find it in such clear condition.
If Pogegen was a railway gateway to Memelland from Tilsit side (which is confusingly the Russian side nowadays), Trakeningken would be the land gateway since the road coming from Tilsit splits there to multi direction. The village itself is pretty small, today, Trakininkai's population counts only 150.

Cancellations of Memelgebiet/Memel district - 11

Memel (now Klaipėda) rectangular postmark on North German Confederation / Norddeutscher Postbezirk stamp

Coadjuthen 1893 (now Katyčiai)

Galsdon-Joneiten 1920 (now Galzdonai)

Sziesze 1920 (now Šyša)

Naustubriai 1935 (former Neustubbern, Memelgebiet)

Smalininkai 1906

Schmalleningken (now Smalininkai) - Hotel Deutsches Haus and the pier

TPO Bahnpost Pogegen - Schmalleningken / Pagėgiai - Smalininkai

This is a postcard sent in 1906 from Schmalleningken (now Smalininkai, Lithuania), East Prussia to Санкт-Петербург / Sankt-Peterburg, Russia. Schmalleningken was an important center on the eastern edge of Memelland having a pier facing Memel / Nemunas River and a railway connection. The postmark is a railway post (Bahnpost) of the line Pogegen (now Pagėgiai, Lithuania) - Schmalleningken. The picture of the postcard is also interesting as well, with the large steam boat "Herold" with lots of passengers getting ready to leave the pier in front of the hotel Deutsches Haus.

Recent Acquisitions

Here are some of the recent acquisitions of stamps:

WWI German occupation with a postmark of Schaulen (now Šiauliai, Lithuania) 1916

a stationery cut out (what a pity!) with a postmark Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania) 1895

Polish occupation period with a part of machine cancel of Wilno 2 (now Vilnius, Lithuania) 1938

Soviet stamps with a postmark of Vilnius C. 1941 during the first USSR annexation 

Postmark: Lekėčiai 1929

Postmark: Višvilė 1928 (present Viešvilė, former Wischwill, Memelgebiet)

Postmark: Alunta 1937

Kulėšai 1918

My latest acquisition Kolletzischken 1918

This week I felt so lucky to be able to find a postmark of Kolletzischken (now Kulėšai, Lithuania) 1918 buried among thousands of other Germania stamps. According to Memelgebiet section in Michel Spezial, Kolletzischken is one of "postmark collector friendly" post office that had only one type of postmark which is the one you see on the above scan. Memelgebiet post offices usually made new postmark when it went under French administration but the one in Kolletzischken apparently did not care or was in lack of funds and kept using the old pre-Memelgebiet ones.

the same postmark used in 1923 during the Lithuanian administration

As far as I know there is only one postmark that preceded this one which has probably been used in the second half of the 1850's by the Prussian postal authority, I have never seen it yet but it is spelled Koletzischken with a single "L".
This post office was later closed down on January 1924 and neither the Lithuanian nor the 1939 German re-annexation administration ever reopened it.

German stamps in Lithuania

When I write "German Reich stamps in Lithuania", most philatelist probably comes up with Memel related stamps or the occupation issues such as Postgebiet ob Ost. or Ostland. Well, I should say that's the right reaction but that is not all. There were some regular German stamps that have been used in Lithuania under different circumstances. I have mentioned before in this blog that I do collect Soviet stamps but having difficulties because of the criteria of my collection: all non-Lithuania themed stamps must be cancelled in Lithuania. The exact same criteria applies to the regular German Reich stamps as well, which makes again, collecting German stamps very difficult. There are several cases when these stamps were used in Lithuania, I would like list those in chronological order.

1. Pre-Memelgebiet stamp
99% of the regular Reich stamp that has been issued before 1920 could have been used in the Memel region. When I search German stamps in an internet auction, I usually ignore post-1920 Reich stamps up to 1939 to go faster. However, this does not mean that there is absolutely no way to find any postmark of the Memel area on a Reich stamp between 1920 and 1939 (for example, railway postmark Insterburg-Memel used in Tilsit could be on a post-1920 Reich stamp).
Pre-Reich stamps or also called Old German states' stamps were used in Memel region as well but only the stamps of Prussia and the North German Confederation.

Memel postmark of 1886 on a Reich stamp

2. Postgebiet Oberbefehlshaber Ost area

These areas occupied by the Germans during World War I basically used German stamps overprinted "Postgebiet ob. Ost" but in some cases, regular Reich stamps were used mainly by the private postal delivery services. It is very difficult to find. Believe me... 

3. Re-Annexation of Memel region

Nazi Germany re-annexed Memel region on March 1939 and used regular Reich stamps until the Soviet armies took the region in 1945. I would not say "frequently found" but those are relatively easy to find.

4. Ostland

Ostland had its own overprinted stamp but regular Reich stamps were also valid through out the territory. As a result of the mass-production of Ostland stamps, the use of regular Reich stamps were limited. 

Postmark of Schaulen (Šiauliai, Lithuania) on regular Reich stamps

Schaulen postmark used for precancellation or also for parcel

Those were the 4 cases where regular Reich stamps were used in the present territory of Lithuania for postal use. If I'm missing any cases, please feel free to comment on this post. 

Klaipėda 1906

This is a beautiful embossed new year greeting postcard used on 1st of January 1906 within the city of Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania). The minimum 3 Pfennig franking is surprisingly not so easy to find according to my experience.

Kūgeliai 1917

Happy New Year to all visitors!! I would like to start my first post this year with item. It is a German military field post (Feldpost) card sent in 1917 from Kugeleit (now Kūgeliai, Lithuania). This card looks like a postal stationery which the letter part that can be dettached but since the regular field post are sent free, there is no value imprinted so technically speaking, it is not a postal stationery. But then if it is free, can it be a postal stationery? I don't know... According to Wikipedia, Kūgeliai's most recent population is 1! Is it possible? Anyway, I have found some nice pictures of the present Kūgeliai railway station on Miestai.net, here is the link.

Priekulė 1907

Prökuls (now Priekulė) postmark 1907

Heydekrug (now Šilutė) arrival cancellation

Not an envelope but a folded letter itself

This is cover sent in 1907 from Prökuls (now Priekulė, Lithuania) to Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania). Both Prökuls and Heydekrug are part of Memel region which was itself part of Germany at that time. When I first got this cover, I was pretty surprised by the finesse and softness of the paper quality of the envelope but... I was wrong actually. It wasn't an envelope, this he or she, used the letter itself as an envelope, thus explains the high quality of the paper material.
Priekulė is another source of "mix up", sometime mistaken with a Latvian town: Priekule, which is unconveniently located not only to the Lithuanian border but near Klaipėda district. This Latvian town was called Preekuln in German so philatelically (or philatelicly?? I'm always not sure..) speaking it should not cause a problem but for postcard collectors it can be a problem.

German Field post (Feldpost) card sent in 1919 from Preekuln Bahnhof (railway station), now Priekule, Latvia

Gilandviršiai 1914

 Queen Louise Bridge, the border between Sovietsk and Panemunė

 Sterpeiken (now Strepeikiai, Lithuania), 9.21 1914

 Gillandwirszen (center) and Sterpeiken (left) on a 1861 map

This is a German military field post (Feldpost) card sent in 1914 from Gillandwirszen (now Gilandviršiai, Lithuania). According to the list of post offices of Memelgebiet provided by Michel Deutschland Spezial, the post office of Gillandwirszen has closed down on the 1st of December 1923. The postmark on the scan with the inscription "Kr. Tilsit" has been used during pre-Memelgebiet period as well as after the Treaty of Versaille along with the newly created postmark with the inscription "Memelgebiet". Gillandwirszen has been later incorporated into Kreis Pogegen and during Nazi re-annexation into Kreis Tilsit-Ragnit. Today, Gilandviršiai is part of Tauragės apskritis/Tauragė county with the population of 55 according to 2001 census. If you look closely to the card, the author actually wrote it in Sterpeiken (now Strepeikiai) which is a village right next to Gillandwirszen.
The picture on the card is Queen Louise Bridge which linked Tilsit (now Sovietsk, Russia) and Übermemel (now Panemunė, Lithuania) over the Memel (Nemunas in Lithuanian) river. It has been named after the Queen Louise who resided at the city of Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania) when it served as the temporary capital of the kingdom of Prussia during the Napoleonic wars. The bridge still exists today and serves as the Russo-Lithuanian border.

Nida 1916

This is a postcard sent in 1916 from Nidden (now Nida, Lithuania) to Potsdam, Germany. I have posted before a postcard sent from Nidden/Nida in 1942 during World War II and I thought they seem to use the exact same postmark as the 1916's one which you see here. But after carefully comparing it, the size of the letter of "NIDDEN" is slightly smaller than the 1942's one and the space between the letters and the outer circle is wider as well. If you would like to see both posts, click the label "NIDA" at the bottom of this article.
The sand dune you see on the picture looks the same as it is now even though it is constantly changing the shape. You can see the size of the dune when you compare with 2 persons appearing of the top.
One strange thing is that the author writes the date as "29.7.17" but the postmark states 1916. Hard to know which one is right...