Can Someone Help ID These German Covers?

Hi Stampvirgin

The second cover is Austrian, from 1943 when Austria was part of the Third Reich - from Steyr, between Salzburg and Vienna. My German is rather patchy, but I think that Landrat = rural council,"des kreises Steyr" = "of the Steyr district", kreisselbstverwaltung = district self administration. Garsten is next to Steyr - search google maps using steyr+garsten and you'll see it. I couldn't find a road called Garsten or In Garsten. there are still Oberdorfingers in Steyr (tho' none called Lidia that I could see) - running a health club.

The stamp has the Nazi eagle + swastika, with "Der Landsrat des kreises Steyr D..D" at the top (dunno what the DD stands for), and probably Grossdeutschers Reich ("Greater German Reich") at the bottom

I'll get back later if I can track anything down about the first cover.

Hi again

The first cover is also from Austria in 1943 - Amstetten is in the province of Niederosterreich, and is just to the east of Linz(which is the capital of Oberosterreich). The postmark has illegible(NIEDEROSTERREICH) - almost certainly this will be Amstetten (Niederosterreich). Like the second cover, it is from the local Landrat (rural or district council). "Frei durch Ablossung Reich" means "Free (postage) because on government service". I haven't worked out the writing in red.

It's addressed to Angela Seisenbucher - quite a lot of Seisenbuchers in the area. The address is in a village near Amstetten - use google maps with "Kogelsbach, Sankt Georgen am Reith, Österreich" to find this.

If I track down the red writing, I'll let you know.

There are some Austrian members of ttheforum - you could put out another query asking for their help.

Once more - sorry, I'm giving up with the red, the German Gothic script is beyond me this evening!

thanks anyway... for the assistance..
any value to these?

I think that might be N D standing for Nieder Donau.
When the Nazis took over they changed the name of the province from Niederösterreich to the Gau Nieder Donau which included Vienna.
The country's name österreich was replaced by Ostmark which is actually what it was called a thousand years ago.

After looking at the second cover again and realizing that Steyr is a city in the province of Upper Austria I would say that the letters in the left postmark are probably O D standing for Ober Donau.

The postmark on the first one I would say definitely is Niederdonau.

Below a map of Austria during the Third Reich.

The red gothic script states: Hierbei ein Vordruck zur Zustellungsurkunde - Vereinfachte Zustellung.

My German is pretty decent, although I misunderstood this one at first glance. I initially thought it had something to do with postal delivery (which makes sense for obvious reasons), but it turns out it's something different; it means this cover was used for legal reasons. Vordruck is form, and Zustellingsurkunde means something like subpoena.
Hope that helps.

Thanks for the extra info - why is there a blue line through the red script?

bump..any value?