Germany: Flugpost Am Rhein Und Main - Flown Covers

I know very little about Flugpost (Airmail) prior to official airmail service in Germany beginning in 1919. PostmasterGS has written and updated posts about early Zeppelin mail, but I haven't read anything about the Flugpost am Rhein und Main issues of 1912.

I purchased a flown cover at auction this past weekend, so decided to do a little research.

There is a lot of information available online about the "Flugpost am Rhein und Main" semi-official stamps, but I could only found it in German.

A rough translation of the website http://www.flugpost-rhein-main.de/ gives a history of the service, but the Google translator is in need of some help.

Here is what I've gleaned so far.

1) Service took place for a very short period from 10-23 June, 1912 as part of an charity event called "Postcard Week". The proceeds went to the "Grand Ducal Office" for mother & infant care in Hesse.

2) Two airships were used: the Schwaben and Gelber Hund (Yellow Dog). The Schwaben, a Zeppelin, carried the bulk of the mail, while the Gelber Hund, an airplane, carried lesser amounts of mail. Flown covers on the Gelber Hund are uncommon.

A quick Google search turned up the following images of the GelberHund, Schwaben, and a flown cover (with Gelber Hund overprinted stamp) ...








The airship "Schwaben" ...






And finally, a photo of the auction lot I purchased. The seller also had a Gelber Hund flown cover that, had I known it's scarcity at the time, I would have tried to acquire it. It sold for $115. This lot, with a nearly perfectly centered flugpost stamp on cover and a set of 3 unused stamps to boot was purchased for $35. Both are bargains.

Any additional comments, information, or links are welcome!

Brian

Brian,

I think I've got some old articles on this in English, but they're in Japan and I'm in the States for the holidays. Remind me in a couple weeks if I haven't sent them to you and/or posted the info here.

And good find. The mint set of 3 is worth that price alone.

Thank you!

This series is far more interesting than I first realized in spite of being a small set.

Prior to this past weekend, I had assumed (believed) that all airmail prior to the US airmail service of 1918 used dirigibles. This was a mere 8.5 years after the Wright Brother's first flight!

Would it be safe to assume that the Gelber Hund served as a sort of "proof-of-concept" for flugzeug airmail service?

Brian

Here's a little info in English (PDF).

This was a great article that shed some light on the topic.

It appears that this article was an edited reprint of a GPS newsletter article. I got in contact with Sergio Lugo, a contributor & editor to the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library newsletter, who then put me in contact with Gary Gibson, the author of this article.

Gary stated that there is scarce information available about the Flugpost am Rhein und Main issues, and even less information about the Gelber Hund. Both men have been quite helpful.

As it turns out, I met Sergio at PIPEX last May, when I purchased some covers from him. He is a German Catapult mail and Zeppelin specialist ... but I digress. Catapult mail needs to be it's own topic.

I'll keep you posted on my correspondence with Gary, et al.

Brian

These flights and information on them (in English) are listed in the American Air Mail Society Catalogs. Cards and letters that were carried on these particular flights are relatively common, compared to the many other aircraft and Zeppelin flights that happened in Germany in that timeframe.

Hi, All,

I just found one of these stamps in a Worldwide packet that I picked up from a local stamp store. It had me really stumped as far as ID, because I only own Scott's catalogs. My internet search led me here.

The specimen I have is the 10pf with Darmstadt postmark. Unfortunately, the stamp is off cover, and the part of the postmark bearing the date is off the stamp.

I am totally stoked to find a stamp with such a cool history..and from a dealer's packet, no less!

Any ideas on valuation?

These stamps are covered in considerable detail in any Michel Specialized covering the 1910s and 1920s. The "Gelber Hunds" are separate from the others (below), but listed in the Index. They have been counterfeited.

The much larger group called "Halbamtliche Flugmarken" (semi-official airmails) are also in Michel; there are about two dozen designs, from 1912 to 1933, each priced mint, used, and on cover.

In my 1997 Michel, your 10pf used cataloged roughly $30. Overprinted Gelber Hund raises the basic stamp about 10X.

Thanks for the quick response.

Very cool. This one stamp more than paid for the 3000 piece packet!

Great find, Milehigh! It's nice to hear there are still good stamps to be found in those packets. Any chance you might post a photo?