A M P O S T Cover From Germany

The AM Post stamps were printed in the United States before Germany's defeat and were intended to replace the Hitler stamps. "AM" stands for Allied Military, with the central "M" representing Military Government. A complete set of all nine denoms appears on the envelope, which is also American (judging by its dimensions). The address was typed on an American typewriter (as indicated by the typeface), possibly by the American addressee himself. For these reasons, this may be regarded as a US cover.
It was German postmarked in Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany, on August 20, 1946, during the period when the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals were being held there. The postage rate for a registered letter was 84 Pfennigs at the time.
The name of the addressee (or perhaps the sender) leaves room for speculation.

Very interesting.
Any idea of the destination- APO 66 ?

APO 66 was located at Erlangen, Germany after Jan 1, 1946.

This shows the localtion for APO 66 during 1944 - 1946



This was extracted from the following publication.



Which can be found in the Stamp Smarter Library here...

https://stampsmarter.org/learning/Home_APO.html

where we have a number of publications about military APO/FPOs. There is another similar publication which identifies the APOs by location.

I know there are more recent publications with corrections and expansions to these APO/FPO numbers, but they are all not available for free publication.


MikeL

Would this be considered a "philatelic cover"?

Erlangen is just 20 kms from Nürnberg.

It's a philatelic cover in the sense that it has no purpose other than to provide a stamp collector with a complete set of used stamps on cover - possibly with some help in the local post office, since the cancellations are very neat.

But it isn't a philatelic cover in the sense of being cobbled up to make a profit from collectors.

It's a very nice cover, and PFC David Dorfman can probably be looked up.

I think you may be correct about the sender. It looks like a philatelic souvenir.

The central 'M' is in Fraktur font, banned from January 3, 1941 in Germany for being "Jewish letters". That's presumably why the SS used Sütterlin on their cuff titles.

I'm trying to determine whether this letter was actually handled by the postal services. It would help to know whether an APO would normally have put an arrival or receiving stamp on registered mail. Does anyone have any information or experience with this? Thank you all.

I would vote 'no' but am not an expert in this field. A quick Google search shows this APO located in Erlangen, Germany - some 21 km away from Nuremburg. My vote is this cover was created by a serviceman from that base for collecting purposes, if not by the person in the address field.

Brian

There was a David Dorfman who was an internationally known philatelist, and expert in the stamps and postal history of Palestine and the Holy Land. I met him several times when I was actively collecting ISrael and Palestine.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...?id=23062915

The age is right for him to have been in the US Military in this time period, but there is no way to know for certain if he is the individual identified on the cover.

MikeL
Edited to add a "y" to history.

I'm trying to determine whether this letter was actually handled by the two postal services. It would help to know whether an APO would normally have put an arrival or receiving stamp on registered mail. Does anyone have any information or experience with this? Thank you all.

Maybe, the relevant question would be: would the post office register a letter and then hand it back to the sender at the point of origin?