Upper Silesia Postmarks & Map

Upper Silesia

Current Status: Split between the Provinces of Opele and Silesia in Poland.

Population (1921): 2,073,663
Capital (1921): Opole (Oppeln)

Historical Dates:

1815 to 1919: Part of the Province of Silesia in the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire.

1919: Silesia divided into Upper and Lower Silesia after the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. A Plebiscite is ordered to be held in Upper Silesia in 1921 by the Interallied Commission, to allow the residents to determime if they wished to join Germany or Poland.

1921: The plebiscte is held, policed by French, British, and Italian troops on March 21st. The results were 60% in favour of Germany, mostly in the west and 40% in favour of Poland, mostly in the east. The territory is eventually divided between Germany and Poland in the approximate area of ethnic vision.

1945: After World War II, all of Upper Silesia was ceded to Poland.





Nikolai (now called Mikolow)


Oppeln


Kreuzburg (now called Kluzbork)

Lovely work there BeeSee
May I have permission to use these for
my album pages please?

I am currently working on Thrace 1920
(Bulgarian opts)
and that is a real head scratcher, if you have
any history you are willing to share,
please post with another dedicated thread.

Thanks BeeSee for an interesting thread.

Stamps, History & Geography are my favourite pastimes.

The only clear postmark in my collection : Ratibor ?

Ah! I spot Ratibor on your map.

Rod, you may use my maps as may anyone else. They are my own work, converted from AutoCad.

I will eventually hit Thrace, South Bulgaria, etc. Right now I am cruising in Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Carpatho Ukraine and Hungary.




I am with you there, Litho!

I had put a few SON cancels on another thread, but I have a bunch. The penchant for SON cancels must relate to the German persuasion.

Scott mentions, but does not list, the Gorny Slask issue. It is sometimes referred to as the Korfanty issue, named after a Polish leader. Michel does list them, though. Depending on the source you read, these might have been used for postage, at least in the Polish areas, though they were not recognized by the allies.



There are a total of 7 values. This is the middle value. I only have a few, and they look generally like this, so I can't say whether this is genuine, or a forgery. As is the case with a lot of these odd ducks, I suspect a forgery.

Here is a Preiswitz cancel:




Preiswitz is about a quarter of the way to Nikolai along the main road from Gleiwitz.

Cjd, I recently got that same Korfanty value as yours on Wensy, but it has not arrived yet.

I see all two of your postmarks are on the map, Gleiwitz and Kattowitz. The third I do not know what it is.

I found another, Matzkirch, which is not on the map. Further research indicates it is between Leobschutz and Ratibor in the south-west.

Nice example from Gorny Slask,
Never seen or heard of them before.

No history or gossip about them?

Upper Silesia :
Catalogue Number 1
3 languages, Polish,French and German.

My train cancel originates in Deutsch Rasselwitz (Raclawice Slazski in present-day Poland), and it looks like there might be a few possibilities for destinations, so I can't guess the rest of the cancel.

Supposedly, the Gorny Slask stamps saw some use within the Polish areas, where they might have been tolerated by the Allies overseeing the plebiscite, but they weren't in general use throughout Upper Silesia.

According to the site "Stamps of Poland" at http://home.golden.net/~medals/GornySlask.html :

Stamps of this type (un-authorized by the Inter-Allied Commission) were issued privately by the Polish Insurgents during the 3rd Silesian Uprising against the Germans, early May, 1921. Known sometimes as the KORFANTY issue. Wojciech KORFANTY (1873-1939) led the Polish Insurgents and became acting head of the Upper Silesian Government. Some stamps were reputedly used for postage, particularly for internal and official mail of Korfanty's government.
Values issued in this series: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 fenigow and 1 marek.

...and I snagged this cover image from Stampboards a while back



A CTO, but nice.

SCF always delivers..Thanks.

Here are a few more. Pless voted nearly 100% to remain with Germany:



while Hindenburg O.S., or Hindenburg in Oberschlesien only voted 59/41 for Germany:



Hindenburg is Zabrze on the map in the first post. It was renamed in 1915 in honor of Hindenburg.

Nice used stamps