Overwhelmed By Germany! Articles On Saar & Danzig

The idea of specializing in Germany seems so simple, on the surface. When I first decided on collecting Germany, I had a preconceived notion of the different postal eras ... German states, German post up to WW2, DDR, and FRD ... that all seemed easy enough.

What the hell did I get myself into?!?

I am now up to 6 specialized albums: States 1849-1870; Deutsche Reichspost (1870-1945); Deutsche Post under Allied control (1945-1949); Deutsche Bundespost (1949-1995); DDR (1949-1990); Berlin (for some reason my used album starts in 1960 and goes through 1990, missing 11 years)

These are the areas of German postal specialization I have personally identified and attempted to collect. Have I missed any?!?

- German states (1849-1870)
- Bavaria
- The Deutsche Reichspost (1870-1945)
- The Deutsche Post under Allied control (1945-1949) of which there are 3 areas of specialty: American/British, French, and Russian control.
- DDR (1949-1990)
- Deutsche Bundespost Berlin (1949-1990)
- Deutsche Bundespost (1949-1995)
- Deutsche Post AG (1995 - present)
- SAAR (also known as SARRE under French occupation) (1920-1935 & 1947-1959)
- Danzig (1920-1939)
- Memel (does this fall under German occupied territories?)
- German occupied territories (too many to list)
- German offices abroad


Anyways, I was researching SAAR and DANZIG, tonight, and thought I'd share a couple of links with you.

Cheers!

Brian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postag..._of_the_Saar


http://www.danzig.org/page1-.html

I imagine you will suffer less if you collect mixed used and unused..both types can have very expensive stamps..the large Kaisers Yachts for example !!

It is indeed a can of worms. I fell victim to that when I started collecting Germany. I started with Third Reich, then broadened out, and finally had to draw the line. I decided not to collect the states on the front end, and post-WWII on the back end.

Here's my stab at the major areas. I grouped them by eras to make it a little easier.

German States
- Baden
- Bavaria
- Bergedorf
- Bremen
- Brunswick
- Hamburg
- Hanover
- Heligoland
- Lubeck
- Mecklenburg-Schwerin
- Mecklenburg-Strelitz
- Oldensburg
- Prussia
- Saxony
- Schleswig-Holstein
- Thurn and Taxis
- Wurttemberg

North German Confederation

Imperial Germany (1872-1918)
- Reichpost
- German Colonies
- German Offices Abroad
- German Sea Post / Ship Post / Marine Ship Post
- WWI Occupied Territories
--- Belgium
--- Communications Area West
--- Eastern Front
----- Dorpat
----- Bialystok
----- Grodno
----- Libau
----- 10th Army
--- Poland
--- Romania

Weimar Republic (1919-1932)
- Reichspost
- Plebiscite Territories
--- Allenstein
--- Marienwerder
--- Schleswig
--- Upper Silesia
- League of Nations mandates post-WWI
--- Free City of Danzig
--- Memel
--- Saar

Third Reich (1933-1945)
- Reichspost
- Feldpost
- Propaganda Fakes
- Foreign Volunteer Legions
- Bohemia and Moravia
- Poland Generalgouvernement
- Sudetenland
- WWII Occupied Territories
--- Albania
--- Alpenvorland-Adria (Fantasy)
--- Alsace
--- Croatia
--- Estonia
--- France
--- Guernsey
--- Jersey
--- Kotor
--- Kurland
--- Latvia
--- Lithuania
--- Ljubljana
--- Lorraine
--- Luxembourg
--- Macedonia
--- Montenegro
--- Ostland
--- Russia
--- Serbia
--- Ukraine
--- Zante
--- Zara

Allied Occupation (1945-1949)
- Local Issues
- Allied Military Government
--- French Sector
----- Baden
----- Rhine Palatinate
----- Wurttemberg
--- US/British Sectors
- Soviet Zone
--- Berlin-Brandenburg
--- Eastern Saxony
--- Mecklenburg-Hither Pomerania
--- Province Saxony
--- Thuringia
--- Western Saxony

Post Occupation
Berlin
BRD
Saarland as a state of the BRD
DDR.

Welcome to the club!
I took over My Dad's Germany collection.
He cut it off at 1945 and I have kept it that way as well. It is NUT'S!

PostmasterGS left out Varieties, Coil strips, Booklets, Local Post's, Moresnet the list goes on & on & ON & ...... With no end in sight! The one thing I can say is I was warned!

So I'm not quite sure it was a

I lumped Croatia in because while not directly under German authority, it was a puppet state. Of course, by that logic, I could include Norway as well.

I'm not sure if this was encouragement or discouragement!

I knew I should have stuck with the states only. The problem is, every era is so darned fascinating!

One more question ...

From 1949 to 1990, was Berlin an independent state similar to The Vatican, or something totally different? It has always seemed like a DMZ to me ...

West Berlin wasn't an independent state. It was an Allied occupied territory for the duration.

And there is one really good thing about the collecting area being so diverse. If you get bored with an area, or you get all the low-hanging fruit, it's easy to switch to another closely-related area and come back at a later date.

I started out Third Reich, then spent a good bit of time with the Colonies, then the WWII Occupations, then Foreign Volunteer Legions, now I'm back to Colonies.

I share your fascination. Can I highly recommend a Michel catalogue. If you get really game, the Specialised catalogue lists varieties too. A warning though, it contains HOURS of fascinating reading and study. If you are feeling a little overwhelmed then perhaps wait on getting the Specialised catalogue for the moment.

You can, indeed! I was the lucky buyer of a Michel specialized 2010 donation lot here on SCF, last month. Great stuff!

https://goscf.com/t/16886

Me to, I was lucky to get one of PMGS's Michel specialized (2009). It will last me forever

Glad to see you have found the Michel useful. For convenience I've found it useful to limit my German collection to what is catalogued in my Michel. The stamps are arranged as per the Michel catalogue. In my collection I have:

• 1 album for early state stamps and Bavaria (as arranged in Michel)


• 1 album from federation to the end of WW2


• 2 albums for colonies, Danzig, Memel, Saar, Occupied countries, etc. as arranged in Michel


• 4 albums for DDR


• 3 albums for West Germany


• 1 album for post unification

Hence, the only stamps I have problems with are ones I've put in the wrong place.

Anything else that takes my interest (such as Belgian stamps overprinted for the occupation of Germany) into another set of albums which contain anything that looks interesting to me and I decide to keep.

I've let Michel do all the hard work in organising their catalogue so I don't have to rattle my brain too hard.

I often manage to return to my German collection and reopen the albums, when going through bundles of the ~Germania~, especially in case of Danzig. Here is my latest finding, so far the latest `Forerunner` (Vorlaufer)- (German stamps used in Danzig from 10.01.1920 till 13.06.1920). This one is cancelled in 12.06.1920 (need to be washed a bit),and now I really need a 13.06.1920...and re-organize the stockbook.

I picked one more Lighthouse hingeless volume this past week. It was a customized, but never used, album with General govt, German occupation of Serbia and Albania, and se-tenant pages from the 3rd Reich. About 80 pages in all in a binder and slipcase for $50! This makes 9 volumes of lighthouse Germany albums and 13 overall. Ugh ...

If you find another deal like that let me know!