A Germany Clarification, Please

In some cancels from Germany the name of the city/town is at the top and below is the word "Land".
What, precisely, does "Land" mean there? Suburban office? Countryside? Rural office?
My thanks in advance for your help.

trying to remember my high school German ( kind of foggy now! ) I do believe it is the surrounding area of a city. Can also mean the state it is in as in Bundesland


Peter

In this case it could also mean country. I have seen cases on addresses where people were too lazy for domestic mail to specify Deutschland in the address and merely stated Land. I can't say that I have seen it in a postmark and a scan would be nice.

All of those meanings are correct. But Edziu's guesses are probably the most correct in this context.

Re "Land" postmarks specifically, here's an explanation from a German stamp collecting forum:




"Earlier, when everything was not yet so centralized, many small towns, even small villages, had their own post offices. Mail that was submitted there often received a 'Land' postmark that was placed next to the franking. The piece of mail was then transported to the postal distribution center and there received the corresponding round postmark, and only then began its journey into the distance."

https://www.briefmarken-forum.com/t...ellenstempel



Using the sample image from that forum, we can see the rectangular "Groß-Döhren" postmark from the rural post office and the round "Goslar Land" postmark from the central post office.

I don't recall ever seeing that, but I have often seen "Hier" (here) instead of the name of the city/town on local mail.

In France E.V. standed for "En Ville" (inside the town)
Here is a letter from Libourne to Libourne.

Thank you, all.
Erilaz's's quote from the German stamp-collecting forum and the illustration seem to me to explain that use of "land" in cancels. Ergo, such a "land" cancel doesn't tell you exactly which post office
that mail originally came from, but rather the next step in its journey. You can only know the point of origin if you can also see its postmark -- if it applied one. Too bad (for me) they didn't do the kind of U.S. postmark that identifies which rural substation from where a piece of mail first comes.

Here is an example of a "LAND" cancel from my postal history collection, for the topic. This was mailed at the Neulandhalle (New Land Hall) on the Adolf-Hitler-Koog, but did not receive a proper cancel on the stamp until it arrived in Marne (Holstein) Land.

Linus

(a koog translates to polder in English, a tract of land reclaimed from the sea.)