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'Ortswerbestempel' is a term used for cancellations with 'town propaganda': text and/or pictures which publicise a place, or commemorate some historical event associated with it. Kitzbühel has two main versions of all Ortswerbestempeln: words in an outer ring (with a twiddle or two) surrounding a normal bridge cancel, and a stylised Chamois in a large ring with cancellation information inside.
This is a standard bridge cancel with a slogan "WINTERSPORTPLATZ I. RANGES -----*-----" in an outer ring. Sanserif KITZBÜHEL above date with month in roman numbers. This was used 1925-29.
This is a standard bridge cancel with a different slogan WINTERSPORTPLATZ KITZBÜHEL ˜ TIROL ˜ in an outer ring. Sanserif KITZBÜHEL above date with month in roman numbers. Used 1928-30.
Chamois type 1 - known used 1939-1958. A bigger and better illustration is here.
Chamois type 2 - known used 1958-1964. A bigger and better illustration is here.
"DEUTSCHE U. ÖSTERREICHISCHE SKIMEISTERSCHAFT 7 u. 8 FEBER 1925"
This was used in early 1925.
12.1.1941 - Tag der Briefmarke. Large circle with "KITZBÜHEL / Mountain trooper / Tag der Briefmarke in 'hand-printed script' / 12.1.1941 / Eagle holding three ?playing cards"
14/24.7.1957 - 50 years of the Postbus. Three postbuses went on tour from 14 June till 24 July, one calling at Kitzbühel.
22/24.1.1965 - 25 years of the Hahnenkamm ski races. A bigger and better illustration is here.
23.8.1971 - 700 years of Kitzbühel [4 subtypes known]: see FDC section below
10.12.1978 - Tiroler Landeskrippentag (Nativity Crib Day)
11/13.1.1980 - Ski world cup at Hahnenkamm.
On 11 March 1938, the day before the Anschluß, the Schuschnigg government caused either or both of two slogans to be applied to all mail cancelled in several places, including Kitzbühel. The details were left to be arranged locally, so some offices used black machine cancels and others black or violet hand cachets. The wording was the same everywhere:
First slogan: Jeder Österreicher stimmt mit Ja!
Second slogan: Mit Schuschnigg für ein freies Österreich? Ja!
A wide variety of slogans can be found alongside circle and postcode cancellations (as well as the wavy lines!).
Used with type ME cancels from 1956 - 1966.
A cancel identical except that the upper height is 2000m was used with type P1 postcoded cancels from 1966 - 1070; it is also known with the entire date portion inverted.
Used with type P1 cancels from 1970 - 1972; it is also known with the entire date portion inverted.
Used with type P1 cancels from 1973 - 1982.
Used with type P3 cancels from 1984 - 1988 and with type P2 thereafter.
The cachet Kriegs Gefangnis Arbeits Kommando was used to claim free postage on mail sent from a WWI working party of POWs (ie captured soldiers) - typically from the guards to their families.
Red WW1 censor mark, cancelled 29.6.1916
Feldpost cancel 6.6.1917 and "K. k. Standschützenkompagnie Kitzbühel" cachet.
The cachet rotated for easier reading!
These markings are on a card with a picture of Kitzbühel, and the "Von der Armee im Felde" cancel was used when military mail was posted in the civilian post. It is quite possibly posted at Kitzbühel
These markings are on a Feldpostkorrespondenzkarte, and the "Von der Armee im Felde" cancel. It was definitely posted at Kitzbühel, as on the back is handwritten "Kitzb., 17.11.15"!
After WW2 the French occupied Tirol (and Vorarlberg) from about July 1945 until the signing of the State Treaty. They had a Bureau Postal Militaire (Field Post Office) at Kitzbühel until 1952 numbered BPM420B, but each postal sector that fed into it had its own cachet, eg SP50.349. The BPM cancel was a single circle containing "POST AUX ARMEES / * / dd mm / yyyy / 420B" (where 'dd mm yyyy' is the date).
This cover was posted in Kitzbühel to Germany and censored by the French in Innsbruck. On the reverse there is a boxed 7 in violet ink (the censor's personal cachet), as well as a another strike of the censor mark. If the oval had contained IKC it would have been censored at Worgl, which was the facility for Kitzbühel and Kufstein from October 1945 till mid-1946; it then transferred to Innsbruck but used IKC-I in a circle.
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©Andy Taylor. Last updated 16 Dec 2005