The Postal History of Kleinwalsertal

The Sondertarif applied to all mail to the German Federal Republic; to Saarland from 6.7.1959; to West Berlin; to the German Democratic Republic until Dec 1974; and to the reunited Germany from 3.10.1990. Austrian foreign rates applied to all other foreign countries; to Saarland until 5.7.1959; and to the German Democratic Republic between Dec 1974 and 3.10.1990. For example:

• A registered letter posted to Berlin on 22.6.1979 cost 60pf postage + 150pf fee = 210pf, which at 1:7 is 1470 Groschen Sondertarif.



• A registered letter posted to France on 1.6.1983 cost 600gr (CEPT rate) postage + 1000gr fee = 1600 Groschen normal Austrian foreign rate.

• Another fine mess! The piece above is from a card posted on 15.5.1951 to Great Britain, when the German foreign rate was 20pf which at 1:6 is 120gr - and indeed there are two 60gr stamps. However, the Sondertarif only applies to German inland mail, so the special cancel should not have been used. Furthermore, the Austrian foreign rate at that date was only 100gr; and the use of a German stamp was not only superfluous but also invalid (as from 1.1.1951). It was to a philatelist, I note..



• A registered postcard posted on 22.6.1984 would cost 60pf postage + 200pf fee = 260pf, which at 1:7 is 1820 Groschen Sondertarif. However as normal Austrian foreign mail it would cost 400gr postage + 1000gr fee = 1400gr, so that is what the sender would do!

The next example is a letter sent in 1955 to the small town of Angermünde in the Uckermark, a region in the north of Berlin. Despite its being sent registered AND express AND air mail (what route??), it took three days to arrive. A clue may be the Munich BPA1 backstamp; and the rates do not add up to 20Sch. The elegant script T seems to have had no effect. Any ideas?

This example was posted with the correct stamp and cancel for an inland postcard to Germany - but it's addressed to Chicago and arrived unmolested! (The message has been suppressed to save on file size.)

An example of an Ortswerbestempel (a local advertising slogan) on a postal stationary card. Note the POSTSONDERTARIF is in the slogan, not the cancel.

The cancellers with the 'counter letter' b were usually kept in the post office at Oberstdorf in Germany. The reason for this was that in the Postbox on the regular German postbuses between Oberstdorf and Mittelberg, mail was often deposited with Austrian stamps when the bus was on the Austrian part of the route. This mail would have had to be sent back by Oberstdorf to Riezlern to be cancelled. To avoid this delay, this canceller was made available in Oberstdorf for the cancelling of mail to Germany, to Austria, and to foreign countries.

Finally, this registered item of printed matter was flown on the 33^rd 'Pro Juventute' Balloon Post on 14 March 1965. It took off at 11:15 from Riezlern and landed at 16:04 at Binnings near Kaufbeuren in Tirol. The portrait is of Felix Schmidbauer, who had taken part in many similar flights. The franking is 50 groschen inland printed matter plus 250 groschen inland reistration fee, making 3 schillings in total.

©Andy Taylor. Last updated 19 Aug 2007