Austria - Postablagen and Posthilfsstellen cancellations - Part 1
There is a distinctive group of specific cancellations used on mail deposited in collecting boxes (Postablagen or Poststellen), which are described in this section. It is split into several parts because of the (necessary) size of the illustrations:
Introduction
In the 19th century a need emerged to provide letter collection facilities in rural areas. Following trials, an official system of rural agencies was set up on 1 July 1900, and is still in operation, progressively integrated over the decades into the postal system.
Initially, cancellations had only the name of the rural agency; later joined by the name of the Post Office to which it was attached. However, they had no date, so were (in theory!) not allowed to be used to cancel the postage stamp. Certain heavily-used agencies were "promoted" to "sub post offices" and used dated cancellers on the stamps.
This section describes, illustrates and codifies all the known types of Postablagen and Posthilfsstellen cancellations.
The work of Kühnel
The most authoritative work on Postablagen is by Kühnel: "Postablagen in Österreich" (pub. 1986, revised edition 1993) - APS library item 131. His type numbers and references will be quoted in the form [Kü-1] and [Kü-9a-234e], the first meaning his Type 1 cancel, and the second the subtype '9a', office number 234, variety 'e' from that office. Appendixes 1 and 2 give 'Introduction dates for Kühnel code types' and 'Conversion from Kühnel to APS codes' - these will be of use to anyone working with our system and his book! Kühnel's book supercedes the work of Lessig ('Von der Briefablage zur Posthilfsstelle' in Österreichische Postgeschichte, vol 3, 1980 by Dr R Wurth) and Sobetsky (Katalog der Österr. Postablagestempel, 1963).
A completely revised and expanded edition of Kühnel: "Postablagen in Österreich" appeared in December 2005; details from g.kuehnel@aon.at. The pages that follow have not yet been checked against it.
This has the typical appearance of the pre-1900 cancels, although the office wasn't opened until 1901, halfway up a remote mountain pass in deepest Silesia. Although it appears as [Kü-1i-6605b] which gives Freiwaldau as the postal town, the postcard from which the example was scanned was actually cancelled on 3 April 1910 at Ober Thomasdorf, which is close to where the road to the pass joins the main valley road between Freiwaldau and Wurbenthal. Our code is B, ie it must be illustrated! There should be an 'am' in the centre of the cancel.
A second book of great relevance and interest is "Ceske a Slovenske Postovny 1900-1958" [with accents] ie Postablagen in Czech Republic and Slovakia, by Petr
Gebauer and Jozef Tekel, published in Brno in 2005.
The 19th Century
From the reign of Maria Theresia onwards, it was government policy that improved postal services should be made available to the populace. So, the Department of Commerce, which was responsible for the postal administration, dispatched von Gerl (the Director of Posts for Niederösterreich) in 1868 on a fact-finding trip to Prussia, Saxony and Württemberg, as these countries already had rural postal systems. In his report, von Gerl proposed the introduction of a rural post (Rural Letter Carrier Service) in Austria. His recommendations fell foul of the Treasury - not only might they have required the expenditure of money, but they were proposals for change, implying that the existing arrangements might be imperfect. It was eventually decided to proceed with the introduction of rural postal services in careful stages. On 3 October 1868 authorisation was given to the Post Direction of Niederösterreich for the experimental introduction of a rural service at five post offices only. This development of the postal provision for rural areas proceeded at a stately bureaucratic pace. After 30 years there were in the entire Empire only 1680 Rural Letter Carriers, whilst in the same period the number of post offices increased from 2406 in 1868 to 5883.
The Rural Letter Carrier (hereafter RLC) had to exercise practically all the functions of a post office, and in addition had to walk about, sometimes a considerable distance. An interesting article Die Postlisl und ihr Dienstweg ("Postie Lizzie's Round") in Die Briefmarke 8/1996 describes the daily journey of a postlady in the Zillertal around 1900. Each day in the summer, her round went from Mayrhofen via various Postal Agencies to the Berlinerhütte: a walk of over 20km including an ascent of some 1500m. And, after lunch in the Hut, she made the return journey. [Evidently exhausted by her work, she died in 1950, aged 74.] Several of the Postablage cancels of the Agencies she visited are described in another article in the same issue.
As regards cancels, we must distinguish between two essential elements. The actual Rural Post canceller (Landbriefträger-Entwertungsstempel) was kept in each mailbox and served the RLC for the cancelling of the stamps on the letters posted in that mailbox. The cancelling was to be completed through an additional cancelling by means of the place - day - stamp of the responsible post office, so that as a rule a double cancelling resulted (occasionally the cancelling by the post office remained undone). As well as using the canceller in each mailbox, the RLC carried another in the postbag; however it was reserved for stamping the forms associated with registered mail and was not permissible for stamp cancelling.
The RLCs met with their Postal Service colleagues at important points and handed over letters for places which did not lie on their route. Evidently there were difficulties here with the timetable of their journeys and so they left the post with a trustworthy inhabitant for transmission to the postman who would pass later. Thus small places where the setting up of a post office was uneconomic were connected, given permission for the sale of stamps and became established as so-called Briefablagen - Letter Agencies. All these arrangements had of course the aim of facilitating the connections with the postal service for the far-flung population of the rural areas.
These activities, so important for the post, were undertaken by private individuals on an honorary basis. The permission of the postal administration was always necessary for this, and these people were selected carefully and had to be in close contact with the population of the locality. Thus mostly merchants or landlords were offered the job. The activity at a Letter Agency was limited to the sale of stamps as well as the acceptance of outgoing ordinary post (registered etc post was excluded), and a mailbox was normally sited at the house. The managers of Letter Agencies could also strike a handstamp on letters; however the cost of the handstamp wasn't reimbursed by the Postal Administration, which is probably why extremely few handstamps were produced and used, although a few oval, circular and 2 or 3 line private cancels are found.
Letters also entered the system from the railways, so are found with official railway cachets. All such cachets and cancels were to show the origins of the letter, so were supposed to be placed alongside the postage stamp. Cancelling of the stamp was reserved to the Post Office under whose control the Postablage came, and to which the letter was eventually brought. The system proved successful, and the Postal Administration sought to include it in the formal postal organisation and to control its development.
The 20th Century
On 1 July 1900 the first Service Regulation for Postal Agencies came into force and most of the above arrangements became official. In consequence the managers were taken under contract by the Postal Directorate and paid for undertaking the Postal Agency business. The postal authorities provided the equipment necessary for the organisation, ie a sign with the inscription 'K. k. Postablage', an official mailbox, a rectangular steel handstamp with the agency name (in sanserif) flanked by 6 or 8-pointed stars and sometimes followed by the name of the Postal Town in brackets [Kü-2], and the inevitable accounting forms. Beside the sale of postage stamps, the acceptance of outgoing un-receipted post as well as the emptying of the mailboxes, and in part also the delivery of the incoming post were envisaged. In some cases this had to be picked up first from the manager of the post office or at a nearby railway station.
One line of text with stars in a box [Kü-2a-247b]. Used 20.6.1906. The letters are sanserif and there is no date so our code is gKo**. The Postal Town was Eben, where the track reached the main valley. Filzmoos is in the Pongau district of Salzburg and now is an excellent holiday resort with modern roads and its own postcode 5532.
Two lines of text with stars in a box [Kü-2a-6050a]. This is an example of a bilingual German/Czech cancel. Used 1.6.1903. The letters are sanserif and there is no date so our code is gKo**. The Postal Town was Friedland bei Mistek, in Moravia.
Postage stamps were not supposed to be cancelled with the Postal Agency's stamp, as it had no date. The only exception was if the letter was not leaving the postal area of the Postal Agency, that is to say if the recipient also lived there: in this case the Agency manager had to undertake the cancellation. In later years, individual managers cancelled the stamps on all outgoing post and usually the postmark of the 'home' post office is missing from these items.
Individual Letter and Postal Agencies not taken into official status in 1900 remained in service, some of them even surviving the collapse of the Monarchy. No official references can be found to these private Letter Agencies; it is thus possible that a few of them were first set up after 1900. All stamps of these Agencies normally have 'K. k. Brief-Ablage' or 'K. k. Post Ablage' beside the placename.
1902: Rubber handstamps
From 1902, new Postal Agencies were issued with rubber handstamps, using seriffed script, but otherwise with the same layout as the steel stamps [Kü-3]. In bi-lingual areas, both languages were used, separated by a horizontal line. Both these and subsequent types remained in use for a surprisingly long time - some specimens of the earliest types were still in use until replaced by postcoded versions in 1966! According to the regulations, if a canceller was lost or stolen, the replacement was to have two more stars, eg *HOCHSCHNEEBERG* would be replaced by **HOCHSCHNEEBERG**.
One line of text with stars in a box [Kü-3a-453a]. Used 25.7.1915(?). The letters are serif and there is no date so our code is aKo**. The Postal Town was Puchberg am Schneeberg.
Two lines of text with stars in a box [Kü-3g-3364a]. Used 6.3.1909. The letters are serif and there is no date so our code is aKo**. This is a bilingual cancel; the Postal Town was Königgrätz in Bohemia.
Two lines of text in a box [Kü-3ax-2056ax]. Used 20.6.1914. The text was originally flanked by stars, but on 7.8.1912 the Postablage was upgraded to a Summer Post Office, a standard circular canceller issued, and the de-starred cancel kept as a Hut Cachet. The Postal Town was Canazei di Fassa in South Tirol.
1903: Changed Service Regulations
In 1903 an alteration to the Service Regulations made it possible to expand the activity of individual heavily-used Postal Agencies to include receipted despatches (eg registered, though excluding Cash On Delivery items). These Postal Agencies were issued with steel handstamps with date of use [Kü-5], first found in July 1905 at the Postal Agency of Schonbichl, and according to Kühnel's data still being newly issued in the late 1940s. The stamps of outgoing postal items were now generally cancelled with these new handstamps. They are rectangular, sometimes with rounded or chamfered corners, with the Postal Agency at the top, the date (occasionally including a despatch time) in the middle, and the Post Town, prefixed 'P.' at the bottom. The date may be flanked by stars. The typeface may be with or without serifs, and the month in roman or arabic numbering. In our classification system, if the box has a central horizontal line which is broken to receive the date, it's a type K2; if there is no such line it's a K.
Two-section box. [Kü-5a-219a]; our code aK2j**. This Mühldorf (there's another in Kärnten) is postcoded 3622 and is near Spitz on the Danube upstream of Krems.
Single-section box. [Kü-5d-621j]; our code gKj. This cancellation from Lähn was issued in 1949 and used here at the amazingly late date of 15.5.1964; the Post Town was at that date Bichlbach in Tirol.
Two-section box split for the date. [Kü-5b-323d]; our code aK2je. Going is next to its Post Town of Ellmau in Tirol; the office is now renamed Going am Wilden Kaiser and has its own postcode of 6363. Cancelled 25.8.1937 and an unreadable dispatch time. There do not appear to be stars flanking the date.
Single-section box. [Kü-5e-1151h]; our code gKje. Kössen is in Tirol. The postcard also has a hotel cancel.
©Andy Taylor. Last updated 2 June 2006