Big Blue 1840-1940: Germany - Semipostals, BOB

Germania is far from home

Bud's Big Blue
Bud's Observations

Early German semi-postals, starting in 1919, have a kindly quality about them. Germania is surcharged a few pfennigs in behalf of her war wounded. A female figure (a demilitarized Germania?) plants a shrubbery and feeds the hungry. Other stamps feature local symbols and restored architecture. Germany is in post-war healing mode.

Likewise beginning in 1919, Germany’s air mail stamps reflect soaring hope and technological momentum, culminating with the zeppelin series. All stamps shown on the zeppelin scan are original except the row marked “reprints.”

Both semi-postal and airmail stamps appear to have leaped over the hyperinflation years and landed in the emerging Nazi era in time to promote Hitler’s so-called “charities.” Collectors must have bought these later semi-postal unused in great numbers. Feeder albums swarm with mint examples; good cancels are few and expensive.

BB concludes the BOB pages with sections for Germany’s occupation by Belgium (overprints on Belgian stamps) and German offices in China and Morocco (a reprise of the Germania series). A few Germanias overprinted in Polish (for Polish occupied Posen) are tacked on at the end. For some reason, BB places Turkish offices stamps before the main Germany pages, although logically they belong here, too. German banks printed currency for use in foreign offices, such as China (see above).

Occupation and office stamps, including examples on supplement pages, stir little interest in me, so these spaces filled up slowly. There would still be blanks, no doubt, were it not for good feeder albums.

Germany issued overprinted Germania stamps for both its offices and the countries it occupied; so her hawkish image pops up throughout BB. For German colonial stamp designs of the same time period, however, the Kaiser’s yacht Hohenzollern was chosen -- less pugnacious, perhaps, but more usurpacious.

Census: see comment for Germany 1872-1919.

Jim's Observations
One would think the "Occupation stamps" category for Germany would be overflowing. ;-)

For WWI, Germany occupied, in whole or part:
Luxembourg
Belgium
France
Russia

For WWII, Germany occupied in whole or part:
Poland
Denmark
Norway
Belgium
Luxembourg
France
Greece
Egypt
Crete
Ukraine
Moldova
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
Belarus
Russia
Tunisia
Hungary

Many stamps were issued for these occupied territories by Germany. So why aren't they found here?

Because the Scott catalogue lists any "Occupation Stamps" under the the country that was occupied.

So one would have to go to "Belgium" for instance, to find the overprinted Germania stamps of Germany there. It makes sense in a way. as these are the stamps of the country, however unpleasant for them, for that period of time.

But collectors have different agendas.

If one collects Germany, than the "occupied" stamps of a country that Germany occupied are quite popular to collect. But popularity for German collectors of stamps issued by another country (Belgium) while occupying Germany? Not so much.

Who wants to be reminded of the time when another country was occupying one's own?

So one often finds very little "Occupation of Germany" stamps in a German collection, when filled by a German collector. On the other hand, a Belgian collector from Belgium might very well like to collect these stamps.

Human Nature.

Germany - Semipostals, BOB & BB Checklist

Page 11