Collection area Estonia
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German occupation / Ostland

The General Post Commissariat in the Reich Commissariat Ostland

With the extensive evacuation of the Baltic States from German forces from July 1944 onwards, the area of responsibility of the General Postkommissar Ostland was visibly reduced. Riga was evacuated on October 14, 1944. As early as September, the postmaster general's office had been moved to Libau (Liepāja), the administration to Köslin in Hinterpommern, and in early 1945 to Chemnitz, Frankfurt/Oder and Artern. From Köslin, collectors' postmark requests were still fulfilled until January 1945 using the Mitau postmark of the Deutsche Dienstpost Ostland.

On January 25, 1945, the Reichskommissariat Ostland was formally liquidated. At the time of the total German surrender on May 8, 1945, the former territory of the General Post Commissariat Ostland was limited in real terms to the German service post offices in Libau (Liepāja), Windau (Ventspils), Goldingen (KuldĪga) and Talsen (Talsi) as well as the offices of the Latvian national post in this area. Some of these offices operated until they were occupied by Soviet troops at the end of May 1945.

The overprint issue of the same name (Kurland), Michel Nos. 1 to 4, produced from stamp stocks of the Army Group Kurland, Field Post Office Libau, was officially supposed to be issued at the remaining post offices on April 20, 1945, Adolf Hitler's 56th birthday. Whether the stamps were actually issued, and if so, to what extent, remains unclear. As of today, no postal items used-on-demand are known to exist.

With the reoccupation by Soviet troops and (re)incorporation into the Soviet Union, their postal rates and regulations were generally applied again.

Timetable Reich Commissariat Ostland

Special literature is recommended:

Estonia before and as part of the "Generalpostkommissariat OSTLAND"). Harry von Hofmann Verlag, Hamburg 2010. 472 pp. ISBN 978-3-7636-5079-8.

Latvia before and as part of the "Generalpostkommissariat OSTLAND"). Harry von Hofmann Verlag, Hamburg 2001. 448 pp. ISBN 3 7636 5074 1.

Wilhelm van Loo: Postal traffic Kurland (Courland) (1944-1945). Publication series of the Bund Philatelistischer Prüfer e.V., Volume 7, Aachen 2016. 312 pp. without ISBN

Reich Commissariat Ostland, Crime scene and object of remembrance. Published in: Age of the World Wars. Ed. Military History Research Office, Vol. 8. Ferdinand Schöningh 2012. 371 pp. ISBN 978-3-506-77188-9.

Science Planning Displacement, The General Plan East of the National Socialists. Catalogue for the exhibition of the German Research Foundation. DFG 2006. 36 pp.

General District Estonia

On August 29, 1941, the last Soviet troops evacuated the Estonian capital Tallinn (Reval), whereupon on 3 September the German Wehrmacht commander for the rear army area north granted the Estonian postal administration permission to resume civilian letter traffic within Estonia. On September 29, 1941, the latter declared all local issues issued until then (again) to be invalid:

Nüggen (Nõo), Mid-July 1941 (without illus.)

Wesenberg (Rakvere), August 7, 1941 (without illus.)

The two series issued in Dorpat (Tartu) were exempt from the invalidation, i.e. continued to be valid:

Also on September 29, 1941, the Estonian postal administration partially suspended the Soviet postal fees valid until then and doubled the domestic fees for the most common types of mailing of the printed matter to 30 kopecks, the postcard to 40 kopecks and the letter to 60 kopecks. These fees remained nominally in force until November 30, but were not enforced nationwide until then.

With the arrival of the postal commissioner Eisenmann in Tallinn (Reval) on October 25, responsibility on the German side changed from the military to the civilian side of the occupying power. The latter subordinated all Estonian post offices to itself as part of the Deutsche Dienstpost Ostland (DDO). At the same time in all general districts, the regulation also came into force in Estonia on December 1, 1941. From this date onwards, only definitive stamps of the German Reich in the design of Hitler's head with the overprint "Ostland" were sold at all post offices. The domestic rates of the German Reich came into effect.

On 1 December 1941, however, only two post offices of the DDO began their activities: Reval (Tallinn) and Pernau (Pärnu). All other German service post offices followed, some much later: Arensburg (Kuressaare), Dorpat (Tartu), Fellin (Viljandi), Hapsal (Haapsalu), Narwa (Narva), Petschur (Petseri), Taps (Tapa), Walk (Valga), Weißenstein (Paide), Werro (Võru) and Wesenberg (Rakvere).

It was not before the " German Post Office in the Ostland" took up its duties on April 24, 1942 that the responsibility for the mail of Estonian as well as German civilians and the DDO was combined under one roof.

On January 15, 1942, postal traffic between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was resumed on a limited basis, and on February 1, 1942, with the German Reich, including the territories they had de facto annexed.

The parcel service was resumed on April 15, 1942, and the domestic rates for the local service (postcard and letter) were reduced from 6 and 12 pfennigs to 5 and 8 pfennigs respectively on July 1, 1943. Postal payment transactions and the parcel service were subject to separate regulations.

There are no written regulations for the postal traffic of Estonian civilians with the states occupied by the German Reich, with its allies and with neutral states. The number of mail items transported without a complaint suggests that they were handled in the same way as the regulations for the German Reich.

With the re-occupation of Reval (Tallinn) on September 22, 1944 and Pernau (Pärnu) the following day, the Ostland period in the Estonian General District came to an end.

Timetable General District Estonia