Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

A place to discuss items of censored mail from World War I

Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

Postby dannmayo » Sat Jun 07, 2014 8:09 pm

Request for help please. Does any member have (i) examples of mail addressed to DH in Stockholm or of authenticated systems in respect of such mail or (ii)Examples of IRC’s from the WWI period.

This German Help Organisation was based in Stockholm and would appear not to be dissimilar to the Red Cross in that it acted as a post box for civilian mail addressed to Germany which could not be delivered directly.

In April 1915 they offered to accept such letters. In the case of German East Africa each letter had to be accompanied by three International Reply Coupons(IRC’s) from that country where stocks quickly ran out. The coupons were the standard type in use but were inscribed 25 Pfennig=19 Heller. It appeared that letters which underwent censorship by the British authorities mainly reached their destination in 1919.

I have censored Civilian covers addressed to D H from South West Africa 17 NOV 1915( a. Stockholm 29 12 -year unclear but probably 1915) and from Rhodesia on 9 FEB 1918(a. Stockholm 21 FEB 18). Presumably they each contained IRC’s of sufficient value to cover postage costs for onward transmission to Germany. It is likely that similar arrangements applied in other African Colonies.

IRC’s were first introduced in 1907. The(British) Post Office Guide issued in October 1907 included Southern Rhodesia in a list of countries that would participate in the UPU administered reply coupon system from that date. Hence ‘Southern Rhodesia’ appeared on a coupon two years before even ‘Rhodesia’ appeared on the stamps in 1909 and it was 1924 before Southern Rhodesia appeared on stamps. It is likely that this arose simply because Northern Rhodesia although it used the same stamps as Southern Rhodesia was not in the UPU.

The 1907 coupon(illustrated) has never been seen by any members of the Rhodesian Study Circle.

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Re: Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

Postby Ritoras » Wed Dec 17, 2014 12:39 pm

Hello Dan,

Attached is a cover from Greece to the deutscher hilfsverein in Stockholm. Mailed in 1915 (October, I believe). Seized by the French and arrived in Sweden 20/11/1918. Hope it helps. If you have any information I'd like to hear it. Many thanks.

Adrian
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Re: Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

Postby Ritoras » Thu Dec 18, 2014 7:22 am

And some to the same address via GB. The first sent during the war (1917) and so censored and allowed through. The second sent after the war and so not censored by the Brits (but censored by the Greeks).
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Re: Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

Postby gmark » Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:55 pm

Somewhere in my material I do have at least one cover to DH Stockholm, which I will search for and post a copy. It might be interesting because I recall that it has a printed form as contents.
Meanwhile can you persaude someone in Germany to do some reading in their archives: the German Foreign Ministry Archives has a file "Deutsche Hilfsverein 1877-1921" under a reference number 147. I found this in a short web-search.
Regards to all
Graham Mark
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Re: Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

Postby gmark » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:28 pm

I have not been able to find, yet, the DH Stockholm cover I had remembered.
But I have found four others which I will try to attach to this post.
I find it is not an easy thing to do for the neophyte !
I have already had one failure.
It does not appear to accept more than one image. Am I doing something wrong?
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Re: Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

Postby gmark » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:37 pm

I hope that this will include another scan
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Re: Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

Postby gmark » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:38 pm

and another
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Re: Deutsche Hilfsverein Stockholm

Postby gmark » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:38 pm

and the last, for the time being
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