I saw this cover on Lingens EBay auction and I wonder how this envelope was marked with
German stamps and postmarked in Amsterdam? I did not think that Holland had other than the regular Dutch stamps during WWII? I probably should know this things, but alas, I don't! I did Google Mr. Hennig - got his number!
Jopie
I did some further research and it turns out that all mail from German institutions in the Netherlands went through the socalled "Deutsche Dienstpost in den Niederlanden" postal organisation, which translates as German official mail in the Netherlands. This was for obvious reasons: the Germans felt they could not trust the Dutch postal employees enough to let them handle possibly sensitive correspondence. In all occupied countries similar postal organisations were setup.
The DDPN was set up less than a month after the occupation, on June 5th 1940 and initially consisted of just 5 post offices in The Hague, Rotterdam, Den Bosch, Amsterdam and Zwolle. Later during the war this was expanded to over 30 offices, as the German presence in the Netherlands increased.
These post offices were usually located at army barracks and this was probably also the case for the "Luftgaupostamt Amsterdam".
After some time, the DDPN was also made available for "suitable, trustworthy" Dutch companies (a euphemism for collaborating companies that did a lot of work for the Germans) and individuals who wanted to send mail to relatives serving as volunteer in the German army at the eastern front. This was because such mail sent through the normal Dutch PTT often mysteriously got lost...
As early as 1943, the main office of the DDPN was moved from Den Haag to Deventer in the eastern part of the country in anticipation of a possible invasion. In April 1945 the last remaining offices were closed and the strange episode of German stamps being used in the Netherlands ended.
A few examples of other mail that went through the DDPN:
All you ever wanted to know about the Deutsche Dienstpost Niederlande (and more) can be found in a series of three articles from the 1980s, downloadable here:
Karl Hennig was a notorious creator of bogus covers. "Third Reich" Hennig covers, with real stamps but posted from occupied countries, are bogus! Talk about war profiteering!
It may be a bit more subtle than just "bogus". The Maluku Selatan stamps are bogus: they were exclusively made for the collector's market without the possibility to use them for sending a letter. They were not even produced by a recognised government.
The socalled Hennig covers however are real. Real stamps, real cancels and they have really gone through the postal system. The problem is that they were only created to end up in Mr. Hennig's inventory, not because someone had a message for someone else. For that matter they are as real or as suspicious as most Zeppelin or other first flight covers which do also not have any communications need.
In German they call this type of covers very accurately "Händlersbelege" or simply "Mache". Dealer's covers or 'created'
Jansimon, Bob, thank you so much for the information! I never knew how the German 'postoffice' in Holland worked. Now I know! I have not read all the articles yet, but will do so!
There are definitely lines drawn over the Hennig covers. I understand that in Germany the covers are in the category of dealer made covers as Jan-Simon states.
I have always been curious about the size of Mr. Hennig's stamp firm; how many employees? He was a member of the Nazi Party so he must of used that connection to obtain numerous favor cancels on the covers he created basically in all the occupied territories.
I recall on another site, an older member stated that he received Third Reich cover approvals from Mr. Hennig in the early 1950s. At that time, the gent stated that Mr. Hennig clearly informed potential buyers that his covers were made after WWII by himself with genuine Third Reich cancels and handstamps that he owned and took out of Germany when his rather voluminous collection of Nazi material came under suspicion from the Allies and their de-Nazification offices--allegedly this is why he moved his business to Central America. Hennig allegedly asserted at that time, that this made his covers genuine historic collectibles. Alas, the older gent did not have that letter anymore. Imagine that smoking gun.
I do remember Hennig's ads in Linn's and I also received a letter from the early 1970s from his son Werner who took over the business from his father at the Caribbean location. The letter was a pretty glorified NAZI postwar propaganda piece, intended I think to glorify the "historical" value of the many Hitler postcards and Nazi covers still available for inspection on approval. Hennig continued and perhaps continues to sell this material at least until recently on eBay. The "warehouse" must have truly been vast to continue selling this Nazi trove from WWII until the 21st Century--and this possibly lends credence to the older gentlemen's 1950s tale above.
Who knows?
Bruce
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