On one of the covers below, it talks about Winterhilfswerk. Winterhilfswerk (WHW), was an annual donation drive by the National Socialist People's Welfare to help finance charitable work. Donations to the WHW, which were voluntary in name but were de facto required of German citizens, supplanted tax-funded welfare institutions and freed up money for rearmament. The +X portion on the stamp was the part that went to the WHW. Apparently they were very nasty about getting people to donate, as you can imagine in a dictatorship.
Recently I started collecting some postal related items that would have flown on the Graf Zeppelin, Graf Zeppelin II or on the Hindenburg. These are marvelous pieces of history. Many have special cancellation stamps for particular trips. Some of the ones I would like to get are the 1931 Polar Expedition (Polarfahrt), the Round-the-world flight (1929) and the Europe-Pan American flight (1930). I have one for a flight to the Middle East in 1929, which shows the Pyramids, but the ship was not allowed in Egyptian airspace on that flight. On one of the covers below, it talks about Winterhilfswerk. Winterhilfswerk (WHW), was an annual donation drive by the National Socialist People's Welfare to help finance charitable work. Donations to the WHW, which were voluntary in name but were de facto required of German citizens, supplanted tax-funded welfare institutions and freed up money for rearmament. The +X portion on the stamp was the part that went to the WHW. Apparently they were very nasty about getting people to donate, as you can imagine in a dictatorship. Some of the stamps on these covers are quite interesting themselves.
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AuthorCharles Baetsen holds a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Archives
February 2024
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