The stamps of 10 pfennig, 15 pfennig and 25 pfennig depicted Gregor Mendel, Dr. Robert Koch, and Wilhelm Roentgen respectively, along with their famous statements.
In September 1939, these would be the final postage stamps of Freistadt Danzig, as the sovereign city state was incorporated into the German Reich and after this date the postage stamps of the Third Reich were used in Danzig and its surrounding areas.
This postcard is quite unique in that not only are these the very stamps affixed to it, the cancellation postmark contains the propaganda message "Greetings from Adolf Hitler, Leader and Liberator," which is fitting when one considers a photo of Hitler is shown on the front of the card. It is dated 19 September 1939, 17 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 2 September.Freistadt Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 after the end of World War I.
The Free City of Danzig existed less than two decades, i.e. from November 1920 to November 1939. Meanwhile, the state issued postage stamps which have their own story. The first indigenous stamps were printed on 31st January 1921. Approximately 18 years later, the nation issued its last postage stamps.
After WWII, those Germans who had fled Danzig were forcefully expelled and repopulated with Polish citizens. That said, the city state of Gdansk (as it later became known in Poland) remained underpopulated well into the 1950s.
Disclaimer: In displaying these stamps and postcard I must stress I DO NOT advocate, NOR wish to glorify the regime of Nazi Germany or any present day fascist organization/state. My sole intent is to illustrate the philatelic history of the period, one which I personally believe to have been evil and as such a plight in the history of Germany and their satellite allies at the time.
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