| Message: |
Dear John, research into Parcel cards is ongoing, snippets have been published, but largely focus on a few aspects and often raise more questions than they answer. Despair ye not, its not rocket science.
Two webs sitesyou should be looking at are;
www.bdph.de
www.philaforum.de or .com
Although the sites are German both have an English section, where queries can be placed, both sites are very active, and an answer will generally be received within 24 hrs at the outside. And in English!
Should your German be insufficient to register I can create an account for you.
But in answer to your questions, the cards when they came in were in some cases provided from central resources, at other times they would be produced locally to PO guidelines, thus a fair variation can be found. Certainly towards the end of the WWI the cards were standardised and an overseas/foreign use card was produced. For Inland use they bear the designation bottom right of C.20, overseas A.20. Not all cards have these, you will find that with these cards nothing is hard and fast. Understanding the rates is another matter! However basic tariffs are listed in a number of rates books.
Band 33 from Infla Berlin deals with the use of the cards during the 33-45 period. The rules then in use differed very little from the time of their inception. Post 45 there are some notable differences.
Clearly most that has been published is in the German language.
If you are looking before the period where it was necessary to write Paketbegleitbrief on the accompanying letters, then it will be necesary to understand the old German script. And to recognise the word Briefwagenfreithum.
Parcels and their transmission was 99% in the domain of the Fahrpost (Mail coach). This is a study in its own right, however sufficient knowledgable people can be found on the above mentioned sites, also those with a very good knowledge of the old German script.
Membership of the society is strongly recommended, as this will permit you to more easily tap into existing resources.
kind regards
Nigel
|
