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German field-post

Outside this the German Field-post for the army functioned also. Many troops had been stationed in Vilnius. Also the provisioning of the 10 th Army went by way of Vilnius and so also the post. The field-post of the 10 th Army was established October 1915 in Vilnius.
Further three field-post-stations, of which more data are known, has functioned in Vilnius: No. 166, 171 and 282.
The fieldpost-stations 166 and 171 had been employed by the 40 th Reserve-Corps and with this marched from the area Wilkowischki-Mariampole opgerukt.



Picture postcard from Vilnius via Fiel-post station no. 166, 9-3-1916, to Leipzig (via email received of the collection of Meinhard Aits)

Field-post station 166
the first (known) postmark from Vilnius is 30-9-1915, and the latest is 25-12-1918.

Field-post station 171
From the end of September to the end of October in Vilnius (no exact data). In the weeks before this Field-post station was in Kaunas, after that in Soly.

Field-post station 282
This is the field-post office of the Etappen-Inspection 10', which in April 1916 came to Vilnius, and with that also the field-post. The first postal item from Vilnius is with the date 10-5-1916. This Etappen-Inspection 10 has been incorporated in the Militär-Gouvernement Litauen in the beginning of August and changed then in Feld-Intendantur. Also field-post station no. 282 went to the Gouvernement, and stayed in Vilnius. The last known postal item is with the date 4-12-1918.

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Postmark of field-post station 166.

Further many field-post offices for the marching troops were short or long in Vilnius, but about this I have not found exact data.

Other field-post stations, which (temporarely) functioned in Vilnius:
No. 74: last half 1917 to the end of the war
No. 169 en 173: short time in 1915
No. 226 en 229: last half 1917 to the end of the war

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No postmark, but apparent yet field-post from Vilnius. Front of the card:

Clicking on an illustration: blow up. Real size of scan: 15,083 x 9,949 Cm
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The German Government

Outside the postmarks of Postgebiet Ober-Ost and the field-post, we find from this time also the postmarks of the German Government. The administrative division of the Land Ober-Ost was something complicated and changed more times.
After the conquering a municipality was formed in Vilnius (Stadtverwalting), but this did not coincide with the Verwaltung (Administration) Wilna and the new Gouvernement Wilna.
The 'Verwaltung Suwalki' was discontinued on 1-3-1916 and joined with the 'Verwaltung Wilna' in the 'Verwaltung Wilna-Suwalki (25-4-1916). Vilnius became the seat. This 'Verwaltung' has been joined on 4-3-1917 with the Deutsche Verwaltung für Litauen in the Militärverwaltung Litauen, established in Vilnius. On 27-1-1918 the junction of this followed with the Militärverwaltung Bialystok in Militärverwaltung Litauen, divided in region North and South.

To an independent Lithuania

On 11 November 1918 the armistice was in force and from half Novenber the Germans began withdrawing out Lithuania.
Before, on 16 February 1918, the declaration of independence had been taken, which was recognized by the German emperor on March 23. Russia had ceded Lithuania by the Peace of Brest-Litowsk (3 March 1918).
With the German capitulation on 11 November 1918 Lithuania became really independent with Vilnius as its capital. Ober-Ost finished its activity on 26 December 1918, and then the first Lithuanian postoffice is opened in Vilnius. On 27 December the first Lithuanian stamps makes one's appearance. Hoever the area around Vilnius was claimed also by the again independend Poland.

Transition

During a war it comes often to -also postally- transitionsituations. Proparly the postcard below is used provisional:

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A postcard from 1916, with the German cancellation Wilna, 27-9-1916. Further the card is Russian, although the Russians were away and Vilnius had been occpied.
For cancellation here is used Type I, with three stars at the bottom.


The card below is even more strange:

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The card is completely Russian, with an reasonable unknown postmark of Vilnius, 1917, during the German occupation.
Via Internet a number of collectors have sent solutions for this mystery. A possibility should be that - similar as in Latvia- postal authorities have taken with them stamps and used somewhere else. But the card comes really from Vilnius, as appears from the text, which Antanas Jankauskas for me translated: "July 5, Dear mommy, Concerning Petja, no news, but probably …. (unfortunately, unreadble). I’ll leave Vilno on July 6. Kissing you – Petja and me." The card is send to Petersburg. Because of the wrong postage (10 kop. instead of 3 kop.) it could be a falsification. Also the date could be simply wrong, but that is something too easy.
Finally: it is a real railway-postmark of the Railway-post Department of the railway station Vilnius. It can be provisional, because there was no German postmark.
Front of cover:

Clicking on an illustration: blow up. Real size of scan: 14,593 x 9,340 Cm
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Periodicals:
BLPSNY = Bulletin of the Philatelic Society of New York [in English] HBG = Het Baltische Gebied[in Dutch]
Lituania [in German]

Die Deutsche Besetzung Wilnas im 1. Weltkrieg (I-VIII) / Röttger	[About: article about the German occupation of Vilnius in World War I, special also field-post] {P}
Die Ob. Ost-Post aus Sicht eines polnischen Kalenders mit Wilna-Informationen / Gerhard Hahne In: Lituania 1994 ; nr. 2. - p. 82-95	[About: Information from a Polish Wilna-calendar, 1917, with translation in German] {P}
Philatelistische Erzeugnisse des Weltkriegs : die neue Markenausgabe für Litauen In: Illustriertes Briefmarken-Journal 1916 ; nr.1. - p.9-10	[About: the issues for 'Postgebiet Ober-Ost' {B} {P}
Die Postüberwachung im Deutschen Reich durch Postüberwachungsstellen 1914-1918 : Handbuch und Katalog / Karl-Heinz Riemer [S.n.] : Poststempelgilde "Rhein-Donau", 1984 p.5-13: introduction, p. 129-132: Königsberg	[About: postal censorship in Germany by the post-controlstations 1914-1918] {B} {P}
SEPAD '84 Exhibit : "Vicissitudes of city of Vilnius : traditional and ancient capital of Lithuania under seventeen changes in administrative governments" / W.E. Norton In: BLPSNY 1984 ; 131. - p. 8477-8484 P. 8478-8479: Phase 4 1915/1918 German occupation WWI - Postgebiet Ob.Ost	[About: description of the postal items of the exhibition, illustrating the postal history of Vilnius] {P}
Stadtpostämter im besetzten Polen 1915-1918 / Stefan Petriuk [S.l] : Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Polen e. V. im BDPh e. V., 1980? p. 172-185: Stadtpost Wilna	[About: post in cities of occupied Polen 1915-1918] {B} {P}
Vivat Wilna / Witold Fugalewitsch In: Lituania 1996 ; nr. 5. - p. 269-274	[About: documents of the capture of Vilnius in 1915 by the German]
Zaristische Feldpost in Litauen im I Weltkrieg' / Ricardas Vainora In: Lituania 1997 ; nr. 7. - p. 416-418	[About: Tsaristic Field-post in Lithuania in World War I]

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Tsaristic period

Independence 1918-1920

1920-1939 Central Lithuania and Polish Period

1939-1945 Sovjet - Lithuanian - German

1944-1990 Sovjet period

1990- Independence