Gallery

FURTHER FLIGHTS - 1922 AND BEYOND (Continued from page 20)

The year 1922 brought widespread improvement in mail and passenger service in the Baltic region. The airlines were hoping to forget about their troubles during 1921. The following are flights that collectors could look for at bourses:
6.,8.,10.2.22         Mail flown to Berlin and Koenigsberg without paying additional fee, during rail strike.
18,-25.2.22           Daily service to Koenigsberg during its fair.Extreme cold limited service to only one flight.
19.4.22                   Danzig to Koenigsberg reopened; extended to Memel.
1.5.22                      Danzig to Koenigsberg extended to Moscow via Kovno and Smolensk. Twice weekly to 31.10.22.
6.5.22                      Connections remade with Berlin via Stettin and with Riga via Koenigsberg, Memel and Kovno.
8.5.22                      Danzig to Riga via Memel -- 3 times a week. From 8th May to 29th Sept., they flew 63 days.
10.8.22                    All leading airlines begin carrying mail and passengers abroad from Danzig-Langfuhr.
5.9.22                      New route via Warsaw to Lemberg (Lwow in Poland; now Lvov in the Ukraine.) Operated by Aero-lloyd and flew 3 limes per week to 25.9.22, when the service became daily. Winter weather limited the route, after the 1st of December to Danzig-Warsaw only.
30.9.22                    Air traffic generally suspended, except Danzig-Warsaw & to Moscow, which was open to 30.1.23. Winter of 1922-1923: Achieved 70% of fits. in January and 81% in February.
10.3.23                   Danzig-Warsaw extended to Lemberg and operated daily.
5.-15.9.23              Service interrupted by fire in Aerolloyd hangar at Danzig-Langfuhr airport. Resumed only a twice-weekly flight after 15.9.23.
7.5.23                      Flights from Berlin-Riga via Danzig resumed .
8.5.23                      Flights to Moscow resumed.
20.5.23                   First flight Danzig-lnnsbruck via Berlin, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Munich. No special cover or cancel
15.8.23                  Trial flight from Warsaw to Copenhagen via Putzig (28 mi. north of Danzig) and Malmo (Sweden). A registered letter at the close of business on 29th October cost 30 million marks, with an additional airmail surcharge of 4.75 million marks.
1924                       Zeppelin flight mail from Danzig begins.
20.4.25                  Aerolloyd resumed flights from Danzig-Warsaw-Lemberg.
1.5.25                     Remaining Aerolloyd routes reinstated.
31.3.25                  First flight to Marienburg noted by First Flight and forwarding endorsements. Flown on 1st of April. New airport set up due to poor railway connections in Marienburg.
2.6.26                    Ostseelinie (Baltic Sea Route) set up from Stettin-Stolp-Danzig-Marienburg via Koenigsberg and on to Allenstein (now Olsztyn in Poland).
6.7.26                    Elbing is added to the route.
20.4.26                  Route from Danzig-Memel via Koenigsberg completed by addition of landing place at Tilsit.
10.7.28                 Agreement completed between Danzig State Postal Authority and the Polish air company which put the Polish Post Office on equal terms in their use of routes.

Economic conditions in 1929 forced cessation of air service to all small airports, such as Skip, Marienburg, Tilsit, Allenstein, Insterburg, etc. Sendings to and from Memel were flown only from Koenigsberg and were endorsed with a special handstamp that stated Mit Zug weiterbefordern (Forwarded by train).

Official catapult flights were the next exciting era of Danzig philately, beginning with the first flight from the Bremen on 10.9.29. The first 10 flights were from the Bremen, and number 11 was flown from the Europa. Prior to these flights, Danzig mail was sent on the Bremen (on 22.7.29 and 20.8.29) resulting in at least two pieces of mail from the first unofficial flight and five from the second were returned to Danzig.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DANZIG AIR MAIL FLIGHTS!

Reichs Luftkursbuch : Rate charts & information for the traveler; 396 pages; January 1936.

Michaelis, Curt : Flugpost von and mach Danzig; Teil I and II; 1974. English translation available in Danzig Reports 62, 63, 64.

Davis, R.E.G. : Lufthansa -- An Airline and its Aircraft; illustrated history of Germany's airlines and their evolution. Maps showing routes. Plane illustrations by Mike Machat.

 

Danzig Report   Nr. 99 - April - May - June - 1998, Page 23.