Galerie

The Polish Post in the Free City of Danzig  1920 - 1939

Background
The “Freie Stadt Danzig” (as it was then called) owed its
existence to the fact that US President Wilson had laid down as
a fundamental aim that the new Polish Republic, after WW1,
should have “free and secure access to the sea”, but English
Prime Minister Lloyd George objected on the grounds that
incorporating Danzig into Poland would conflict with another
important principle of Wilson’s: that of national selfdetermination – due to the then overwhelming majority of
German inhabitants. As a compromise, therefore, Danzig and its
surrounding area was made an independent “Free City” under
the protection of the League of Nations. Poland was indeed
granted access to the sea through the so-called “Corridor”, but
without an appropriate harbour of her own there. Poland was,
therefore, given several special rights in the Free City, one of
which was to establish in the harbour area a Polish postal
service, alongside that of the Free City. In January 1920 a
Polish Postal and Telegraphic Management Office was opened
in Gdańsk, as was the ancient Polish name for the city, which
functioned next to the Free City Postal and Telegraphic
Administration in part of the city

Scope of the exhibit
Over a period of time three Polish Post Offices were opened in
the Free City of Danzig, each of them playing an essential role
in Polish postal traffic: one in the harbour handling all overseas
mail from and to Poland, the second at the main railway station
transferring mail between Poland and the other two Polish Post
Offices in the Free City and the third office in the city of
Danzig, which was open for the public and handled
correspondence between the Free City and Poland in both
directions. In addition, one Polish Telegraph Office was
brought into operation for official correspondence only.
The exhibit shows the specific activities of each of the Polish
Post and Telegraph Offices which operated in the Free City
from January 1920 until the German attack on the main Polish
Post Office on 1 September 1939 on the outbreak of World War
II.

Plan of the exhibit
1 The Postal and Telegraphic Management Office
1.1. The Postal and Telegraphic Management Office
1.2 The Office for Undeliverable mail
2 The Harbour Post Office
2.1 The exchange of mail with overseas countries
2.2 The transit of mail from other countries
2.3 The sending of official mail
3 The Polish Hughes Telegraph Station
3.1 The sending of official telegrams
4 The Railway Station Post Office
4.1 4.14.2 The transport of mailbags from, to and via Danzig
4.24.3 The management of Polish Railway Travelling Post Offices
4.3 The handling of normal mail
5 The Main Post and Telegraph Office
5.1 Domestic mail
5.1.1 Traffic between Danzig and Poland
5.1.2 Postal services
5.1.3 Financial services
5.1.4 Telegraph services
5.1.5 Official mail services
5.2 Foreign mail
5.3 Local mail

Currency
Although the Polish postal service operated in the Free City which
was using the German mark and later the Free City gulden (100
pfennig) as currency, all Polish postal rates were given in Polish
marks (100 pfennig) until 1924 and after that in Polish złoty (100
groszy). Payment at the Polish Post in Danzig could be done either
in Polish or Free City currency.
Research
While existing references are few, information was gathered
through personal research in the official regulations issued for the
Post in Poland between 1920 and 1939 and in the State Archives in
Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Warszawa and Bonn. This has resulted in
more than 70 publications in the philatelic press in different
countries. Two volumes of a handbook on the topic have been
published, two more volumes are being prepared.
Material
This exhibit is based on the largest and most comprehensive
collection of mail sent through the Polish Post in Danzig, collected
during the past 30 years. An attempt has been made to show at
least one outstanding and rare item on each page by adding items
with rare handstamps, frankings, postal rates or other types of
sendings than just the standard ones. Key items are boxed in red .
Due to the density of special or unique items it is not possible to
gather a similar collection on the Polish Post in the Free City of
Danzig 1920 – 1939.
Because dangerous forgeries exist, all items shown have been
expertised.