Summary from Article

Provincie Nemecka jizni Morava

By Lubor Kunc

Published in the Postilion Journal of

no. 2 / 2003

On the begin of my article I shortly introduce the German Southern Moravia Province, its location and period of its existence.

Fig. 1 shows an Austrian stamp used on the post office Znojmo 1 on Oct. 28, 1918 – Czech name of the town was not yet removed (in comparison to cancels on figures 3 + 4). I also state, that similar operation was made by post man of Hrusovany / Jevisovkou (Grussbach). Fig. 2 than shows a Czechoslovak provisional cancel used by the Hrusovany post office – the cancel was introduced by occupation of the town by Czechs to substitute the original Austrian cancel with removed Czech name of the town.

In the next paragraph I discuss the scarcity of such items with result, that because of composition of population of the area and blockade of the territory by Czechoslovak units majority of correspondence has been sent to Austria.

Next part of the article describes two interesting parcel dispatch notes of collection by Mr. Rizza of USA, whom I am thanking him for their loaning for the article (fig. 3 + 4).

Fig. 5 was originally published in the Postovny bulletin no. 1/1993, I am thanking to its editor Mr. Gebauer for his approval with its re-publishing within the article (reverse of the card was shown on front page of the Postilion bulletin). The card was sent from Contract Post Office of Primetice (situated outside of German Southern Moravia Province) appointed by Czechoslovak authorities to handle mail coming from province territory. If someone wanted to mail a letter from it, he/she should walk there and mail it on its counter. The mail was than delivered by a courier on route Primetice – Citonice – Brno. The courier service was working between Dec. 3 – Dec. 18, 1918. The card was sent on its last day of service.

Fig. 6 shows a postcard issued to commemorate Sokol Slet (Sokol Festival, a sport event) organized in Znojmo in August 1919 (it should originally be hold on August 3, but thanks to various problems it occurred on August 24). Goal of the action was to demonstrate, that Czech population of the area wants to be incorporated into Czechoslovakia before a Peace Treaty among Allieds (incl. Czechoslovakia) and Austria to be signed in Saint Germain in September 1919. The peace treaty stated, that the province area is an integral part of Czechoslovakia).

The event was so important, that Czechoslovak Postal Administration prepared for it its first commemorative cancel (see the card). The label in the left upper corner is the special non-postal label issued by organization committee. The cancel on it is not of a postal origin, it is just normal business cancel of the Sokol organization of Znojmo.

In the next paragraph I mention a theoretical possibility of usage of Austrian stamp Charles I. with overprint ”Deutschösterreich” (Mi. 234, fig. 7), which might be distributed to the post offices on provincial territory. As an example I mention post office Hevlin/ Höfflein situated just 3 km away from Austrian post office Laa / Thaya. On other hand I state, that I have not seen such document and ask readers to check their collections for finding it.

I also refer to the article of Mr. Seebauer published in the Filatelie journal no. 3 / 1967, pages 62- 65 as source for my information, but I mention two sentences of it saying that Austria sent naval troops to protect the Province and that the Austrian mariners used field post offices for their mail. I don´t agree with the statement, because Austrian field post office network finished its work on Nov. 3, 1918 and there was no need so sent such units to the Province at that time, because no Czech military units were operating on Province territory. The step would be reasonable after Nov. 20, when Czechoslovak Government started to liberate territory of all four German provinces on Czechoslovak territory by attacking Most/Brüx town in Norther Bohemia (about 300 km from Znojmo town!), but this step would make many diplomatic difficulties because of Allied´s opinion, that the territories, which were traditionally part of Bohemian Kingdom need to remain part of Czechoslovakia (raised especially by U.S. President Wilson), however local German leaders wanted to incorporate them into Austria and/or Germany. But the article doesn´t close the matter, it remains open for future searching.