alliierte besetzung - Stamp Auctions

The defeated Nazi Germany resulted in the creation of four major post-war occupation zones in 1945. The American zone consisted of Bavaria, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Northern ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The British zone encompassed Northwestern Germany. The French zone consisted of two areas along the German Border with France. The Soviet zone consisted of Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The border area of Eastern Germany and the Southern part of East Prussia were occupied by the Polish Communist government. The Northern part of East Prussia was annexed to the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin was partitioned between the four Allied powers.

The Allied powers restored postal services administered under the different authorities. AM Post (AM = Allied Military) stamps were issued by the American and British occupation services during 1945. The French authorities issued stamps for the "zone franchise", supplemented by stamps for Baden, Rheinland-Pfalz, and Wurttemberg. In the Soviet zone various provinces released different stamps, namely Berlin-Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony and Thuringia.

In 1946 the American, British, and Soviet zones, German stamps were issued as Deutsche Post. The attempts to unify the postal system failed when the "cold war" started, the common stamps were replaced by 1948 by definitive for the Soviet zone, and different stamps for the bizone.

Many towns, created local charity stamps and souvenir sheets during early 1945. Some of them were used for postal, though most were not officially authorized by any occupying forces. Most of these issues were intended to raise money for local reconstruction projects or charitable organizations.

In May of 1949, the areas controlled by the American, British and France became the Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic, DDR.

The occupation resulted in the creation of many different postage stamps, and created many interesting collections. Those stamps and covers are very popular in stamp auctions mainly in Germany but also in the occupying countries.