Printed Matter Wrapper - German East Africa 1915

Many times, an actual stamp isn’t necessary for a stamp collector to like something.

Take this item, for example. It is a printed matter wrapper, mailed a distance of about 200 miles / 330 kilometers within what is now Tanzania.  On the date of mailing, 27 November 1915, this area was part of German East Africa (GEA), a colony that had been established in 1891 and which would exist until 1919.  Unlike the rest of the German colonies, GEA held out against the Allies until after the First World War ended in Europe—and this survival is reflected in the mail.

Printed Matter Wrapper - German East Africa 1915

While Germany was able to supply GEA with regular shipments of stamps prior to the War, Allied blockades quickly isolated GEA from its’ mother country.  By the end of 1915, there were no stamps at all of the denomination which paid the most needed letter and printed matter rates.  In order to send mail around the colony, customers had to pay postage in cash at the post office.  The two-line, purple hand stamp takes the place of the stamp that would otherwise have been put on this wrapper and shows that printed matter postage of 2 ½ heller was paid.

The wrapper itself, though, is also very interesting.  A lack of paper, all of which would have been produced in Europe, led postal customers to reuse any paper that was around.  As was the case during the US Civil War, “Adversity Covers” were made from ledger paper, sheet music, or as in this case, an old newspaper.  This wrapper, likely used to mail a locally printed newspaper, was made from an old German newspaper—and one filled with pictures of the damage caused by Allied shelling of German cities during the War. 

By Gannon Sugimura