GPS May 2020

The Feldeisenbahn Evidence
Stamps
W. David Ripley, III
Following the Rundfunkmarken (radio permit stamps) listing at
the end of the Generalgouvernement section of the Michel Deutschland-
Spezial catalog is a paragraph about the so-called Feldeisenbahn (field
railway) evidence stamps. It indicates the stamps are not postage
stamps and were attached to the ID cards of workers employed by the
Feldeisenbahn and the stamps are watermarked quatrefoils. There is no
mention of how many values exist. Very little information about these
stamps can be found in the literature. The original Michel Feldpost catalog,
published in 2002, listed 6 different colors; dark grey, red, brown,
violet, light grey and blue, all with “1944” overprints in green indicating, at
that time, the use of the stamps was not known. The Michel Deutschland
Spezial catalog now shows black & white images of both unoverprinted
and overprinted stamps depicting the so-called hoheitszeichen (eagle
perched on swastika). An old ARGE Generalgouvernement listing indicated
12 colors without and 11 colors with the overprint were known at
that time Today, 12 colors of each type are known.
BACKGROUND
The Feldeisenbahndirektion was established on March 20, 1941 in
Wehrkreis IV in Dresden in preparation for the forthcoming invasion of
the Soviet Union. After annexing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the
Soviet Union embarked on a program to convert all the existing standard
1435mm European gauge railway lines of the Baltic States over to the
wider 1524mm Soviet gauge. Because of this, the Germans knew there
would be much work to do to convert the Soviet railway lines back to
the European gauge in order to supply a swift moving German invasion
force. Although the Soviets had converted a few key lines, the conversion
process was slow. By the time of the German invasion in June 1941,
much gauge conversion work still had not been completed. This was
fortunate for the Germans as they had fewer railway lines to convert in
the Baltics.
However, despite this advantage, the Germans still did not possess
enough qualified personnel to convert, maintain and manage the Soviet
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