Today in Postal History

  
     
German East Africa to Germany
April 7, 1898

This picture postcard illustrates the "Gruss aus xxxx" (Greetings from xxxx)
genre popular with German tourists a century ago.
Such cards are now popular as colorful collectibles.

In a few months after the arrival of Carl Peters, a German politician and journalist, in 1884
German influence spread through the south half of the African mainland of Zanzibar.
By 1890 a border had been established between British East Africa and
German East Africa as the European powers carved up Africa.

In 1890 German Postal Agencies were opened in Bagamoyo and Dar-es-Salaam.
The first stamps were issued in 1890 by overprinting German stamps.

This card is a German 10 pfg. U.P.U. card with an added a printed illustration.
This card was surcharged with a diagonal overprint similar to that used on the first stamps:
5
Deutsch-Ostafrika
Pesa.
64 Pesas made one Rupee.

The card has a single CDS from Dar-es-Salaam.
The illustration is from Bagamoyo about 30 km northwest along the coast.
Bagamoyo is opposite the island of Zanzibar.

The card is addressed to Berlin where it arrived on May 1.
The Berlin receiving mark was overinked which resulted in offset
on other covers in the stack as the clerk cancelled them.

One can see how such postcards would appeal to collectors interested
in reviewing the 'grand tours' taken in the decades before World War I.