German South West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...

was a German colony in Africa, established in 1884 with the protection of the area around

Lüderitz Lüderitz is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island. The town is known for its colonial architecture, includ ...

and abandoned during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when the area was taken over by the British. The postal history of the colony started on 7 July 1888 at

Otjimbingwe Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants. History The area was already a temporary settlement of some Herero in the early 18th century. Their chief Tjiponda c ...

, when the regular postal service began using German

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

s and

postmark A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit ...

s reading ''OTYIMBINGUE''. The service continued in this fashion for a number of years, eventually expanding to additional post offices in

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

(1891) and

Swakopmund Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers ...

(1895).

First stamps

The first stamp issue for the colony consisted of

overprint An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a Postage stamp, postage or revenue stamp, postal stationery, banknote or Ticket (admission), ticket after it has been Printing, printed. Post offices most often use ...

s applied to German stamps in May 1897, reading ''"Deutsch- / Südwest-Afrika"'' at an angle. On 15 November 1898, the overprint was changed to ''"Deutsch- / Südwestafrika"'' dropping the hyphen.

Yacht issue

In 1900, the omnibus

Yacht issue The Yacht issue was a series of postage stamps, bearing the image of German Kaiser's yacht, '' SMY Hohenzollern II'', that were used in all of Germany's overseas colonies. Millions of stamps were produced and they were the principal means of po ...

included stamps for South West Africa, printed on

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...

ed paper after 1906. The last of these was a 3

Mark Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * F ...

value, printed in 1919, but never put on sale in the colony. Some values, such as the 3 and 5

Pfennig The 'pfennig' (; . 'pfennigs' or ; symbol pf or ₰) or penny is a former German coin or note, which was the official currency from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002. While a valuable coin during the Middle Ages, ...

Yachts, are readily available today, with prices of around

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1. The others range up to several hundred dollars. The high values of the watermarked Yachts saw very little usage before the colony was captured, and genuinely used stamps are up to 10 times more valuable; but many of the used stamps are known to have forged cancellations.

References and sources

;References ;Sources * Scott catalogue

Bibliography

* Gottspenn, Arno and Lutz Grimmer. ''Die Deutsche Westafrika-Schiffspost 1885-1956: Handbuch und Katalog''. Hamburg: A. Gottspenn, 1988 557p. * Koch, Bernhard. ''Deutsch-Sudwest-Afrika: "Feldpost" auf Seeposten, 1904-1907''. Hamburg: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Sammler Deutscher Kolonialpostwertzeichen und der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Schiffspost im Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e.V., 1981 67p. * Mallet-Veale, H. ''South-West Africa: a check list''. London: Harris Publications Ltd., 1928 43p. Series Title: "Philatelic Magazine" handbook; no. 12. * Mantei, Sebastian. ''Von der "Sandbüchse" zum Post- und Telegraphenland: der Aufbau des Kommunikationsnetzwerks in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1884-1915''. Windhoek: Namibia Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, 2007 246p. * Putzel, Ralph F. ''The Comprehensive Handbook of the Postmarks of German South West Africa/South West Africa/Namibia''. Tokai, South Africa: R.F. Putzel, 1991 600p. * Quik, W.J. '' De postzegels van Zuidwest Afrika, de Verenigde Naties veranderde in 1968 de naam in Nambibië: 1884-1990''. Krimpen a/d Ijssel: Filatelistenvereniging Zuidelijk Afrika, 2005 353p. * Quik, W.J. and J. Stolk. ''De Postwaardestukken van Zuid-West Afrika 1888-1990 = The Postal Stationery of South West Africa 1888-1990''. Rotterdam: Filatelistenvereniging Zuideijk Afrika, 2003 145p. * Rust, Hans Joachim. ''Südwestafrika''. Bayreuth: Schwarz, 1963 40p. * ''The South African Stamp Colour Catalogue 2019-20''. 36th ed. Johannesburg: International Philatelic Service, 2019 406p. * Vogenbeck, Peter. ''Dienstsiegel und feldpostkarten von Deutsch-Südwestafrika: Official cancellations & field post cards of German South West Africa''. Kalenborn-Scheuern: P. Vogenbeck, 1996 60p. * Vogenbeck, Peter. ''Nebenstempel und dienstsiegel von deutsch-Südwestafrika: mit einer abhandlung über feldpostkarten und die stempel der eisenbahn: Cancellations of German South West Africa, with field post & railway marks''. Kalenborn-Scheuern: P. Vogenbeck, 1999 299p. * Vogenbeck, Peter. ''Soldatenbrief-Stempel von Deutsch-Sudwestafrika 1904-08''. Kalenborn-Scheuern: P. Vogenbeck, 1994 44p. * Vogenbeck, Peter and Eugen Pauls. ''Die Adlerstempel von Deutsch-Sudwestafrika''. Kalenborn-Scheuern: The Authors, 1995 60p. {{PostalhistoryAfrica German South West Africa

First stamps

Yacht issue

See also

References and sources

Bibliography