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Allenstein
Germania Definitive Post Card
Overprinted for Use in Allenstein

Germania Definitive Post Card Overprinted
German pre-stamped post card overprinted for use in Allenstein

Allenstein, meaning castle on the Alle River, is known in Polish as Olsztyn. Located in northeastern Poland, the area was the subject of a plebiscite under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. At the time, The Age provided the following details:

The southern and eastern frontier of Prussia as facing Poland is to be fixed by plebiscites, the first in the regency of Allenstein between the southern frontier of East Prussia and the northern frontier of the Regearungspibisirk of Allenstein from where it meets the boundary between East and West Prussia to its junction with the boundary between circles of Oletsko and Augersburg, thence the northern boundary of Oletsko to its junction with the present frontier, and the second in the area comprising the circles of Stuhm and Rosenburg and the parts of circles of Marienburg and Marienwerder, east of the Vistula.

In each case German troops and authorities will move out within fifteen days of peace, and the territories will be placed under an international commission of five members appointed by the Five Allied and Associated Powers with the particular duty of arranging for a free, fair and secret vote. The commission will report the results of the plebiscite to the Five Powers with a recommendation for the boundary, and will terminate its work as soon as the boundary has been laid down and the new authorities set up.

The five Allied and Associated Powers will draw up reguations assuring East Prussia full and equitable access to, and the use of, the Vistula. A subsequent convention, of which the terms will be fixed by the Five Allied and Associated Powers, will be entered into between Poland, Germany and Danzig to assure suitable railroad communication across German territory on the right bank of the Vistula between Poland and Danzig, while Poland shall grant free passage from East Prussia to Germany.

The north-eastern corner of East Prussia about Memel is to be ceded by Germany to the Associated Powers, the former agreeing to accept a settlement made, especially as regards the nationality of the inhabitants.


On July 11, 1920, 98 percent of the voters chose to remain a part of Germany. It was only after the Soviet occupation at the end of World War II that the territory was transferred to Poland.

Newspaper article on plebiscite
The Age ran an article detailing the implications of the Treaty of
Versailles for German territories including those in East Prussia


Bibliography

"Drastic Peace Terms Imposed Upon Germany." The Age. 9 May 1919: 4. Print.

"Allenstein." Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue. 2008.

Rossiter, Stuart and John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald and Co., 1986.


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