Examples of people copying others' philatelic ideas are legion and indeed, in certain instances, could be considered as flattery. A prime example is the first issue of Sardinia, January 1, 1851, of a 5c Black and 20c Blue, of very similar style to the first postage stamps, the One Penny Black and Twopence Blue of 1840. However, one of the most unusual occurrences of 'copying' can be found in World War I material, and it was only discovered three years ago.
England declared war on Germany in August 1914, an unexpected event for approximately 7,000 British Citizens living in or visiting Germany at that time. On October 13, 1914 Britain interned all German born people in Britain, a not inconsiderable event as there were 30,000 German civilians within Britain at that date. Germany retaliated on October 31 calling for the intemment of 'all male British subjects, except clergymen, doctors, lunatics and bedridden invalids; between the ages of 17 and 55'.
Once internment began, there was a desperate need to have a central location to hold all these people. Two miles west of Berlin is the Ruhleben Race Track, which was used prior to the outbreak of WWI to billet 1,200 Russian labourers. These labourers were removed and British internees were progressively transferred to Ruhleben. The camp was small, only 20 acres in size, and consisting initially of nine brick and two wooden stables with haylofts. By March 1915 some 4,400 internees were crammed into these horseboxes and haylofts; accommodation was expanded later with an additional 12 wooden buildings being built for internees.
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| Ruhleben Christmas card front. |
Communication with the outside world was permitted with prisoners allowed to write one nine-lined postcard per week and two four-page letters per month. Each postcard or letter was charged at IOpf. Money was provided by the British Government, and indeed, all funding and equipment to sustain life in the Camp came either from private sources or from the British Government.
The appropriately named Albert ', Kamps established an internal post office in late Spring 1915 that provided for 25 post boxes, as well as delivery of mail to prisoners. He was also charged by the authorities with the responsibility of distributing and collecting external mail. On July 18, 1915 he launched the Ruhleben Express Delivery (RXD) that produced local stamps, postal stationery and even money orders. However, the German Authorities external to the camp got to hear of the post, illegally organised under Reichpost regulations as of April 1, 1900, and on April 3, 1916 the RXD was closed down and all stock of stamps and stationery were impounded. Kamps was sentenced to a period of solitary confinement for organising an illegal post
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Reverse of a Ruhleben Christmas card sent to a
Mrs Nurse of Honor Oak Park in London on
December 19 1916 |
However, communications with the outside world continued through what was known as the Kriegsgefangenen-sendung - a free prisoner of war mail service. Late in 1916 permission was given for the internees to produce their own Christmas card that could be posted to Britain. The rare card was solely designed by one of the British internees, Healey Hislop, and it was printed with the Kriegsgefangenen-sendung legend to permit its free postal carriage. An example is shown, both picture and text sides; these Christmas cards are rather scarce. |
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