Page 77 - Prepaid Reply Cards

4.4 REGULATIONS AND PRACTICES –PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES

MUTUAL ACCEPTANCE WITHOUT CLEAR RULING AND UNCERTAIN UPU MEMBERSHIP STATUS
A very special situation existed with the different occupation zones of Germany after WW II. Germany remained
a member of the UPU and after the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, West Germany
remained the sole German member of the UPU until East Germany gained direct membership in 1973. This
resulted in several unsolved situations. While there was a an agreement to accept prepaid reply cards between the
different occupation zones and later across East and West Germany, the cold war attitude often resulted rejections
and complaints.

Above: Reply card franked with a 6 Pfennig adhesive stamp of the Greater Berlin and Brandenburg postal
administration , returned on 01.11.1945 from Wismar in the postal region of Mecklenburg‐Vorpommern
Below: Reply card franked with an adhesive stamp of the (Soviet) «Deutsche Post» (German post), returned
from West‐Berlin on 15.08.1949.

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