The “Postgebiet Ober Ost” is fully “Deutsche Post- und Telegraphenverwaltung im Postgebiet des Oberbefehlshaber Ost”, and provided the post for the civilian population within the “Verwaltungsgebiet des Oberbefehlshaber Ost”, the German Commander East. This included the Baltic area.
On January 15, 1916, the first German post offices were established in the later Latvian area, including in Libau (Liepāja).
The post office in Liepāja / Libau was located in the building of the former Asow-Don-Bank in the Große Straße 13. German stamps had to be used with the overprint ‘Postgebiet Ob. Ost ‘, issued January 15, 1916. Postcards also received this overprint, such as the one above.
The mail to Germany was censored in Königsberg in Prussia.
Three different stamps have been used in Liepāja / Libau for the obliteration of the civilian post:
* The stamp with three stars at the bottom: on the map above
* The stamp with two stars and serial letter a at the bottom: * a *
*The stamp with serial letter b under the date and at the bottom the indication (KURLAND)
The handbook of Von Hofmann (p. 67) gives the data of the used postmarks:
| from | to | ||
| LIBAU | 15.01.16 | 26.12.18 | |
| [04.01.19] | |||
| LIBAU | *** | 15.01.16 | 28.12.18 |
| LIBAU | *a* | 15.01.16 | 28.12.18 |
| LIBAU (KURLAND) | *b* | 09.08.18 | 03.01.19 |
Handbook of Dreher mentions postmark LIBAU (KURLAND) *b* with date 30.07.1918.
About Liepaja / Libau during World War I:
* Post uit Liepāja, Libau, ЛИБАВА [LIBAVA] 2 / Jan Kaptein
In: HBG 2015 ; 66. – p. 4- 15. – [About: Post from Liepāja, Libau, ЛИБАВА [LIBAVA] 2 , article in Dutch]
*Die deutsche Besetzung Libaus im 1. Weltkrieg (I) / W.-D. Röttger. – In: Postgebiet Ob. Ost 1981 ; nr. 5. – S. 35-36. – [About: German occupation of Libau during World War I, articles in German]
(II): 1981 ; nr. 6. – S. 10-13
(III): 1982 ; nr. 7. – S. 30-34
(IV): 1982 ; nr. 8. – S. 33-35
(V): 1983 ; nr. 9. – S. 14-18
Addition: 1988 ; nr. 20. – S. 3