In this part I will conclude the 1936 Olympic Winter Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, covering primarily the special cancels, handstamps, cachets and meter cancellations. As stated in Part I, the guide is meant to:
- Provide some guidance as what to collect (utilizing online market place like eBay)
- Explore how scarce they might be
- Expand collecting areas (to build an FIP exhibition if you desire)
- Encourage research and learning from each other
Besides all the features in Part I, Part II uses a more systematic approach to describe the material under study. For example, cancel usages and varieties are tabulated and highlighted with clickable links to the illustration images.
I have purposely omitted postcards and labels relate to the Winter Olympics to reflect the FIP show requirements. As you know, FIP allows only “postal evidences”. Though I cannot guarantee the accuracy for “technical” information such as the period of usage, I used a lot of references from previous documentation and my own discoveries to back up such information. You may also find some items relevant to the Games missing from my discussion here, due to my lack of awareness and limited resources at hand. So please write to me about your idea, and potential corrections, to yuanz2001@yahoo.com.
However, I hope and strongly feel the material covered here, along with other parts of the guide, will provide sufficient assistance to capitalize on online market places such as eBay to build a very respectable exhibition of the 1936 Olympic Games.
If you have been collecting Olympics for some time, I know you might argue that the roller cancel (shown below) used at Chamonix in 1924 should be the first one advertising the Winter Olympics. You are partially right that the cancel was used for promoting the 1924 Chamonix Winter Sports Week . But since the Chamonix events were not officially recognized as the First Olympic Winter Games until 1925 at the 8th Olympic Congress in Prague, strictly speaking, the cancel was not for the Olympics. Actually there is no “Olympic” evidence, text or symbol, appearing in the design. Therefore despite of its rarity, and its appearance on Page 6 of my exhibition, I shall introduce the one used at Garmisch-Partenkirchen as the first advertising cancel for the Winter Olympics.
Used only at Garmisch-Partenkirchen from 1933 to 1936, the cancellation has a design of mountain peak in the Garmisch area with advertising text for the 1936 Olympic Winter Games. It was used with single date rings and had three verities. Not well appreciated at online market places, it often can be fetched rather inexpensively.
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Period of Use : August 1933 to February 1936
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Type
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Description
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Period of Use
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1
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“*” at the bottom of the date ring
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1933 – 1934
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2
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“2” after Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the date ring
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1935
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3
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“2” after Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the date ring and “a” at the bottom of the date ring
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1936
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Type 1 - Similar cancel applied to an international postcard on September 5, 1934.
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The Reichspost, the German postal authorities, played a very important role to introduce the 1936 Olympic Winter Games to the public. A cancel with three lines of text beneath a ski-jumper was put into use over one hundred post offices at no fewer than 80 towns. Their wide usage throughout the Games, along with the commemorative stamps covered in Part I, promoted the winter events at an unprecedented level. As most of the post-offices had their own dies, minor differences are identifiable (e.g. the various shapes of mountain peaks). But on a more noticeable level, they can be categorized to four types. The level of scarcity is quite dramatic, from uncommon to very scarce, so be aware!
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Period of Use : December 1935 to February 1936
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Scarcity :  +
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Type
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Description
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Used by
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Scarcity Level
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1
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Single Date Ring (right to the ski-jumper)
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This is the mostly used type – from Aachen 1/*V to Zittau **
(over 100 post offices)
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+
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2
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Single Date Ring (left to the ski-jumper)
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The date ring was on the left of the ski-jumper.
Only one post office known to me used it
– Saarbrücken 2/ae
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+
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3
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Double Date Ring
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On the right of the ski-jumper. Used at over 34 post
offices (Berlin had a few) in 22 towns
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++
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4
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Six-wave-line – following the single date ring
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Only used at four towns:
- Kiel 1/gg (most common of the four
with the rest to be very scarce)
- Erfurt/*3k
- Ingolstadt 1/**
- Mühleim (Ruhr)/**
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+
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Type 1 – Same type but a different die from above (e.g. different peak shapes for the rightmost mountain)
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Type 4 - Six-wave-line used at Erfurt
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There were various cachets relevant to the Games applied on mail posted before and during the 1936 Winter Olympics. While cachets of general advertising text (e.g. the one shown on the left) is not so scarce, those used from government agencies (like the above) and venues are rare and very much desirable. Although this area always tempts me to study in detail, I hope to have a start in this guide. Therefore I try to cover the basics so that you won’t miss them if they ever appear online! After all, these are the material often missed by most collectors yet demand quite high prices at established auctions. To start, I will cover only the violet cachets used at major venues.
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Type
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Cachet Text
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Venue
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Scarcity
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1
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Olympia-Skistadion/Garmisch Partenkirchen
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Ski Stadion – the main ski stadium
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+
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2
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Olympia-Bobbahn/Garmisch Partenkirchen
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Bobbahn - bobsled run
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3
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Sonder PA Riessersee/Garmisch Partenkirchen
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Riessersee – outdoor skating arena
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4
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Olympia-EisStadion/Garmisch Partenkirchen
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Eis Stadion - Ice Hockey/Figure skating stadium
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Among all the venue cachets, Type 1, or the Ski Stadium, is the easiest to acquire although it could be pricy. The rest three are all very scarce and hard to find.
- The Games of '36, Stan Cohen
- A Philatelic History of the Olympic Games – Part Six, Ernest Trory
- The Reichspost in 1936, Dieter Germann
- Internationale Motivegruppen Olympiaden und Sport e.V. (IMOS) brochure
- The 1936 Olympic Games: A Philatelic History, James F. Danner
- “Fernauktion” catalogs from Heiko Volk Olympia-Philatelie
- Kohler-Auktion catalogs
- David Feldman auction catalogs
