© Dr. Artur Knoth

Brazilian Philately: The Pan Am Zeppelin Flight of 1930


Dr. Karl Blümel


In an ad (below) taken out of Das Postwertzeichen, ones that also Blümel dealt in new issues and Zeppelin covers.

The Brazilian covers addressed to Blümel or other mail drop addresses (German embassy) come in a variety of forms and several sources. Known to me the covers 59B,C,D and 59E. Shown are both front and reverse of these covers, due to the various postal markings.

The first 59B is using the Costa envelope (with the l instead of an h), but sent by Mr. C. B. Gurreiro from Rio. The second was sent by Sandvoss out of São Paulo. The 59C actually seems to have been sent by Costa, note the typical destination rubber stamp Allemange. Then there are a large batch of covers that had Havana as their destination and were addressed to the Germany embassy there.

All these cards came out of Rio and have the same routing red rubber stamp. Could Mr. Gurreiro be the logical candidate, who knows? Also all have the Havana arrival cancellation, but no green Zeppelin Lakehurst cancel, these covers were sent by plane? to Havana directly without passing through the the Lakehurst USPO-station. Another colorful 59E cover sent to Blümel came out of Sandvoss in São Paulo.

The cover is quite colorful with a rare block of four of the Condor sticker used on the back. Both Friedrichshafen and Madgeburg back cancel were applied.

On this flight Blümel was very busy making covers. Besides these Brazilian franks, one finds Germany, Spain, Saar, Holland, Austria and Danzig. No doubt these are all the possibilities, just the ones I've seen at auctions.