For collectors of Lithuania Memel is a special area, because the (postal) history is different from other Lithuania.
Until 1918 the city was named Memel and belonged the city and the area around it -the Memel-area- most of the time to Germany.
Klaipėda, the former Memel, is located in the south-west of Lithuania, and is now the main port of Lithuania.
Original print size of this image: 14,004 x 9,280 cm (is something more as the postal item)
This picture and all pictures below on this page, if not mentioned otherwise: scanned about 300 dpi. Then set right and cut out - noted the actual print size-, resized 25 % of this image and saved as jpg.
In 1252 the Teutonic Knights built a castle on this site, Memelburg. Then Klaipėda remained the most time among German-speaking administration. For a moment, from 1629 to 1635, the area was Swedish, and between 1757 and 1762 the city was briefly in Russian hands.
The German period lasts until after the First World War and the postal history is part of the German postal history.
The area then is part of East Prussia. With the creation of the united German state in 1871, Memel became the most northeasterly city of Germany.
The postmark, resized 50 %.
The known 'double-circle with bars' postmarks - as we see here on this card- were introduced in December 1887 in the main post office of Berlin. July 1890, these postmarks were used anywhere in the area of the Reichspost. The size of the postmarks, 24-30 mm, overcame a major obstacle of former postmark-makers: there was enough room for the long German place names. Older postmarks also continued in use as long as possible: they were too expensive to replace (30 marks each).
A nice picture of the lighthouse of Memel, also known as: Memel North Mole Light.
The original tower is dated 1884: White round tower; about 30 feet tall. On the side next the sea the town was defended by a citadel and other fortifications, and the entrance to the harbor was protected by a lighthouse. The entrance to Memel lay between two moles. In 1884 during the reconstruction of the port there was finally finished the construction of the northern breakwater and on the 16th of December at the end of the breakwater there was lit a red light in the so called Small or White lighthouse (it was depicted on 200 litas banknote). At the end of the southern breakwater for some time there was also a light signal. In 1927 in its place was built 7.35m high lighthouse (10 m above the sea level) and a green light was lighted.
The Second World War was merciless for Baltic lighthouses.
In 1945 in January Nazis blew up Klaipeda lighthouse. The White lighthouse and northern breakwater disappeared.
The lighthouse on this card is destroyed during World War II.
The card is sent as fieldpost on July 22, 1916.
Original print size of this image: 13,750 x 8,848 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50%.
The German stamp of Klaipėda, Memel- is quite easy to find, but for the other places later in Lithuanian territory it is more difficult, also because many place names changed. The name of the current Lithuanian place Šilute was in the German period Heydekrug.
Original print size of this image: 19,482 x 13,285 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50 %.
The book 'Šilute'(two parts) of Zbignevas Steponavičius gives an overview of the postal history of Šilute, all periods, postmarks (see literature below)
On the backside also a mark of the sender, the 'königlichen Amtsgericht Heydekrug'.
The German name of Heydekrug referred to a Krug (an archaic word for inn) in the Heide (heathland). The name is spelled in history different, but in 1871 it became official Heydekrug. The Lithuanians has a Lithuanian name and before 1923 it was Šilokarčema.
The meaning of the names is desribed in GenWiki
- Old-Prussian "šila, sila, sylo" = heath, heathland, spruce forest
- Prussian-Lithuanian "šilas" = heath, sandy heath, spruce forest, but also thyme and the month September
- Old-Prussian "karcemo, karczemo, karcemo" = inn, combined with food market
Here we see an official letter from Ruß -in the postmark Russ-, the Lithuanian Rusnė, with the double circle postmark. At the end of the (first) German period the postmarks change shape: the 'bridge' is an empty semicircle, without bars.
The postmark, resized 50%.
The letter is frank-free and on the backside we see the official mark (resized 50%)
Original print size of this image of the cover: 20,091 x 13,419 cm (is something more as the postal item)
On this map from a travelguide (1930) Rusnė is located near the border with Germany.
Rusnė is now also border town, located in southwestern Lithuania, but on the Russian border (Kaliningrad).
The French postage stamps - Mi. 18-33 - are printed in the State Printing house in Paris. Here a card with some of these stamps, sent June 28, 1921, from Heydekrug. 
