Official judicial cover from the Amtsgericht Kreuzburg O.S. (District Court of Kreuzburg, Upper Silesia), case 3 C 99/34, addressed to Firma Gebr. Gidion, Zigarrenfabriken, Mittelstraße 10a, Stuttgart. The printed instruction “Hierbei ein Formblatt zur Zustellungsurkunde – Vereinfachte Zustellung” indicates that the envelope accompanied documentation relating to the formal service of a legal document. The reverse bears the official seal of the Amtsgericht Kreuzburg incorporating contemporary German state symbolism. Kreuzburg O.S., then in German Upper Silesia, is present-day Kluczbork in Poland. The recipient, Gebrüder Gidion, was a Jewish-owned cigar-manufacturing concern founded by the brothers Jacob Gidion (born 1860) and Richard Gidion (1865–1927) at Nordstetten in 1889; the business moved to Stuttgart after the First World War. The cover is therefore an interesting surviving example of official German judicial correspondence addressed to a Jewish commercial concern during the first year following the Nazi seizure of power. No evidence has presently been found demonstrating that case 3 C 99/34 itself concerned anti-Jewish persecution or the later “Aryanisation” process, and no such connection should be assumed without further evidence. Philatelically, the cover is also significant for its use of the earlier Weimar-period 50 Pfennig Dienstmarke, Michel Mi. 111, which remained valid until 30th June 1934. Its use on this February 1934 cover occurred shortly after the introduction of the new Nazi-era official-stamp series on 18th January 1934 and illustrates the authorised exhaustion of existing stocks of the preceding official stamps. Ref: 27.02.1934 - 2/69