Commercial postal item of Franz Waldmann, Papierfabrikenniederlage, Wien IV, Brucknerstraße 6, bearing an Austrian postage-meter impression dated 19th April 1938.

Although Austria had been incorporated into the German Reich on 13th March 1938, the meter impression still bears the country designation “ÖSTERREICH” and records the postage as 18 Groschen.

The item dates from the special postal transition following the Anschluss. From 4th April 1938, the ordinary inland letter rate was calculated at the German rate of 12 Reichspfennig, while payment could still be expressed in Austrian currency at the conversion of 1 Reichspfennig = 1½ Groschen. Consequently, 12 Reichspfennig equalled the 18 Groschen shown by this meter impression.

The cover therefore provides a particularly clear contemporary illustration of the postal and monetary absorption of Austria into Nazi Germany, with the old Austrian postal identity and currency still visibly surviving only weeks after the Anschluss. Ref: 19.04.1938 - 18/68 (Note: the reverse of this cover is blank and of no interest).