2019-11-15 Fri

The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 in accordance with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I.

The Free City included the city of Danzig and other nearby towns, villages, and settlements that were primarily inhabited by Germans. As the Treaty stated, the region was to remain separated from post-World War I Germany and from the newly independent nation of the Second Polish Republic ("interwar Poland"), but it was not an independent state. The Free City was under League of Nations protection and put into a binding customs union with Poland.

Poland was given certain rights pertaining to communication, the railways and port facilities in the city. The Free City was created in order to give Poland access to a well-sized seaport. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazis abolished the Free City and incorporated the area into the newly formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia.

The First autonomous stamp of the Free City of Danzig was issued on 31st January 1921! The stamps were a part of Proclamation of the Free City of Danzig series. Total 12 stamps were issued with the denomination ranging from 5 reichspfennig to 80 reichspfennig and depict armed merchant ship.

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