German East Africa, or Deutsch Ostafrika (in German), was a colony in east Africa, encompassing present day Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanganyika. The colony was founded by Carl Peters, who forged a treaty with native tribes and began developing the new country. The Germans relied heavily on the native chieftains to keep order and collect taxes in the colony. They focused on infrastructure building and economic development which made the colony prosperous, and they instituted a primary and secondary educational system for the local inhabitants, which was unsurpassed by any other colonial government in Africa. From 1885 to 1891, regular German definitive postage stamps were used in the East African colony. In 1892, the regular German definitive postage stamps were surcharged, as show above, in the local currency -- 64 Pesa = 1 Rupee. Varieties of these stamps exist with the surcharges in different widths. In 1896, regular German definitive postage stamps were again used, but were overprinted Deutsch-ostafrika and surcharged in the local currency, diagonally, as shown above. The first official definitive issues for the German colony were issued in 1900, ranging in denominations from 2 Pesa through 3 Rupees. The new designs depicted the Kaisers yacht, Hohenzollern, on all the denominations. The 2 Rupee value is depicted at the top of this page. In 1905, the local currency was changed to 100 Heller = 1 Rupee. The smaller denomination yacht stamps were changed to have the values expressed in Heller, as shown above, where the high value denominations remained in Rupees. All of the stamp issues from 1893 - 1905 were printed on unwatermarked paper. Those from 1905 through 1916 were printed on paper that was watermarked lozenges. The 1905 small yacht issues, denominated in Heller, as shown above, were printed on both types of paper.
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 11:47:56 +0000
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