The town of Jurbarkas (in Russian: Jurburg, in German: Georgenburg) lies on the north side of the river Nemunas and is recorded to have had, since a few centuries ago, a relay station or some postal facility on the old postal route between Kaunas and Tilsit and so on to East Prussia, Germany and the rest of Western Europe.
In World War One, as a staging site Jurbarkas was occupied by Bavarian cavalry (Bayersche Kavallerie-Division) a few days before Armeegruppe Lauenstein launched its advance into Žemaitija and Courland on April 27, 1915.
After German army’s withdrawal from Russia at the end of 1918, Jurbarkas was retained as one of the bases by German border guards and was part of the zone overseen by Generalkommando 52. In the second half of 1919, the area with its access to shipping on the river Nemunas was also of interest to Bermondt’s Westarmee, thus creating tensions between “bermontininkai” and Lithuanians.
Jurbarkas had had a post office (Jurburg) in czarist times but none during the German occupation. In 1919, German troops active in the area made use of postal facilities at Tilsit. To set up a Lithuanian post office the Pašto Valdyba issued a mandate well in advance, as early as December 22, 1918. The įgaliotinis was Jonas Smetonis who seems to have stayed on the following year and probably longer. It is not clear when the Jurbarkas post office was actually opened but an unconfirmed report places this event in March 1919.
It is also not clear which Lithuanian stamp issues were available to begin with. Though a Second Kaunas 50 value has survived on a late-date (November 1919) philatelic cover, it is more likely that the first provision consisted of Fourth Berlin Issue, then followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc.
Though Jurbarkas had no regular postmarker to start with, thus far there has been no surviving evidence of cancelling by manuscript. The earliest known cancelling was done by a centrally supplied seal-like circular cachet, inscribed “JURBARKAS PAŠT. – TELEGR.” with a Vytis in the centre. The date was added by means of a separate one-liner cachet with the month written in cyrillic.
A regular calendar-type postmarker can be seen on complete sets of Second Berlin and Third Berlin Issues, with dates 27. IV. 19, 12. V. 19 etc. Almost certainly such cancelling-to-order was carried out in Kaunas, not in Jurbarkas, in the same semi-legal circumstances as the similar employment of postmarkers produced for 9 other post offices. The “JURBARKAS” postmarker was brought to Jurbarkas only at a later date.
Not having a cachet for registration, Jurbarkas made use of home-made hectographed labels showing an “R” and “Jurbarkas”.
Occasionally the place-name was supplemented by “Lietuva” or a Germanised equivalent “Georgenburg”.
The numerous presence of German border guards in Jurbarkas explains why a large proportion of covers stemming from there are philatelically-motivated and addressed to Germany.
Known provisional markings:
Cancelling by a seal-like cachet:
22 APR [cyrillic] 1919 cover to Kaunas, Berlin IV 30 [colln. ?]
No date cover to Kaunas [reported by Norton]
No date cover to Kaunas [reported by Norton]
No date cover to Kaunas [reported by Norton]
No date cover to Kaunas [reported by Norton]Registration by MS label:
69 9. VII. 19 cover to Germany, label with no addn. [colln. Bubnys]
88 18. VII. 19 cover to Germany , label with no addn., Berlin IV 30 x4 [colln ?]
211 14. VIII. 19 cover to Germany, label addn. (Georgenburg), Berlin IV 20, 40, 60 [colln. Ušpuras]
212 14. VIII. 19 cover to Germany, label addn. (Georgenburg), Berlin IV 10 x2, 1a [colln. Bubnys]
224 16. VIII. 19 cover to Germany, label addn. (Georgenburg), Berlin IV 15, 30, 75 [colln. ?]
396 16. IX. 19 cover to Germany, label addn. Lietuva, Kaunas II 50 and various Berlin IV [colln. Doniela]