Postage scale

On 4 May 1945, a group of fourteen postal workers from Poznań arrived in Szczecin. Their task was to open the first post office in the city. Franciszek Mika, appointed its first director, started his tenure from taking over the building on Gabelsbergerstrasse (today Pocztowa 5). Overnight, postal workers removed the rubble, and on 5 May they opened the first Polish post office in post-war Szczecin, which saw unexpected droves of people on that day. Many settlers wanted to notify their families of their fate by sending them letters. There were so many letters that the only punch brought from Poznań proved to be insufficient. They found an old German device, removed the German inscription and started to stamp letters, adding the Polish name Szczecin by hand in ink. Polish postal workers initially also used other equipment left behind by their German counterparts. Some of it included a letter scale, which could also be used for weighing parcels thanks to a movable weight. Until 5 July 1945, the postal workers from Poznań left and returned to the unstable Szczecin twice.

Anna Lew-Machniak