German Forces in China 1897 - 1917 (Exhibit)
This web page contains links to the content of the exhibit pages for the exhibit 'German Forces in China 1897 - 1917' by the late
Al Kugel.
The German military presence in China and its adjacent waters never exceeded 20,000 men at any one
time, and was usually well under 4,000. It lasted a mere 20 years. Yet it left a rich postal history, thanks
to: Germany’s desire at the time literally to make its mark on the globe, which resulted in well-developed
colonial and military postal systems; the high literacy rate among German troops, which produced a need
for and resulted in the extensive use of those postal systems; and the popularity of philately in Germany
which not only contributed to the creation of many covers at the time, but has resulted in a high degree of
preservation in the intervening years despite the depredations of 2 major wars and subsequent economic
hardships. The following pages trace the course of the German military establishment in China through
the philatelic materials and postal facilities that it used.
This exhibit was created by, and is the property of the late Al Kugel, and is being supplied by his heirs as a courtesy to the Military Postal History Society. (See the MPHS webpage) The Military Postal History Society (MPHS) is a non-profit organization for philatelists and stamp collectors interested in the collecting and studying of the postal aspects of all wars and military actions of all countries, including soldiers' campaign covers, naval mail, occupation and internment covers, patriotics, propaganda, V-mail, censorship and similar related material.
These exhibit page scans were made from black and white photocopies of the original exhibits. Those exhibits were created by Al Kugel many years ago, and are presented here for historical and research purposes. As far as the MPHS is aware, there are no color scans available of these older exhibit pages, nor for any of the illustrated postal history items.
It is unclear whether any pages of this exhibit are missing, since the page total scanned is 126, rather than the 160 usually associated with a 10-frame exhibit.
This exhibit contains 126 pages, divided into 8 frames. Each frame is a single searchable
PDF file.
(See
the PDF information page for additional help with this file format.)
Frame 1 of the Exhibit of German Forces in China
Frame 2 of the Exhibit of German Forces in China
Frame 3 of the Exhibit of German Forces in China
Frame 4 of the Exhibit of German Forces in China
Frame 5 of the Exhibit of German Forces in China
Frame 6 of the Exhibit of German Forces in China
Frame 7 of the Exhibit of German Forces in China
Frame 8 of the Exhibit of German Forces in China
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Updated 8 September 2026