(Photos and text provided by Neil – a collector friend from Israel)
This passport might be one of the rarest that I have come across.
It was issued June 13th, 1939 at the German General Consulate in SHANGHAI to businessman Otto Frössel. What is truly interesting about it that is has visas to the USSR from December 1939, made at the north-eastern Chinese city of Harbin. Then there are the entry cancellations through the Russian frontiers. This is due to the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact several months before. The holder then gets an entry visa done at the German Embassy in Moscow! Entry visas to Lithuania and Latvia. Once in Berlin, the holder gets entry visas to both China and occupied north-east China: Manchuria. Thus returning to Shanghai via Siberia, and remaining there until 1946. Look at this rare stamps, visa and revenues – outstanding!
The rubber stamp at the end of the passport for the German Affairs Commission, according to information from Germany, was introduced by the government of Jiang after the end of WW II and established guidelines on how to proceed with the German citizens residing in China. Assuming, that all Germans who did not want to be expelled from China had to register at this Chinese authority.
OTTO FRÖSSL worked for a German company at the Shanghai branch:
“Deutsche Farben Handelsgesellschaft, Waibel & Co., 261 Szechuen Rd, P.O. Box 1115, Shanghai”. Frössel was in China already from 1924 up to 1949 or 1950, where he returned back to occupied Germany. The visa on page 8 of the passport is signed by Horst Gröpper. In the 1960s he was German ambassador in Moscow, Ankara and Dublin.
Photos and text provided by Neil – a collector friend from Israel
THANK YOU very much Neil for sharing this great item and story. Very well investigated!
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