Feldpost: Decoding Your Family's German War Letters from WWI and WWII

They were written on the knees of soldiers in trenches, in barracks during rare quiet hours, on scraps of paper when proper stationery ran out. Feldpost — the German military mail system — transported an almost incomprehensible volume of correspondence during both World Wars: roughly 28.7 billion items in WWI and an estimated 30–40 billion in WWII. Millions of these letters survived and are now in family collections worldwide. For American families with German roots, they're often the most emotionally powerful documents in the entire family archive — and the hardest to read.

How the Feldpost System Worked

Feldpost was free or heavily subsidized mail between soldiers and the home front. Instead of a geographic address, each military unit received a Feldpostnummer — a numeric code that served as the mailing address while concealing the unit's actual location. Soldiers wrote their Feldpostnummer as the return address; families at home wrote it as the destination. This system was remarkably efficient: even at the peak of fighting, a letter from the Eastern Front to a village in Bavaria might arrive within a week.

For genealogists, these numbers are gold. Feldpostnummern can be cross-referenced with historical military databases to determine exactly which unit your ancestor served in and where that unit was deployed on any given date. The German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv) and several online databases maintain comprehensive Feldpostnummer directories. A single legible envelope can place your ancestor at Verdun, Stalingrad, or North Africa on a specific day.

The Script Challenge: WWI vs. WWII

Feldpost collections often span both wars — and the handwriting changes dramatically between them.

WWI Feldpost (1914–1918): These soldiers were born in the 1870s–1890s and wrote exclusively in Kurrent — the oldest and most difficult German script for modern readers. The angular, pointed letterforms are challenging enough on clean paper; under field conditions with dull pencils on thin military-issue paper, they become truly demanding. WWI Feldpost in pencil that has faded over 110 years represents one of the hardest transcription challenges. For background on this script, see our guide to identifying Kurrent, Suetterlin, and Fraktur.

WWII Feldpost (1939–1945): Here the picture is more complex. Older soldiers (born before ~1920) typically wrote in Suetterlin. Younger men, especially those schooled after the 1941 script reform, might use Latin cursive or a hybrid mix. A single family collection can contain letters from a father in Suetterlin, a son in Latin cursive, and an uncle in something in between. The AI at GermanLetters adapts to each writer's individual style automatically.

Reading Between the Lines: Censorship Marks

All Feldpost was subject to military censorship. Spot-checks were conducted, and letters that revealed locations, troop movements, or morale problems were confiscated or redacted. You'll often see:

Blacked-out passages: Individual words or phrases obscured with ink or marker — typically location names or unit identifiers.

Cut-out sections: Physically removed portions of the letter where sensitive information appeared.

Censor stamps: Official markings (often "Geprüft" — checked) indicating the letter passed inspection.

These aren't defects — they're historical evidence. When transcribing Feldpost, GermanLetters marks visibly censored passages rather than attempting to reconstruct them.

What Feldpost Letters Contain

The content of war letters is profoundly varied. Soldiers wrote about the mundane (food quality, weather, lice), the desperate (combat, casualties, fear), and the deeply personal (longing for family, worries about the farm, instructions for raising children). Many letters are carefully self-censored — soldiers avoided distressing details to protect their families. Others are startlingly raw. Together, they form an unmatched record of wartime human experience.

For German-American families, Feldpost often documents both sides of the Atlantic divide. Letters may have been sent by relatives in Germany to family in America — or between German-American soldiers serving in the U.S. military and cousins in the German forces. These documents tell stories found in no other source. For the broader context of these transatlantic connections, see our article on German-American genealogy.

Handling and Photographing Feldpost

War letters are among the most fragile documents you'll encounter. Thin military paper, pencil writing, exposure to moisture and dirt — many have survived against the odds. Handle them minimally: unfold gently, never press flat, and avoid touching the writing surface. When photographing:

Capture both sides of every letter — soldiers often wrote on both sides and sometimes in the margins.

Photograph the envelope separately — the Feldpostnummer, stamps, censor marks, and addresses all carry genealogical information.

Use even, diffused lighting — pencil writing on thin paper requires good contrast. Flash creates glare that obscures pencil strokes. For detailed photography techniques, see our document digitization guide.

GermanLetters handles the unique challenges of Feldpost: pencil on thin paper, military abbreviations, period-specific vocabulary, and the full range of scripts from Kurrent through post-war Latin. Upload your first pages free and give these wartime voices — silent for decades — a chance to be heard again.