Air mail letter 13.10.1934 from Helsinki/Finland to Rorschach/Switzerland. Rorschach is a small town in the canton of Sankt Gallen. Letter rate from Finland to Switzerland was 1.12.1931 – 31.10.1936 2,50 marks. Air mail surcharge to Switzerland was 2 marks per every starting 20 grams between 1.4.1928 – 30.9.1942. The stamps on the letter form the correct rate (2,50 marks + 2 marks).

The violet 2 marks commemorative stamp of Aleksis Kivi was issued only four days prior so it’s a rather early use for that stamp. The M1930 definitive stamps on the cover were issued in 1930.

The letter was stamped in the morning of 13.10.1934 and was stamped in Berlin the same evening. While air route from Helsinki to Stockholm would eventually connect to Berlin (via Malmö and Copenhagen), this letter could not have been on that route. That’s because the plane started from Helsinki at 15.45 (between 16.8.1934 and 15.10.1934) and landed in Stockholm at 17.30. However, the connection from Malmö to Berlin started at 8.30 the next morning and mail was transported by rail – not by air – from Stockholm to Malmö.

So the only route possible for this letter to make it to Berlin in the same day was via a Tallinn connection. Aero O/Y (later the Finnish Finnair Oy) flew a route between Helsinki and Tallinn daily starting from Helsinki at 9.30 and landing in Tallinn at 10.00 (between 15.4.1934 and 15.12.1934). From there on, Deruluft (a long since defunct airline company) picked up the mail and flew a route Tallinn – Riga – Tilsit – Königsberg – Danzig – Berlin making touchdown in Berlin at 18.15 in the evening. This is consistent with the markings on the letter. Further markings are not readable and how fast the letter would have arrived in Switzerland is pure conjecture. Although the connecting flight from Berlin to Zürich left two hours earlier than the Deruluft flight landed to Berlin it is pretty sure that the letter was not forwarded the same day.