There was a total of 16 different cancellation stamps with varying inscriptions. As it was necessary to make several machines with identical inscriptions, these were provided with distinguishing letters. The total number of special Olympic cancellation machines was 193. The special post offices accepted everything except large packages. Telegrams could be sent and telephone calls made. These post offices also maintained a general delivery service and cashed travellers’ cheques. Packages were received and given out at the Olympic Village, at the post office for the general public in the Olympic Stadium, and at certain storage post offices. Due to the measures which had been taken well in advance, the organization functioned smoothly and extraordinary rushes of business on certain days were handled without difficulty. In general, there was only a limited increase in the number of postal money orders, consignments of valuables and packages sent.

The most important of these measures was the employment of about 100 itinerant stamp salesmen (usually 40 at one time in the Olympic Stadium), from whom the public could make the desired purchases without entering the post offices. The same purpose was served by 10 recently developed mobile counters, which were used on this occasion for the first time. At these counters Olympic postage stamps were sold and could also be cancelled at once if desired. The selling was also expedited through the sale of souvenir sheets, on which a complete set of the 8 Olympic stamps had been pasted. These were very much sought after by philatelists and souvenir collectors. Over 200,000 of these sheets were sold during the 16 days. 85,000 such stamp sets were cancelled for the German Sport Assistance alone. Among these were 25,000 sheets on which each individual stamp received a different cancellation. A special stamp sending and cancellation desk was created in the Olympic Postal Bureau of the Charlottenburg 9 Post Office. This desk was intended to relieve some of the burden on the special post offices caused by the collectors’ requirements for stamps. All the requests by letter, which came in from all parts of the world, for the sending and cancellation of Olympic stamps, were dealt with at this desk. 

There was a considerable increase especially in the number of letters sent, due to the crowds of visitors from outside Berlin. In order to assure prompt despatch of this mail, numerous letter boxes were installed at the Reich Sport Field, its entrances, and at the other competition sites, in addition to the letter boxes at the special post offices. The intervals of time between the collections from these additional letter boxes varied according to requirements. The mail collected from these letter boxes was given the appropriate cancellation and taken to the competent Berlin letter sorting offices. Supplementary and additional night collections were made from all street letter boxes in Greater Berlin. The total number of outgoing letters in the period from August 1st to 16th was 102,000,000, or 17,000,000 more than the normal number. The measures taken (the establishment of special cancellation offices, the increase in personnel at the letter sorting offices, increased night service and extension of the office dealing with foreign post) resulted in the smooth functioning of the task of handling the mail, even though this work was made considerably more difficult on account of the greatly increased number of letters addressed to foreign countries.

(Source document:   Official Report 1936, Vol. I, page 390)