Alsace was one of the first regions in France to build railroads. As early as 1839, a 20 km long track was opened between Mulhouse and Thann. When the war broke out in 1870, the railway network in Alsace and Lorraine included nearly 750 km of lines. The French Empire declared war on Prussia on July 19, 1870. The entry of German troops in Alsace-Lorraine at the beginning of August 1870 interrupted the French railway post in these territories (the last French railway postmarks were issued in mid-August).

The destruction of the railroads disrupted the postal service, but it took only a few weeks for the Prussian occupiers to re-establish the rail service in Alsace-Lorraine. The first line re-opened for mail transport was the Nancy-Frankfurt line, and it was from October 1870 onwards that the Alsatian lines were gradually put back into service, first between Wissembourg and Saverne and between Haguenau and Niederbronn-les-Bains.

At the beginning of the occupation, the railway postal service in Alsace-Lorraine was handled by the army, but the civil administration quickly took over. On October 10, 1870, the "Bahnpostamt Nr. 23" was created in Strasbourg, in charge of organizing the postal railway service in Alsace. On September 1, 1871, "Directorate Nr. 12" was transferred from Saarbrücken to Metz.

The first handwritten cancellations from the railway post were found in March 1871 in Forbach, Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Wissembourg. The first Prussian railway postmark was dated March 23, 1871 on the Luxembourg - Metz line.

This book by Michel Frick is a catalog of the railway postal lines of Alsace-Lorraine from March to December 1871, a period covering the re-opening of the railway post until the end of use of occupation stamps. The different mobile post offices and the conveyors are listed with reproduction of the stamps seen on the mails.

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