Centenary of The Natural History Museum in Berlin 17.4.1990

Naturkundemuseum was never going to be a sufficient name for the largest museum of natural history in Germany and one of the most important in the world.

The dinosaurs, fossils and Knut the stuffed polar bear are probably the most popular items with visitors but scientists are more impressed by the size and comprehensiveness of the less glamorous collections. The zoological collection alone consists of 25 million items including 9 million specimens in the mollusk collection alone. The mineral collection covers 75% of the minerals in the world.

The tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world is in the Natural History Museum in Berlin. The well-preserved skull of the of the plant-eating Brachiosaurus brancaitowers 13.27 m above the Guinness Book of World Records certificate confirming that it is the tallest in the world.

Philatelist's Day 11.8.1987

The se-tennant set of stamps on this East German FDC commemorates the "Philatelist's Day" in 1987. The stamps depict Post Offices and the cover shows a postal wagon of old.

Thank you Merja.

The Berlin Fire Brigade 16.6.1987

The Berlin Fire Brigade. The stsmps depict the Fire Engines of 1903 and 1919.

100 years of the Paris Commune

"Working men's Paris, with its Commune, will be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society" -Karl Marx

The Paris Commune or Fourth French Revolution was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 (more formally, from March 28) to May 28, 1871. In a formal sense, it acted as the local authority, the city council (in French, the "commune"), which exercised power in Paris for two months in the spring of 1871 The Commune was the result of an uprising in Paris after France was defeated in the war. This uprising was chiefly caused by the disaster in the war and the growing discontent among French workers. 

However, the conditions in which it formed, its controversial decrees, and the indiscriminate violence with which it was brutally suppressed make its brief tenure one of the more important political episodes in the history of working class revolutions. The Paris Commune existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists, and is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution. Debates over the policies and outcome of the Commune contributed to the break between those two political groups.

Marco sent me this FDC dated 9.3.1971 postmarked in Berlin.

Leipzig Spring Fair 1970

Marco sent me this FDC of the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1970. The GDR issued these two stamps on 24.2.1970 sybolising communications and associated eletrical equipment such as swithgear boards and transformers. This was one of the themes of the Fair.

The Leipzig Autumn Fair 1969

These stamps were issued along with the cover on 27.8.1969 to commemorate the Leipzig Autumn Fair in 1969.

The stamp highlights household goods which was one of themes of this Fair.

Thank you Marco for the FDC.

25 Years of the Berlin Wall

This First Day Cover commemorates the 25^th Anniversary of the Building of the Berlin Wall by the East Germans in 1961. The Berlin Wall(Berliner Mauer) was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.

The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" (Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) by GDR authorities, implying that neighbouring West Germany had not been fully de-Nazified. Marco gave me this card.

Leipzig Autumn Fair 1968

The Leipzig Trade Fair was a major fair for trade across Central Europe for nearly a millennium. After the Second World War, its location happened to lie within the borders of East Germany, whereupon it became one of the most important trade fairs of Comecon and was traditionally a meeting place for businessmen and politicians from both sides of the Iron Curtain.

The history of the Leipzig fairs goes back to the Middle Ages. A fair held at Leipzig is first mentioned in 1165. In 1190 Otto the Rich, margrave of Saxony instigated two trade fairs in Leipzig, at Easter (Jubilate) and Michaelmas. No other fair was to be held up to a mile away (Marktbann), and the bridges and streets were freed from toll. The Michaelmas fair was held at the church of St. Nikolai, built in 1176. At this time, there were fairs at other Saxon towns like Freiberg, Leisnig, Pegau and Regis as well. In 1268 all foreign merchants travelling to or living in Leipzig got safe conduct for their persons and their goods, even if their Rulers were at war with Saxony. This led to the settlement of numerous merchants in Leipzig. Trade goods now included herring, cloth, wine and pepper.

The Leipzig Opera traces its establishment to the year 1693, making it the third oldest opera venue in Europe after La Fenice (Venice, Italy) and the Hamburg State Opera (Hamburg, Germany). The director of many of those early operas was Telemann.

The Leipzig Opera does not have its own opera orchestra, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra performs as the orchestra for the opera. This relationship dates back to 1766, with performances of the Singspiel Die verwandelten Weiber, oder Der Teufel ist los by Johann Adam Hiller. During an air raid in the night of December 3, 1943, the theater was destroyed, as were all Leipzig's theatres.

During the Leipzig Fair in 1968 a Model Train exhibition was held in the Opera House. This stamp and the FDC were issued to commemorate the event. The Opera House is depicted on the special cancellation and so is the Double M which is the logo of the fair.Thank you Marco for this nice FDC.

VII Congress of The Socialist Unity Party of Germany

The FDC shown was issued to commemorate the VII Congress of The Socialist Unity Party of Germany held from 17th to the 22nd April 1967.

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), in English widely referred to as the East German Communist Party, was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, GDR) from the formation of the Republic on 7 October 1949 until the 1989 revolution, which culminated in the free elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology, considered to be Stalinist in the first years of the GDR's existence. Under its rule, the GDR functioned nominally as a multi-party state with elections that were neither free nor fair, with the SED playing a central role. Other parties in alliance with the SED were the Christian Democratic Union, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Farmers' Party, and the National Democratic Party. In the 1980s, the SED rejected the policies of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, such as perestroika and glasnost, maintaining its central role in governing the state. The Party maintained this stance until the collapse of the GDR in the autumn of 1989.

The party's dominant figure from 1950 to 1971, and effective leader of East Germany, was Walter Ulbricht. He was succeeded by Erich Honecker, who only stepped down during the 1989 revolution. The party's last leader, Egon Krenz, was unsuccessful in his attempt to retain the SED's hold on political governance the GDR, and was sentenced to prison after the German reunification.

East Germany was viewed as an illegitimate Stalinist puppet state by much of the population, and the SED party was regularly referred to as "the Russian party."

On 16 December 1989, the SED was dissolved and refounded as the Party of Democratic Socialism, abandoning Marxism-Leninism and becoming a mainstream democratic left party. In 2007, the party merged into The Left. Thank you Marco for this FDC.

Spring Festival in Marzahn in 1981

Hans-Hermann Schlicker is a German graphic artist, painter and book illustrator.

Hans-Hermann Schlicker grew up in Leipzig on. After his release from American captivity in late 1946, he returned back to his home and took his A-levels. Then he studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. Later he became a master student at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Since 1956 he has worked as a freelance artist. His work includes numerous book illustrations, theater posters (eg for the German Theatre in Berlin), press drawings, prints, portraits and watercolors. He also illustrated some of the popular books in the GDR youth magazine series The New Adventures. Many of his watercolors are inspired by long-distance travel, but also through theater scenes.

Since 1992 he was responsible for the Berlin newspapers and books published miniatures of buildings in Berlin. He now lives in Bad Pyrmont. This cover commemorates his Berlin Miniatures during the District Spring Festival in a suburb of Berlin – the new town created by the communists in the ‘70s to overcome the acute shortage of housing in Berlin.

Thank you Marco for this cover.