Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
"
Maybe following a country's downward spiral (such as Nazi Germany or other dictatorships) would make an interesting topical collection... of course any such collection is going to reflect the individual collector's personal opinions... one man's paradise is another's paradise lost!"
Several points sprang to mind! First, this was more or less the reason I began to collect the stamps of the Third Reich around twenty years ago. I was hoping the choice of subject would reflect in some way what concerned the government, or the people, of Germany in those years. I was well aware, as I'm sure we all are, of the major part propaganda played in the course of Hitler's twelve years in power: I wanted to find out how postage stamps were used to further this.
Since then I've amassed pretty well all of the Third Reich stamps (omitting only Ostropa, St Elisabeth and Zeppelins which are beyond my means), so I have an extensive database from which to draw conclusions. I soon discovered, however, that for whatever reasons postage stamps were not the major conduit for day-to-day propaganda I had thought they might be - for that I needed to go to the (rather more expensive) medium of postcards. The stamps told me much else, and of course certain issues concerned the sort of Party glorification we have come to expect. But there was little cult of the supreme leader, the 'Grofaz', and virtually no anti-Semitism.
What have other Third Reich collectors discovered? Can we 'follow the downward spiral' of Hitler's Germany through its stamps? ('Bobstamp' - what do you think?)
Assembling material from postcards and covers has proved more tricky, mainly because of the cost involved. I wonder how 'individual collector's personal opinions' might play a part - since I guess that our personal opinions are pretty similar on this subject at least! But I am not an assiduous hoarder of (say) Hitler images on postcards, as some might be, and that does not have to do with the increased premium on those cards as opposed to others.
The fierce propaganda of the postcards of the Third Reich would seem to contrast with Stalin's Russia, where the hectoring slogans of his wartime stamps have virtually no parallel in Nazi Germany. Has anyone else here made a comparison?
Over to you!
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Ian, I very much enjoy reading what you have to say, but you have this annoying habit of posting about stamps without including pictures of stamps. 
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Quote:
"The fierce propaganda of the postcards of the Third Reich would seem to contrast with Stalin's Russia, where the hectoring slogans of his wartime stamps have virtually no parallel in Nazi Germany. Has anyone else here made a comparison?"
Guthrum...
What a great idea... contrast and compare the stamp and postal stationery items as well as post cards from two of the major dictatorships of World War II as they fought in a cage death match. Follow Germany from its earliest days of glory beginning with the annexation of Austria or marching into the de-militarized Rhineland going into the easy defeat of Poland and France as well as other western European countries. Then follow the first cracks in the foundation with the Battle of Britain, then the early victories in the Soviet Union followed by defeat at Stalingrad followed by the long retreat back to Berlin. The story of the Soviet Union would be the mirror image opposite other than the first few months of the German-Soviet partnership in dividing Poland and giving the Baltics to Stalin.
That could be followed up by an entirely new but related conflict... the Cold War struggle. That has always been a project I would love to do but no time yet 
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Antonio - sorry about the lack of illustration to my posts. (The reason is not interesting: my scans are on one machine, my internet connection on another, the USB stick travels between the two!)
Anyway, to make up for such laziness, here are the pictures which might have made my original post more interesting:
These are the three 1933 Zeppelin overprints which are far too expensive for me to buy. Next up, the two miniature sheets which are likewise left blank in my Third Reich album:
If anyone has one of these to spare, feel free to... oh, never mind!
There is some NSDAP self-advertisement in the TR issues, but by my calculations they account for around 28 of the 400+ stamps issued (I'm not counting watermark or perforation varieties, or officials in that total). Here are three examples:
The swastika is evident in all three, yet I've counted only 30 TR stamps where this is so, the last of them as early as January 1944. I could find no trace of anti-Semitism on any TR stamp - there is a set from Nazi-controlled Serbia which claims to be 'Anti-Masonic' and looks pretty anti-Semitic to me:
What do you think?
The next image, though well-known, is pretty offensive, and I apologise for reminding people of it. However, it underlines my point about the contrast between widely-circulated postcards and the Third Reich's postage stamps:
It shows a poster advertising a travelling exhibition which went around Germany for several months from 1937 to 1938.
Back to stamps. The Soviets had a strong line in written slogans. Here are some:
"Be a Hero!" exhorts the red stamps, and "At the call of the Great Leader Comrade Stalin, the sons of the people of the Soviet Fatherland join the People's Militia." (That one's the jewel in my "Wartime USSR" collection.)
Here we have "Death to the German Invaders!" via a tank brew-up, then my favourite slogan: "Cleanse the Home of the Fascist Beast!". Finally, appropriately, Stalin's famous order "Not a Step Back!"
Nazi Germany preferred the image to the slogan. In its hour of direst need, with the pathetically brave Volkssturm called out, the best slogan it could manage was this:
"Ein Volk Steht Auf". Doubtless it had an urgently colloquial feel in February 1945, and it may have inspired some, but it hasn't that Josef Goebbels feel about it. Google translates it as "A nation is on."
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07:17:19am
" ... Google translates it as "A nation is on." ..."
I'm thinking it means "One Nation stands up..." or idiomatically;
"One nation standing (Or stands) together..." which sounds more patriotic.
I'm sure one of our native German speakers will help out.
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A litteral translation would indeed be "One (or A) Nation stands up", but I think this is more like "A Nation rises" where the German "Ein Volk steht auf" should be seen as short for "... gegen den Feind / das Bolschewismus" which in turn can be translated as "a nation rises (in arms) against the enemy / Bolshevism"
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Idiomatic translation is tough; if you were going to take "Ein Volk steht auf" into English, how about "The Nation Stands As One"?
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I'm happy with any of the German translations offered - of course I was contrasting the very flat automatic offering with the Russian equivalents.
Meanwhile, here are the introductory notes I wrote for my Third Reich album. They may spark a few ideas on the question of whether it is possible to detect the political trajectory of the TR through its stamps.
"Blatant propaganda imagery on the postage stamps of the Third Reich was generally avoided. There were plenty of ‘soft’ issues – literary or scientific anniversaries, summer and winter Olympics, landscape views and (what may have been Reichspostminister Ohnesorge’s personal passion) horse racing. Subjects were seldom martial until the final years of the war, but political gains were noted. Images of acquired territory were incorporated into otherwise neutral subjects: the Vienna Fair, various buildings in the former Czechoslovakia (but never occupied Poland). Definitive stamps featured Hindenburg until as late as 1941; the Hitler heads took eight years to appear (the 1937 souvenir sheets apart). Anti-semitic imagery was absent, though Aryan types appeared, and there were regular references to national or Party organisations and events, as well as Hitler’s birthdays.
"A feature of Third Reich issues was the increasing number of premiums on stamps, beginning with welfare and winter funds, but soon including ‘Hitler’s Culture Fund’ – a profitable diversion of public money into the Führer’s personal treasury, used to furnish his art museum.
"The marked increase in later availability of wartime Third Reich stamp sets suggests that either too many were printed or too few were bought. The reasons remain obscure but may reflect public rejection of surcharges. The eight souvenir sheets in fifteen months from 1936-37 may also reflect an issuing policy discontinued for lack of support."
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I would translate the Volksturm slogan, Ein Volk steht auf as A People Stand Up or Rise Up. In the hodge podge of Nazi ideology, I think Volk represent a quasi mythical word for the people.
My two pfennige,
Bruce
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Guthrum
As you say your German anti-Semitic postcard is pretty dire in it's sentiments. However if you look at it purely as Propagandist Art ( without it's context we know today) - it is a pretty impressive effort, and no doubt whatsoever about it's message.
What I would like to know is howcome the people who espouse more liberal and democratic sentiments seem to be unable to produce equally powerful material. Freedom artists seem to be only able to produce "Degenerate", (as defined by the Nazis) images, rather than art to move the masses. The only exception I can bring to mind are the UK Trade Union banners, which are simultaneously effective propaganda, and an art form in their own right.
Malcolm
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On another thread, 'pathman' posted this interesting comment:
"
Maybe following a country's downward spiral (such as Nazi Germany or other dictatorships) would make an interesting topical collection... of course any such collection is going to reflect the individual collector's personal opinions... one man's paradise is another's paradise lost!"
Several points sprang to mind! First, this was more or less the reason I began to collect the stamps of the Third Reich around twenty years ago. I was hoping the choice of subject would reflect in some way what concerned the government, or the people, of Germany in those years. I was well aware, as I'm sure we all are, of the major part propaganda played in the course of Hitler's twelve years in power: I wanted to find out how postage stamps were used to further this.
Since then I've amassed pretty well all of the Third Reich stamps (omitting only Ostropa, St Elisabeth and Zeppelins which are beyond my means), so I have an extensive database from which to draw conclusions. I soon discovered, however, that for whatever reasons postage stamps were not the major conduit for day-to-day propaganda I had thought they might be - for that I needed to go to the (rather more expensive) medium of postcards. The stamps told me much else, and of course certain issues concerned the sort of Party glorification we have come to expect. But there was little cult of the supreme leader, the 'Grofaz', and virtually no anti-Semitism.
What have other Third Reich collectors discovered? Can we 'follow the downward spiral' of Hitler's Germany through its stamps? ('Bobstamp' - what do you think?)
Assembling material from postcards and covers has proved more tricky, mainly because of the cost involved. I wonder how 'individual collector's personal opinions' might play a part - since I guess that our personal opinions are pretty similar on this subject at least! But I am not an assiduous hoarder of (say) Hitler images on postcards, as some might be, and that does not have to do with the increased premium on those cards as opposed to others.
The fierce propaganda of the postcards of the Third Reich would seem to contrast with Stalin's Russia, where the hectoring slogans of his wartime stamps have virtually no parallel in Nazi Germany. Has anyone else here made a comparison?
Over to you!
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re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
Ian, I very much enjoy reading what you have to say, but you have this annoying habit of posting about stamps without including pictures of stamps.
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30+ year member APS; member of ATA, ISWSC, ATA, PSS, MSS, PMCC, FDCS
21 Sep 2015
11:22:46pm
re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
Quote:
"The fierce propaganda of the postcards of the Third Reich would seem to contrast with Stalin's Russia, where the hectoring slogans of his wartime stamps have virtually no parallel in Nazi Germany. Has anyone else here made a comparison?"
Guthrum...
What a great idea... contrast and compare the stamp and postal stationery items as well as post cards from two of the major dictatorships of World War II as they fought in a cage death match. Follow Germany from its earliest days of glory beginning with the annexation of Austria or marching into the de-militarized Rhineland going into the easy defeat of Poland and France as well as other western European countries. Then follow the first cracks in the foundation with the Battle of Britain, then the early victories in the Soviet Union followed by defeat at Stalingrad followed by the long retreat back to Berlin. The story of the Soviet Union would be the mirror image opposite other than the first few months of the German-Soviet partnership in dividing Poland and giving the Baltics to Stalin.
That could be followed up by an entirely new but related conflict... the Cold War struggle. That has always been a project I would love to do but no time yet
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re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
Antonio - sorry about the lack of illustration to my posts. (The reason is not interesting: my scans are on one machine, my internet connection on another, the USB stick travels between the two!)
Anyway, to make up for such laziness, here are the pictures which might have made my original post more interesting:
These are the three 1933 Zeppelin overprints which are far too expensive for me to buy. Next up, the two miniature sheets which are likewise left blank in my Third Reich album:
If anyone has one of these to spare, feel free to... oh, never mind!
There is some NSDAP self-advertisement in the TR issues, but by my calculations they account for around 28 of the 400+ stamps issued (I'm not counting watermark or perforation varieties, or officials in that total). Here are three examples:
The swastika is evident in all three, yet I've counted only 30 TR stamps where this is so, the last of them as early as January 1944. I could find no trace of anti-Semitism on any TR stamp - there is a set from Nazi-controlled Serbia which claims to be 'Anti-Masonic' and looks pretty anti-Semitic to me:
What do you think?
The next image, though well-known, is pretty offensive, and I apologise for reminding people of it. However, it underlines my point about the contrast between widely-circulated postcards and the Third Reich's postage stamps:
It shows a poster advertising a travelling exhibition which went around Germany for several months from 1937 to 1938.
Back to stamps. The Soviets had a strong line in written slogans. Here are some:
"Be a Hero!" exhorts the red stamps, and "At the call of the Great Leader Comrade Stalin, the sons of the people of the Soviet Fatherland join the People's Militia." (That one's the jewel in my "Wartime USSR" collection.)
Here we have "Death to the German Invaders!" via a tank brew-up, then my favourite slogan: "Cleanse the Home of the Fascist Beast!". Finally, appropriately, Stalin's famous order "Not a Step Back!"
Nazi Germany preferred the image to the slogan. In its hour of direst need, with the pathetically brave Volkssturm called out, the best slogan it could manage was this:
"Ein Volk Steht Auf". Doubtless it had an urgently colloquial feel in February 1945, and it may have inspired some, but it hasn't that Josef Goebbels feel about it. Google translates it as "A nation is on."
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
23 Sep 2015
07:17:19am
re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
" ... Google translates it as "A nation is on." ..."
I'm thinking it means "One Nation stands up..." or idiomatically;
"One nation standing (Or stands) together..." which sounds more patriotic.
I'm sure one of our native German speakers will help out.
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re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
A litteral translation would indeed be "One (or A) Nation stands up", but I think this is more like "A Nation rises" where the German "Ein Volk steht auf" should be seen as short for "... gegen den Feind / das Bolschewismus" which in turn can be translated as "a nation rises (in arms) against the enemy / Bolshevism"
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re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
Idiomatic translation is tough; if you were going to take "Ein Volk steht auf" into English, how about "The Nation Stands As One"?
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re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
I'm happy with any of the German translations offered - of course I was contrasting the very flat automatic offering with the Russian equivalents.
Meanwhile, here are the introductory notes I wrote for my Third Reich album. They may spark a few ideas on the question of whether it is possible to detect the political trajectory of the TR through its stamps.
"Blatant propaganda imagery on the postage stamps of the Third Reich was generally avoided. There were plenty of ‘soft’ issues – literary or scientific anniversaries, summer and winter Olympics, landscape views and (what may have been Reichspostminister Ohnesorge’s personal passion) horse racing. Subjects were seldom martial until the final years of the war, but political gains were noted. Images of acquired territory were incorporated into otherwise neutral subjects: the Vienna Fair, various buildings in the former Czechoslovakia (but never occupied Poland). Definitive stamps featured Hindenburg until as late as 1941; the Hitler heads took eight years to appear (the 1937 souvenir sheets apart). Anti-semitic imagery was absent, though Aryan types appeared, and there were regular references to national or Party organisations and events, as well as Hitler’s birthdays.
"A feature of Third Reich issues was the increasing number of premiums on stamps, beginning with welfare and winter funds, but soon including ‘Hitler’s Culture Fund’ – a profitable diversion of public money into the Führer’s personal treasury, used to furnish his art museum.
"The marked increase in later availability of wartime Third Reich stamp sets suggests that either too many were printed or too few were bought. The reasons remain obscure but may reflect public rejection of surcharges. The eight souvenir sheets in fifteen months from 1936-37 may also reflect an issuing policy discontinued for lack of support."
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06:18:25pm
re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
I would translate the Volksturm slogan, Ein Volk steht auf as A People Stand Up or Rise Up. In the hodge podge of Nazi ideology, I think Volk represent a quasi mythical word for the people.
My two pfennige,
Bruce
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09:51:54am
re: What can its stamps tell us about Nazi Germany?
Guthrum
As you say your German anti-Semitic postcard is pretty dire in it's sentiments. However if you look at it purely as Propagandist Art ( without it's context we know today) - it is a pretty impressive effort, and no doubt whatsoever about it's message.
What I would like to know is howcome the people who espouse more liberal and democratic sentiments seem to be unable to produce equally powerful material. Freedom artists seem to be only able to produce "Degenerate", (as defined by the Nazis) images, rather than art to move the masses. The only exception I can bring to mind are the UK Trade Union banners, which are simultaneously effective propaganda, and an art form in their own right.
Malcolm
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