Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Offset printing by Westermann and/or Bagel
5 different buildings are shown:
h) Römer (Frankfurt am Main)
i) Frauenkirche (Munich)
k) Cologne Cathedral
l) Brandenburg Gate (Berlin)
m) Holstentor (Lübeck)
Building serie WEIT GEZAHNT
Building serie ENG GEZAHNT
Michel number 73-100 can be divided according to the following characteristics:
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1) COLORS:
The colors of the stamps in the building series vary greatly.
They were manufactured by the Hostmann-Steinberg’s paint factories in Celle.
The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bautenserie 1948 e.V. has carried out an extensive color analysis and designated the color shades that occur according to the Kornerup-Wanscher color dictionary.
In addition to the already mentioned completely different colors for individual value levels, the collectors only differentiate basic color variants for the values 15 and 40 Pf:
82 a
82 b
82 c
90 Type I a
90 Type I b
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2) Watermark differences:
The paper for the stamps of the building series was produced by the company Louis Staffel (internal company name of the watermark "Johannes") in Witzenhausen, and the gumming was done by the company Alfred Wegener in Alfeld / Leine.
Watermark 1 (DP and lines), which was also used later by the Deutsche Bundespost, was used as the watermark. It appears in four different positions, with the upright letters being the rule for the pfennig values and the horizontal ones for the market values.
In order to save paper - or perhaps accidentally - paper was occasionally placed across the printing press.
For example, with 2 Pf, there is the watermark Z, which is rare in one perforation, and with 20 Pf there is the watermark Y and Z, which is rare in some perforations. Both watermarks otherwise only appear in the mark values.
Watermark 1W standing letters falling lines
Watermark 1X standing letters rising lines
Watermark 1Y lying letters rising lines
Watermark 1Z lying letters falling lines
Inadvertently, some sheets of the 5 Pf stamp and the one at 1 DM were printed on the paper not intended for the series with the watermark "Wavy lines". Since most of these brands were used up undetected and most of them probably ended up in the wastebasket, these pieces are not the rarity of a “Blue Mauritius”, but they are traded at auctions at impressive prices.
Watermark 3X falling wavy line
Watermark 3Y rising wavy line
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3) Differences in perforation:
The printing companies commissioned with the production of the stamps also ran the perforation of stamp sheets through.
While today a complete arch is perforated in one operation, they have both printing works initially only on line serration machines, Westermann additionally via comb perforation machines with which only a row or crevice teeth was possible.
Initially, only strips with the perforation dimensions 11, 11½ and 14 were available as dimensions for the line perforation machines, and combs with the dimension 11¼ : 11 for the comb perforation machines.
It was not until the end of 1948 that Bagel began to experiment with perforation machines with a 14: 14¼ size.
After initial difficulties, only this perforation was used at both printing houses.
The existing serration strips were also used mixed, which in turn created some curiosities and rarities in the building series.
For a long time it was quite common for Bagels to perf the stamp sheets on all sides with one line perforation measure (standard was 11:11) as well as two-sided mixed perforation (mostly in 11½: 11).
There are also one-sided mixed perfs, of which the L 11: 11: 11: 11½ perforation is the best known among the market values.
A number of these variants are quite rare and are sought after by many collectors.
Since such perforations are extremely susceptible to forgery, they should only be purchased if they have been checked by the responsible association auditor.
If you summarize all these drawing variants with the previously known watermark and perforation combinations, the result is the impressive number of almost 240 different brands.
Below an overview of the different perforations, watermarks and different staircases :
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4) The Mark values and there staircases :
The mark values were originally drawn with 7 lines in the archway of the Holsten Gate (the so-called staircase).
For Type I, Bagel removed three of these lines by retouching, creating the “short staircase”.
On some stamps, however, the retouched lines or parts of them have been preserved, and so we know subtype Ib with five strokes for 3 DM and subtype Ic with 7 strokes for DM 5.
On other fields, however, one line too many was accidentally removed, which is why there is subtype Ia with only 3 lines for 1 DM, 3 DM and 5 DM.
For Type II of the mark values, Westermann added the number of lines back to 7 (long staircase) and also hatched the bands vertically in the base of the right tower.
Short stairs (3 steps)
Flat stairs (4 steps)
Middle stairs (5 steps)
Long stairs (7 steps)
High staircase (7 steps and ribbon grille)
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5) Type differences:
The Cologne Cathedral stamps have lots of differences in both the number values as their drawings.
a) Numbers :
b) Drawing of the Cathedral :
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6) How to distinguish printings between Westermann And Bagel.
Westermann print starts with the number "2" on the bottom of the sheet
Bagel print starts with the number "1" on the bottom of the sheet
Westermann numbering at the top of the sheet
Bagel numbering at the top of the sheet
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Yet another awesome and very informative description of these early German stamps!
Thanks very much HockeyNut!
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Hello and thanks HockeyNut.
In Michel's catalogue it is mentioned how the printing plate is manufactured (different for the two companies Westermann and Bagel) and the appearance of field characteristics called primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary characteristics.
I am interested in any source of information about the description of these characteristics. (see the example of the primary characteristics-PM- for the 3 Marks Type II stamp).
The stamp with plate flaw VI (C united with H) is described in the Michel catalogue with SM3 (SM=Sekundarmerkmale=secondary characteristic).
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Thank you for this excellent, thorough presentation! I really appreciate it.
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Hello Gerom,
maybe this helps but I have to warn you, most of the literatur is in the German language.
https://www.bautenserie1948.com/die-plattierung/druckplattenaufbau-bei-westermann/
https://www.bautenserie1948.com/die-plattierung/druckplattenaufbau-bei-der-fa-bagel/
Maybe this special catalog is something for you :
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Hello HockeyNut,
Thanks so much for the address. Just what I need to learn.
For the German language I do better with "deepL translate" than with "google translate".
Of this series of stamps I have 2-3 copies of each value.
Of the 3 stamps of 3 Marks that I have ,2 are with plate flaw : the one posted yesterday and the one of today which is PF X (weiser Fleck unten an rechten Fenster in der 2 Turmetage-QM350-B/nur type II)
I don't know for sure but I think Bauten ARGE have published papers showing the planking for different values in the series (see 50pf, pane NW, sheet 2, column 7-from ARGE).
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Another great post “HockeyNut”, you really are the Jedi Master of German stamps.
THIS ACCESS TO INFO AND EXPERTISE ALONE SHOULD ENTICE MORE FOLKS TO BECOME MEMBERS!
Cheers, Dave
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"Another great post HockeyNut, you really are the Jedi Master of German stamps."
Thank you Dave for the compliments.
Of course I have the great advantage that I can read both English and German.
And most of the literature on the German stamps is, logically, in the German language.
Of course I have the necessary literature, but for the last 20 to 25 years the internet has been the most important medium for quickly obtaining information.
A comment has to be made because in recent years the internet has been flooded with information that is not always correct.
And then those special books are a godsend.
Hopefully all my contributions have given you more insight into the German stamps and their history.
Henry
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Hockey Nut.
Once again your philatelic research is both informative and inspirational. Appreciate how you set the stage and then “tell the story”.
Thank you.
Calstamp
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I concur!
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Until I saw the OP's post, I had no idea that these stamps existed as separate sets, nor that each set included a stamp or stamps picturing the Medieval "Holstentor" (city gate) of Lübeck. I was unaware of Lübeck's existence until I started researching this postcard:
It was posted on July 26, 1940, by Joseph M. Hicks, a Canadian airman in training as an observer (combination navigator/bombardier) at a British Commonwealth Air Training Plan school in Regina, Saskatchewan. With the help of a researcher in Denmark, I learned that Joe was killed in April, 1942 when his Hampden bomber crash landed on Funen Island, Denmark following the second of four consecutive raids on Rostock, Germany. The connection with Lübeck? Lübeck was the target for the wordl'sl first incendiary raid against an enemy city, Area Bombing Directive issued to the RAF on 14 February 1942 which authorised the targeting of civilian areas.
The first wave of bombers to arrive over Lübeck dropped high-explosive bombs which reduced many of the city centre’s ancient wooden buildings to flinders; the bombers that followed dropped incendiary bombs into the rubble in the hopes that the combination of plentiful fuel (shattered wooden buildings) and incendiary bombs would result in a firestorm that would obliterate the city. That didn’t happen — it turned out that fire storms depend on just the right combination of fuel, air temperature, humidity, and wind. That’s exactly what happened in Hamburg and Nurumberg, later in the war. Lübeck was spared from a firestorm, but, nevertheless, much of the central part of the city was reduced to ashes. The same strategy was used in the raids on Rostock, but a fire storm didn’t develop there, either. (Rostock was chosen as a target because of the presence of factories that were building warplanes and u-boats, but while the raids were characterized as great successes by the RAF, the factories that were targeted were back in production within days.
The raids against both Rostock and Lübeck were hailed as great successes by the RAF, but in reality largely failed to halt production of war matériel or destroy Germans’ will to fight. If anything, the raids strengthened the resolve of Germans to win the war, and the Luftwaffe retaliated by beginning the so-called “Baedeker Raids” raids against Great Britain, so named because targets were selected by using German tourist guidebooks, which included detailed maps. Among those targets was the ancient city of Coventry.
The German claim that the Baedeker Raids were a response to the raids on Lübeck and Rostock was a red herring: In the summer of 1940, Luftwaffe bombers had destroyed large parts of Warsaw and then Rotterdam. Rotterdam had been declared an open city by the neutral Dutch, and had capitulated, but a German squadron commander ignored an order to call off the raid. Some 900 Dutch citizens were killed and much of the city destroyed in a firestorm.
Now I'll have to find some copies of those German definitives picturing the Lübeck gate!
Bob
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Thanks for the story Bob.
From wikipedia :
The Holstentor is one of the two remaining gateways to the German Hanseatic city of Lübeck.
This late Gothic building consists of two towers with an entrance gate between them and was built in the 15th century. It is an example of the Northern European Brick Gothic. Over the centuries, the tower sank 50 cm and had to be restored a number of times to prevent it from collapsing completely.
Today the gate is a museum where the history of Lübeck in the field of seafaring and trade is shared with you in an interactive way.
Since 1987, the gate has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Before the euro's there was even a 50 Deutsch Marks banknote with this tower :
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The building series of the allied occupation.
Offset printing by Westermann and/or Bagel
5 different buildings are shown:
h) Römer (Frankfurt am Main)
i) Frauenkirche (Munich)
k) Cologne Cathedral
l) Brandenburg Gate (Berlin)
m) Holstentor (Lübeck)
Building serie WEIT GEZAHNT
Building serie ENG GEZAHNT
Michel number 73-100 can be divided according to the following characteristics:
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
1) COLORS:
The colors of the stamps in the building series vary greatly.
They were manufactured by the Hostmann-Steinberg’s paint factories in Celle.
The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bautenserie 1948 e.V. has carried out an extensive color analysis and designated the color shades that occur according to the Kornerup-Wanscher color dictionary.
In addition to the already mentioned completely different colors for individual value levels, the collectors only differentiate basic color variants for the values 15 and 40 Pf:
82 a
82 b
82 c
90 Type I a
90 Type I b
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
2) Watermark differences:
The paper for the stamps of the building series was produced by the company Louis Staffel (internal company name of the watermark "Johannes") in Witzenhausen, and the gumming was done by the company Alfred Wegener in Alfeld / Leine.
Watermark 1 (DP and lines), which was also used later by the Deutsche Bundespost, was used as the watermark. It appears in four different positions, with the upright letters being the rule for the pfennig values and the horizontal ones for the market values.
In order to save paper - or perhaps accidentally - paper was occasionally placed across the printing press.
For example, with 2 Pf, there is the watermark Z, which is rare in one perforation, and with 20 Pf there is the watermark Y and Z, which is rare in some perforations. Both watermarks otherwise only appear in the mark values.
Watermark 1W standing letters falling lines
Watermark 1X standing letters rising lines
Watermark 1Y lying letters rising lines
Watermark 1Z lying letters falling lines
Inadvertently, some sheets of the 5 Pf stamp and the one at 1 DM were printed on the paper not intended for the series with the watermark "Wavy lines". Since most of these brands were used up undetected and most of them probably ended up in the wastebasket, these pieces are not the rarity of a “Blue Mauritius”, but they are traded at auctions at impressive prices.
Watermark 3X falling wavy line
Watermark 3Y rising wavy line
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
3) Differences in perforation:
The printing companies commissioned with the production of the stamps also ran the perforation of stamp sheets through.
While today a complete arch is perforated in one operation, they have both printing works initially only on line serration machines, Westermann additionally via comb perforation machines with which only a row or crevice teeth was possible.
Initially, only strips with the perforation dimensions 11, 11½ and 14 were available as dimensions for the line perforation machines, and combs with the dimension 11¼ : 11 for the comb perforation machines.
It was not until the end of 1948 that Bagel began to experiment with perforation machines with a 14: 14¼ size.
After initial difficulties, only this perforation was used at both printing houses.
The existing serration strips were also used mixed, which in turn created some curiosities and rarities in the building series.
For a long time it was quite common for Bagels to perf the stamp sheets on all sides with one line perforation measure (standard was 11:11) as well as two-sided mixed perforation (mostly in 11½: 11).
There are also one-sided mixed perfs, of which the L 11: 11: 11: 11½ perforation is the best known among the market values.
A number of these variants are quite rare and are sought after by many collectors.
Since such perforations are extremely susceptible to forgery, they should only be purchased if they have been checked by the responsible association auditor.
If you summarize all these drawing variants with the previously known watermark and perforation combinations, the result is the impressive number of almost 240 different brands.
Below an overview of the different perforations, watermarks and different staircases :
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
4) The Mark values and there staircases :
The mark values were originally drawn with 7 lines in the archway of the Holsten Gate (the so-called staircase).
For Type I, Bagel removed three of these lines by retouching, creating the “short staircase”.
On some stamps, however, the retouched lines or parts of them have been preserved, and so we know subtype Ib with five strokes for 3 DM and subtype Ic with 7 strokes for DM 5.
On other fields, however, one line too many was accidentally removed, which is why there is subtype Ia with only 3 lines for 1 DM, 3 DM and 5 DM.
For Type II of the mark values, Westermann added the number of lines back to 7 (long staircase) and also hatched the bands vertically in the base of the right tower.
Short stairs (3 steps)
Flat stairs (4 steps)
Middle stairs (5 steps)
Long stairs (7 steps)
High staircase (7 steps and ribbon grille)
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
5) Type differences:
The Cologne Cathedral stamps have lots of differences in both the number values as their drawings.
a) Numbers :
b) Drawing of the Cathedral :
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
6) How to distinguish printings between Westermann And Bagel.
Westermann print starts with the number "2" on the bottom of the sheet
Bagel print starts with the number "1" on the bottom of the sheet
Westermann numbering at the top of the sheet
Bagel numbering at the top of the sheet
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Yet another awesome and very informative description of these early German stamps!
Thanks very much HockeyNut!
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03:15:05pm
re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Hello and thanks HockeyNut.
In Michel's catalogue it is mentioned how the printing plate is manufactured (different for the two companies Westermann and Bagel) and the appearance of field characteristics called primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary characteristics.
I am interested in any source of information about the description of these characteristics. (see the example of the primary characteristics-PM- for the 3 Marks Type II stamp).
The stamp with plate flaw VI (C united with H) is described in the Michel catalogue with SM3 (SM=Sekundarmerkmale=secondary characteristic).
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Thank you for this excellent, thorough presentation! I really appreciate it.
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Hello Gerom,
maybe this helps but I have to warn you, most of the literatur is in the German language.
https://www.bautenserie1948.com/die-plattierung/druckplattenaufbau-bei-westermann/
https://www.bautenserie1948.com/die-plattierung/druckplattenaufbau-bei-der-fa-bagel/
Maybe this special catalog is something for you :
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07:35:42am
re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Hello HockeyNut,
Thanks so much for the address. Just what I need to learn.
For the German language I do better with "deepL translate" than with "google translate".
Of this series of stamps I have 2-3 copies of each value.
Of the 3 stamps of 3 Marks that I have ,2 are with plate flaw : the one posted yesterday and the one of today which is PF X (weiser Fleck unten an rechten Fenster in der 2 Turmetage-QM350-B/nur type II)
I don't know for sure but I think Bauten ARGE have published papers showing the planking for different values in the series (see 50pf, pane NW, sheet 2, column 7-from ARGE).
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09:46:01am
re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Another great post “HockeyNut”, you really are the Jedi Master of German stamps.
THIS ACCESS TO INFO AND EXPERTISE ALONE SHOULD ENTICE MORE FOLKS TO BECOME MEMBERS!
Cheers, Dave
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
"Another great post HockeyNut, you really are the Jedi Master of German stamps."
Thank you Dave for the compliments.
Of course I have the great advantage that I can read both English and German.
And most of the literature on the German stamps is, logically, in the German language.
Of course I have the necessary literature, but for the last 20 to 25 years the internet has been the most important medium for quickly obtaining information.
A comment has to be made because in recent years the internet has been flooded with information that is not always correct.
And then those special books are a godsend.
Hopefully all my contributions have given you more insight into the German stamps and their history.
Henry
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likes this post.
Login to Like.
08:06:59pm
re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Hockey Nut.
Once again your philatelic research is both informative and inspirational. Appreciate how you set the stage and then “tell the story”.
Thank you.
Calstamp
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
I concur!
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Until I saw the OP's post, I had no idea that these stamps existed as separate sets, nor that each set included a stamp or stamps picturing the Medieval "Holstentor" (city gate) of Lübeck. I was unaware of Lübeck's existence until I started researching this postcard:
It was posted on July 26, 1940, by Joseph M. Hicks, a Canadian airman in training as an observer (combination navigator/bombardier) at a British Commonwealth Air Training Plan school in Regina, Saskatchewan. With the help of a researcher in Denmark, I learned that Joe was killed in April, 1942 when his Hampden bomber crash landed on Funen Island, Denmark following the second of four consecutive raids on Rostock, Germany. The connection with Lübeck? Lübeck was the target for the wordl'sl first incendiary raid against an enemy city, Area Bombing Directive issued to the RAF on 14 February 1942 which authorised the targeting of civilian areas.
The first wave of bombers to arrive over Lübeck dropped high-explosive bombs which reduced many of the city centre’s ancient wooden buildings to flinders; the bombers that followed dropped incendiary bombs into the rubble in the hopes that the combination of plentiful fuel (shattered wooden buildings) and incendiary bombs would result in a firestorm that would obliterate the city. That didn’t happen — it turned out that fire storms depend on just the right combination of fuel, air temperature, humidity, and wind. That’s exactly what happened in Hamburg and Nurumberg, later in the war. Lübeck was spared from a firestorm, but, nevertheless, much of the central part of the city was reduced to ashes. The same strategy was used in the raids on Rostock, but a fire storm didn’t develop there, either. (Rostock was chosen as a target because of the presence of factories that were building warplanes and u-boats, but while the raids were characterized as great successes by the RAF, the factories that were targeted were back in production within days.
The raids against both Rostock and Lübeck were hailed as great successes by the RAF, but in reality largely failed to halt production of war matériel or destroy Germans’ will to fight. If anything, the raids strengthened the resolve of Germans to win the war, and the Luftwaffe retaliated by beginning the so-called “Baedeker Raids” raids against Great Britain, so named because targets were selected by using German tourist guidebooks, which included detailed maps. Among those targets was the ancient city of Coventry.
The German claim that the Baedeker Raids were a response to the raids on Lübeck and Rostock was a red herring: In the summer of 1940, Luftwaffe bombers had destroyed large parts of Warsaw and then Rotterdam. Rotterdam had been declared an open city by the neutral Dutch, and had capitulated, but a German squadron commander ignored an order to call off the raid. Some 900 Dutch citizens were killed and much of the city destroyed in a firestorm.
Now I'll have to find some copies of those German definitives picturing the Lübeck gate!
Bob
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re: Die Bautenserie / The building serie of the allied occupation
Thanks for the story Bob.
From wikipedia :
The Holstentor is one of the two remaining gateways to the German Hanseatic city of Lübeck.
This late Gothic building consists of two towers with an entrance gate between them and was built in the 15th century. It is an example of the Northern European Brick Gothic. Over the centuries, the tower sank 50 cm and had to be restored a number of times to prevent it from collapsing completely.
Today the gate is a museum where the history of Lübeck in the field of seafaring and trade is shared with you in an interactive way.
Since 1987, the gate has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Before the euro's there was even a 50 Deutsch Marks banknote with this tower :
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