Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Deutsches Reichpost Frederick the Great - 1933

 

DEUTSCHES REICHPOST issued on 12th April 1933 three stamps depicting Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1712 to 1786), which was reproduced from a painting by Adolph von Menzel (1815 to 1905). These stamps were available on engraved sheets (10x10) and in stamp booklets. The stamps have a waffle/network watermark and had 14x14¼ perforations.

The set included:
- 6RpF blackish-bluish-green
- 12RPf lilac-red
- 25Rpf bright-lilac-ultramarine (not shown)

These stamps were produced in unknown quantities and were valid until 31 December 1935. An official postcard and an official postmark were issued to coincide with the Opening of the new Reichstag (Potsdam).

Frederick II was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment. Frederick was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Royal Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great.

During his reign he commanded the Prussian Army at sixteen major battles and various sieges, skirmishes and other actions, ultimately obtaining almost all his political objectives. He is often admired for his tactical skills, especially for his use of the oblique order of battle an attack focused on one flank of the opposing line, allowing a local advantage even if his forces were outnumbered overall. Even more important were his operational successes, especially the use of interior lines to prevent the unification of numerically superior opposing armies and defend the Prussian core territory.

Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis glorified Frederick as a precursor to Adolf Hitler. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels commissioned artists to render fanciful images of Frederick, Bismarck, and Hitler together in order to create a sense of a historical continuum amongst them. Hence, these and other stamps were created during this period.


Source: Stamp Collecting . Com and Wikipedia

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