Baden (French Occupation Zone) Hans Baldung on Bollenhut Postcard

This post-WWII postcard (1945) shows a traditional Black Forest house and women wearing their Bollenhut, literally 'ball-hat', which is a formal headdress with distinctive red woollen pompoms worn since circa 1750 by unmarried Protestant women as part of their folk costume or 'Tracht' in the three adjoining Black Forest villages of Gutach, Kirnbach and Hornberg-Reichenbach. The picturesque-looking red bollenhut eventually became a symbol of the Black Forest as a whole, despite its rather local origins. 

As for the Baden (French Occupation Zone) stamp on this postcard, it is a drawing of Hans Baldung (1484  – 1545), called Grien, who was most probably born in Schwäbisch Gmünd in southwestern Germany, the site of the family home, hence his depiction on this Baden stamp which was used during the post-WWII French Zone  Occupation in late 1945. 

Hans Baldung was a painter, printer, engraver, draftsman, and stained glass artist, who was considered the most gifted student of Albrecht Dürer and whose art belongs to both German Renaissance and Mannerism. Throughout his lifetime, he developed a distinctive style, full of colour, expression and imagination. His talents were varied, and he produced a great and extensive variety of work including portraits, woodcuts, drawings, tapestries, altarpieces, and stained glass, often relying on allegories and mythological motifs.

My interest in this postcard and stamp is both for philatelic and cultural reasons,  as my Breyel  ancestors originated from this region of Germany (chiefly, Wyhl and Merdingen) and lived there for hundreds of years.