Grossdeutsches Reich Generalgouvernement Semi-Postal Cultural Issue 1944

GROSSDEUTSCHES REICH  GENERALGOUVERNEMENT on 15 July 1944 issued  semi-postal issues include five stamps:

- 12+18 gr dark green - Konrad Celtis (1459- 1508), humanist and university teacher;

- 24 +26 gr red carmine - Andreas Schlutter (1664-1714), sculptor and architect:

- 30+30 gr dark lilac - Bonar (Bonner) (1463- 1523), Krakow merchant;

- 50+50 gr dark blue - King August II the Strong (1670-1733); and

- 1 PLN + 1 PLN red-brown - Jerzy Bogumił Pusch (1791-1846), geologist.

The stamps were designed by Prof. W. Dachauer , the engraving was made by Prof. F. Lorber. The stamps were printed in sheets containing two sectors of 50 stamps each. A sector was a sales sheet. Under the 41st stamp the number ("15" or "25") indicates the sector, under the 45th stamp the inscription "Entwurf: W. Dachauer" (facsimile), under the 46th - "Stich: Ferd. Lorber" (facsimile), under the 50th stamp "Staats/Druckerei/Wien/VI. 1944." The printing method entailed steel engraving by the State Printing House in Vienna.

The General Government — sometimes also referred to as General Governorate (Generalgouvernement in German, Generalne Gubernatorstwo in Polish, and Генеральна губернія in Ukrainian) — was a German zone of occupation established after the joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II. The full title of the regime in Germany until July 1940 was the Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete, a name that is usually translated as “General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories”. On July 31, 1940, governor Hans Frank, on Hitler’s authority, shortened the name to just Generalgouvernement. A more literal translation of Generalgouvernement, which is a borrowing from French, would be General Governorate. The correct translation of the term “Gouvernement” is not government but actually governorate, which is a type of administrative division or territory. The area was also known colloquially as the Restpolen (“Remainder of Poland”).