100th anniversary of the first international postal conference - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1963 - 40

From May 11 to June 8, 1863, the first multilateral postal conference took place in Paris. It was inspired by the Postmaster-General of the United States of America and showed the obstacles that stood in the way of the liquid and rapid handling of postal communications at that time. To counteract them, general principles have been established for international postal agreements. After 100 years, celebrations will be held in Paris to commemorate this post conference, with several of the participating countries contributing by issuing commemorative stamps. The Deutsche Bundespost joins them. The fact that already a century ago a considerable number of European countries and several states from overseas territories joined forces in order to improve trade and intellectual exchange between their peoples by means of postal services should find expression in the brand. There was no need for a call for tenders among several artists because last year Eduard Ege had delivered a draft for a similar purpose, which combined a large number of country coats of arms into a graphically extremely effective group. Although this solution could be regarded as a prime example of an exemplary brand in its uncluttered formulation, its use had to be abandoned for reasons that had nothing to do with the artistic form. Now was the opportunity to make use of this successful proposal. The graphic artist was commissioned to reshape his earlier design in the sense of the new task. The brand combines in geometric strict outline the heraldic images of the eighteen countries, which were represented at the conference 100 years ago. They present themselves as tiny miniatures, without losing their clarity or memorability, because the artist has managed to trace every single emblem down to the most concise formula according to the rules of heraldry. The generous sweep of the oval unites the group to form a unity that gives expression to common action. The Federal Minister of Posts and Telecommunications has approved the proposal of the Art Advisory Board and approved the execution of the draft. The stamp has been produced as a monochrome intaglio in blue at Bundesdruckerei Berlin.