150th anniversary of death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1982

Goethe and Schiller honors of the GDR in the years 1980 to 1984 For the Goethe and Schiller honors of the GDR in the years 1980 to 1984, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issued a multi-colored special postage stamp block. No special First Day Cover Cover Special cancellations from March 9 to May 8, 1982 Goethe and Schiller honors of the GDR in the years 1980 to 1984 By order of the Government of the German Democratic Republic in the years 1980 to 1984, the Goethe and Schiller honors of the DDR instead. The reason for this is the 175th anniversary of the death (9 May 1980) and the 225th birthday (10 November 1984) of Friedrich Schiller and the 150th anniversary of the death (22 March 1982) of Johann Woffgang Goethe. Associated with the honors are a wealth of cultural, scientific and artistic activities that continue the traditions of socialist cultural policy in the acquisition of the bourgeois-humanistic cultural and artistic heritage, in its research, care and dissemination in accordance with today's historical conditions and requirements. In the program of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, decided on the IX. Party Congress 1976, is formulated: "The socialist national culture of the German Democratic Republic includes the careful care and appropriation of all humanistic and progressive cultural achievements of the past.The socialist culture of the German Democratic Republic is committed to the rich heritage that throughout the history of the German people Everything great and noble, humanistic and revolutionary is honored in the German Democratic Republic in honor and continued by being placed in a living relationship to the tasks of the present. " The legacy of classical German literature, and in particular the work of Goethe and Schiller, contains potencies that can and must be made fruitful in coping with present-day challenges in a situation of complicated class struggles: in the struggle for peace, international understanding, and social progress the mediation and deepening of socialist historical consciousness and patriotism, for the development of socialist personalities and a way of life that is characteristic of socialism. The special postage stamp block issued on the occasion of the Goethe and Schiller honors shows the portraits of the two poets after contemporary silhouettes and a view of the Weimar Ilm Park by Georg Melchior Kraus. In 1775, following an invitation by the young Duke Karl August, Goethe had come to Weimar, where he remained until the end of his life. In his first Weimar decade, until the trip to Italy in September 1786, as a member of the Privy Consulium, the supreme state authority, he undertook various tasks in government and administration of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach; His bourgeois ideals and ideas committed reform attempts, however, had little success. After returning from Italy (1788), Goethe withdrew more and more from official duties. From now on, he devoted most of his powers to the poetic work, his literary and art critical work, his research in the most diverse fields of natural science. Only the direction and promotion of the cultural and scientific institutions of the country, a cultural-politically important task, he was still transferred as an official duty. The house on the Frauenplan, where Goethe spent almost fifty years of his life, is preserved as a memorial site with largely original furnishings. A literary-historical-biographical Goethe Museum opened in 1960 was redesigned and designed on the 150th anniversary of the poet's death according to thematic priorities. Schiller was called to Jena in 1789 as an associate professor, which belonged to the Weimar duchy. In 1794 he came into closer contact with Goethe, from which developed a more than ten-year, fruitful cooperation for both poets; In 1799 he moved to be near Goethe and the theater, which premiered many of his plays, with his family still Weimar, where he lived until his death. Schiller's major aesthetic and philosophical treatises and his most mature dramatic works were written in Jena and Weimar: the "Wallenstein" trilogy, "Maria Stuart", the "Virgin of Orleans" and "William Tell." Schiller's home on the Esplanade (today's Schillerstraße), which the poet bought in 1802, has been set up as a memorial site and museum.In the framework of the Goethe and Schiller honors of the GDR, the foundation stone for a new Schiller museum is to be laid in 1984. On the watercolor by Georg Melchior Kraus (1733-1806), who was the director of the Free Drawing School in Weimar, can be seen from a park section, the so - called snail, the Charlotte von Steins, which was demolished in 1808, the library building and the tower of the Stadtschloss Weimar Ilm Park was created from 1778 on, with the temporary participation of Goethe, as a landscaped park in the English style.