150th birthday of Heinrich von Stephan - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1981 - 10 Pfennig

150th Anniversary of Heinrich von Stephan On the occasion of Heinrich von Stephan's 150th birthday, the Ministry of Postal and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues a special postage stamp. No special first-day cover envelope Special cancellation from January 20 to March 19, 1981 Heinrich von Stephan Deutsche Post honors Heinrich von Stephan (January 7, 1831 - April 8, 1897) with the publication of this special postage stamp, a figure of German postal history who has been influenced by her work has influenced the development of Swiss Post on a national and international level. Heinrich von Stephans activity corresponded to the social requirements of his time, because the promotion of national and international communications traffic, which he pursued, was objectively necessary for social development. The increasing national division of labor associated with the progress of the productive forces, the mass nature of production and the growing socialization of labor inevitably necessitated both the quantitative expansion of communication relations and, above all, their qualitative improvement, to the introduction and application of new postal and telegraphic services , Heinrich von Stephans activities is therefore primarily determined by his recognition of these objective necessities, on the one hand to adapt the postal and telegraphic traffic to the matured new requirements of economy and state and on the other hand, in anticipation of the growing demands on him the operation and administration of the post systematically on it prepare. This sense and understanding of the real needs of the time in which he lived, especially distinguished Stephan. By combining his knowledge with practical deeds to accomplish it, he became a personality in the history of the postal service, whose practical successes in transforming the postal business, as well as promoting new technical possibilities, as well as making extensive improvements in the administration of the postal service far into our present day worked. This is a reason to honor his 150th birthday and his role as reformer of the postal service, as well as his personal contribution to the establishment of the Universal Postal Union and the associated development of international postal traffic. Heinrich von Stephans way into the highest offices of the Prussian-German postal and Telegrafenwesen and the results of his practical work show thereby in dialectical interaction its size as its borders. On the one hand, with a clear view of what was necessary, he reformed the post office and the postal administration. On the other hand, as a civil servant, and especially in his capacity as general postmaster, later general postmaster, and finally state secretary in the Reichs post office, he has the power to govern helped with all means at his disposal in the realization of their broad economic and political goals. This is most clearly shown in the Staff Regulations of 1871, which introduced the separate career paths and introduced the typical career barriers for the civil service system with all its negative consequences in the postal system. Only under our social conditions was it finally possible to overcome them. On the other hand, the fact that Stephan recognized the new in the practical questions of the postal and telegraph traffic and built up a uniformly organized post from the territorially fragmented one, is as much a lasting merit as his struggle for the eventual formation of the Universal Postal Union.