Historic carriages - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1976 - 20 Pfennig

Historic carriages The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues six multicolored special postage stamps depicting historical carriages. Historic Carriages Four of the originals of the designs in this issue (10, 20, 35 and 50 Pfennig values) are in the collection of carriages of the museums in the castle of Augustusburg (Karl-Marx-Stadt district). The Kalesche on the 25-pfennig value is part of the stock of art collections in Weimar and the model of the stagecoach on the 40-pfennig value is in the collections of the postal museum of the GDR in Berlin. In the age of spaceships, airplanes and automobiles, the coach has almost completely disappeared from the horizon of today's generation as a means of transporting people and can usually only be admired as a "museum piece". While four-wheeled wagons were already known as work and load transport equipment in antiquity, the traces of the emergence of carriages can only be traced back to the 16th century. At that time, however, the use of carriages was a privilege of the high feudal nobility, and there was hardly a princely court in Europe that lacked city carriages and ceremonial carriages. However, the carriages issued in the castle Augustusburg come from a later construction period and belonged largely to the inventory of the former Royal Marstall in Dresden. After 1945 they were saved from further decay, transferred to Augustusburg and preserved and restored here with considerable state resources. A particularly original carriage is shown on the 20 Pfennig value. Here a russian one-horseman from the time around 1800 is shown. This small, modestly decorated vehicle was used by Napoleonic officers fleeing the army of Kutuzov in 1812/13 and left behind in the spring of 1813 in a manor in the Dresden area. After 1960 in the attic of the town hall in Seifersdorf b. Tracked down Dresden, the single-passenger took the way into the Augustusburg collection.