X. Art Exhibition of the GDR, Dresden - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1987 - 70 Pfennig

X. GDR Art Exhibition On the occasion of the GDR's Xth Art Exhibition, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues four multi-color special postage stamps. Special postmark 22 September to 21 November 1987 70 Pfennig value: Great mourning man, dedicated to the victims of 13 February 1945, 1983, bronze, height: 220 cm, by Wieland Förster, b. 12. 2. 1930 in Dresden, freelance in Berlin, full member and 1978 Vice President of the Academy of Arts of the GDR. This monument was handed over by Wieland Förster to the city of Dresden in 1985 for the 40th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden. It is now within sight of the "Memorial of the Dresden Frauenkirche", Georg-Treu-Platz. Förster was a 15-year-old witness to the terrible night of February 13, 1945 in Dresden. "40 years after the end of a childhood", this sculpture was born out of an inner drive. "In the guise of the 'Mourning Man', I believe I have found the content that best suits this most basic feeling of all those involved, an excessive grief over the crime, the deaths of women, children, old people and the many unknown people who became victims. For this mourning a relentless form had to be found, which withstood the extent of the pain of annihilation; no redeeming monument was to emerge, which represents the downfall of a city as a unique misfortune and moves into the historically accomplished: I chose the mourning, one to People bombed back to the edge of creaturely existence. " , , , "'The Great Mourning Man' is an attempt to create a remembrance close to man - not without a reminder." (Wieland Förster) (1) 1) Thoughts of the sculptor Wieland Förster on his sculpture, in the "Sächsische Zeitung", Dresden , 6. 2. 1985