Lock value

ID card for obtaining special postage stamps from the GDR (3 sets)

A blocking value in the German Democratic Republic from 1955 was a special postage stamp ( special stamp , block and sheetlet ) that was generally valid for post, the comparatively small number of copies of which, however, was not determined from the point of view of postal requirements, but according to foreign trade policy requirements. Post customers were able to purchase these special postage stamps almost exclusively under special conditions, with a so-called collector's card . The term blocking value was used in colloquial usage, including in postal counter traffic, but mostly not in official post office and philatelic usage. One spoke here first of sentences with so-called "bound values", later of "values ​​in limited circulation".

Values ​​in small edition within the framework of the GDR trade policy

The introduction of the values ​​in small numbers must be seen against the following background: According to its party and state doctrine, the GDR saw itself as a socialist state, whose economy and internal market were not geared towards maximizing profits for the business enterprises involved, but ultimately solely aimed at satisfying the needs of Population should serve. This also forbade any speculative element in the stamp trade from the outset. Stamp collecting itself was seen by the state as a cultural activity of the philatelists; The value development of the collected stamps should by no means be in the foreground. Furthermore, until August 13, 1961, there was an open inner-German border in Berlin and thus indirectly also with the old Federal Republic, where the capitalist economic order knew no restrictions on speculation with the value development of economic goods and thus also stamps - stamp collecting was and is here also viewed as part of the investment. Now, in line with the GDR's pricing policy, which included a system of price subsidies (rents, food, services) and excessive price increases to absorb purchasing power (cars, entertainment technology), the postage for the services of the GDR's Deutsche Post remained from the beginning of the GDR until its end , apart from the postage reductions in the mid-1950s, largely constant. The postal prices for special postage stamps were therefore not subject to any major changes. The GDR price system also required the GDR mark to be designed as a purely internal currency , so that it was not freely convertible to the German mark . As is well known, the technological gap between the GDR and the old Federal Republic, which was gradually growing as a result of the different economic systems in the two German states, led to an unofficial exchange ratio between the GDR mark and the GDR market due to the unavoidable outflow of GDR mark stocks in western countries DM, which was far below the 1: 1 ratio officially propagated by the GDR. This made it economically attractive for stamp dealers and collectors from the Federal Republic of Germany to purchase the special stamps, which were initially freely available for sale, more or less using the unofficial exchange ratio, directly at the post offices in the GDR or from postal customers in the GDR and then transfer them to the Federal Republic to let. This uncontrolled outflow of special stamps resulted in a sharp drop in prices for special postage stamps as part of official trade between the GDR and the Federal Republic and other capitalist states, which the GDR was ultimately only able to counter in terms of trade policy by restricting the free sale of special postage stamps by Deutsche Post. This step was coupled with an export ban on postage fresh stamps from the GDR. Only under the conditions of limited circulation, limited domestic sales and an export ban for unauthorized persons from 1955 onwards, foreign exchange sales for the GDR special stamps in the amount of the nominal value that postal administrations usually strive for when selling special stamps could be achieved through GDR foreign trade becomes. The export ban, which of course also affected postage stamp collectors in the GDR, was later relaxed by the fact that at least the collectors organized in the Kulturbund der GDR had a certain amount of value and quantity via state-controlled exchange control points with post-fresh GDR postage stamps for exchange with stamp collectors in the Federal Republic and was allowed to execute other capitalist states. Naturally, such a licensing practice could not remain free from elements of the authoritarian tutelage of the collectors.

Introduction and post office sales

• Introduction of the values ​​in a small edition in 1955

The regular issue of values ​​in small numbers began in 1955 . Before that, the GDR's memorial sheets had already been printed in very small editions, but were largely freely sold at the post office counters. Their high total nominal value or the surcharge included in the sales price counteracted the purchase of larger quantities by postal customers, which was viewed as speculative.

Especially with the first value in a small edition, the 5 Pf value of the Schiller set issued on April 30, 1955, there were partial short deliveries from post offices. As a result, quite a few ID card holders received no or too few complete sentences. This led to many complaints from postal customers, especially since a postage fee had to be paid for the collector's ID that actually secured the delivery , and stamp dealers often had to pay 3 Marks for this special stamp immediately after the post office was issued . The latter circumstance caused particular resentment among collectors. The delivery problems of the Deutsche Post associated with the introduction of the values ​​in low circulation were discussed after frequent letters to the editor in July issue 13 of the Collector's Express. The "draconian" limitation of the number of copies of the newly introduced value in small circulation - at that time called "bound value" - was assessed as "completely incomprehensible" and "wrong way", which "inevitably leads to speculative excesses". As a remedy, the editors, who found the solution to the speculation problem by reducing the circulation of individual set values ​​unsatisfactory, suggested that the Post generally abandon the identification procedure and supply collectors in the GDR via the Kulturbund as a collector's organization. As is well known, the further development took a different path, initially optimizing the quantity of deliveries to the post offices with the values ​​in small print runs and from 1956 onwards the print runs were gradually increased according to the needs of collectors and retailers.

• Value levels

Post administrations usually had special postage stamps of the higher denominations, with which additional postal services ( express mail , registered mail , insured letter, etc.) were usually paid for, in significantly smaller editions than the more frequently used denominations intended for normal postcards or letter postage .

The print run size of the values ​​in small print runs was determined by the German Post of the GDR, on the other hand, primarily taking into account the aforementioned commercial policy considerations and thus completely independent of the respective postal requirements for this value grade. The discrepancy between postal requirements and the number of copies is particularly evident when value levels with low denominations have been determined for the blocked value. For example, the values ​​of 5 Pfennig on the 150th anniversary of Friedrich Schiller's death and on the 10th anniversary of the land reform had a circulation of only 750,000, although postal customers' demand for this value class for printed matter and airmail surcharge was considerably higher. The same was true for the 15 pfennig values ​​of the editions “Leader of the German Labor Movement” and “Paintings from the Dresden Gemäldegalerie returned by the USSR” (I), the nominal values ​​of which were actually intended for the frequently franked business printed matter . However, by changing between the value levels determined for the blocking value, it was later achieved that in a year of issue for each value level special stamps were also freely available at the post office counters.

• Collection period

The blocked values were usually given to postal customers within a 14-day collection period from the date of issue only for regular purchase (permanent subscribers) and only in limited numbers to postal customers on presentation of a so-called collector's ID . Initially five sentences could be obtained with it, later only three. The collector's ID was issued by the GDR Post at a written request for an annual fee of 1 or 2 marks, which was offset in stamps on the ID. In addition to this quota, an additional purchase of expenses could be applied for via the central shipping point of Deutsche Post located in Berlin; There were different regulations for this during the existence of the blocking values. Post customers were only able to purchase these stamps in free counter sales to a limited extent, mostly 2 or 3 pieces, on the morning of the first day of issue - here there were even 5 sets at the beginning - and after the collection period for permanent recipients.

Development of the number of copies

Already in June 1956 the circulation of the values ​​increased in small circulation to 1,000,000 stamps and then gradually further up to an average of 2,100,000 from 1976. From 1979 to 1980 there was an interim reduction in circulation of 100,000 and then again to the value of 2,100,000 applicable up to June 30, 1990 .

Blocks and miniature sheets were often printed in quantities that differed from the current run size of the values ​​in small runs for the individual stamps; mostly in a slightly higher number, probably because the demand for these in the stamp export business was generally higher. However, their circulation figures then mostly remained at the value of approx. 2,100,000 pieces after this value had also been reached by the individual brands. The following table therefore shows the chronological order of the circulation development only for the individual brands. In each case, the first value of the increased or reduced number of copies was given, which was valid until the next change. This does not rule out the possibility that individual issues in between resulted in slightly increased or decreased circulation numbers of the value in small circulation. But this was the exception.

Development of the circulation size of the values ​​in small circulation (1955 - 1990)
image	description	Values in pennies	Issue date	Edition	draft	Mi. -No.	Entire edition
	150th anniversary of the death of the poet Friedrich von Schiller (first value in a small edition of the GDR post)	5	April 30, 1955	750,000	Kurt Eigler	464A	464A-466A
	750 years of Dresden Technical university with the tower of the observatory , ( Beyer-Bau )	40	June 1, 1956	1,000,000	Helmuth Gotze	526	524-526
	Nature Conservation Week in April 1957 Silver thistle (Carlina acaulis)	5	April 12, 1957	1,100,000	Engelbert schooner	561	561-563
	Deep sea fishing Worker at the fish processing machine	40	April 10, 1961	1,000,000	Gerhard Stauf	820	817-820
	6 years National People's Army Tank driver in front of a tank	40	March 1, 1962	1,100,000	Gerhard Stauf	880	876-880
external image please note copyrights	Preservation of the national memorials and memorials: athletes , concentration camp victims (II) This stamp was issued as an overprint with a decorative field on the right: Kurt Biedermann (1903–1942), white water canoe	40 + 20	September 24, 1963	1,200,000	Gerhard Stauf	987	983-987
	10 years of Tierpark Berlin White-tailed gnu (Connochaetes gnou)	30th	March 24, 1965	1,300,000	Axel Bengs	1095	1093-1095
	200 years of Bergakademie Freiberg Ore extraction (based on historical woodcuts)	15th	November 11, 1965	1,400,000	Werner Klemke	1143	1142-1145
	Folk costumes (II) Woman in traditional costume of the Magdeburg Börde	25th	October 25, 1966	1,500,000	Ingeborg Friebel	1218	1214-1218
	100th birthday of Maxim Gorky The song of the petrel (pictorial representation)	25th	March 14, 1968	1,600,000	Gerhard Preuss	1352	1351-1352
	Important buildings (III) Bürgerhaus, Luckau (built 1699)	25th	15th January 1969	1,700,000	Dietrich Dorfstecher	1437	1434-1439
	Cacti (I) Bristly hooked cactus ( Hamatocactus setispinus )	25th	2nd December 1970	1,800,000	Manfred Gottschall	1629	1625-1630
	Famous People (VII) Friederike Caroline Neuber (1697–1760), actress and theater director	50	January 25, 1972	1,900,000	Gerhard Stauf	1735	1731-1735
	Cacti (II) Hedgehog Cactus ( Parodia sanguiniflora )	15th	February 12, 1974	2,000,000	Manfred Gottschall	1924	1922-1927
	bridges Bridge on the Großer Dreesch , Schwerin	50	September 21, 1976	2,100,000	Paul Reissmüller	2168	2163-2168
	Native songbirds Hemlock ( Acanthis cannabina )	50	January 9, 1979	2,000,000	Manfred Gottschall	2393	2388-2393
	Landscape parks Berlin-Treptow ( large lawn )	25th	June 9, 1981	2,100,000	Dietrich Dorfstecher	2615	2611-2616
	Precious items in libraries in the GDR (last value in a small edition of the GDR post) Binding from the music library of Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia , (18th century)	110	June 19, 1990	2,100,000	Ralf-Jürgen Lehmann	3343	3340-3343

Blocking values ​​in postal traffic

Due to their small number of copies, the blocked values, which were mostly collected by the philatelists, were barely available to general mail. Actual on-demand uses are extremely rare to find. Only on the first day covers already franked by the GDR Post and delivered to the stamp collectors with a special first day cancellation are the blocking values ​​sufficiently stamped. It was only in the late GDR, when the number of copies had increased significantly, that blocking values ​​were used more frequently for franking purposes. But even these single or mixed frankings with other special stamps on receipts carried by post ("real run") were regularly initiated philatelically. Nevertheless, these entires with blocking values ​​are not common, in many older issues they are even extremely rare, and are therefore in great demand today. They reflect a very special facet of the postal system in the GDR and the division of the world into political blocs.

Position of the FIP

Since the artificial scarcity of stamps represented a violation of the statutes of the International Umbrella Association of Philatelists (FIP) based in Switzerland, the blocked values ​​at FIP-patronized international stamp exhibitions were considered undesirable expenses and otherwise complete sets without the blocked value were considered complete. In some cases, the blocked values ​​had to be reversed at these exhibitions. i.e. the brand image was turned upside down. After the GDR Philatelic Association was admitted to the FIP in 1969, the black list of the FIP's blocked values ​​also lost its importance in the early 1970s.

literature

• Michel catalog Germany Special 1999 , Munich, Schwaneberger Verlag 1999, ISBN 3-87858-132-7
• Peter Fischer, Frithjof Skupin and Wolfgang Gudenschwager (eds.): GDR universal catalog , Transpress, Verlag für Verkehrwesen , Berlin, ISBN 3-344-00001-2
• DNK Germany stamp catalog 2007 , Leuchtturm Albenverlag , 2006
• GDR foreign trade called for the introduction of blocking values. (Continuation article) In: Deutsche Briefmarken-Revue from issue No. 7/2005, p. 36 ff

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The export of postage stamps was handled in the 1950s by the state-owned company "Deutscher Buch-Export und Import GmbH" based in Leipzig (see sammler-express. Fachzeitung für Philatelie und other collecting areas . Berlin 1957, issue 2, p. 29 , with a corresponding advertisement). Later on, Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH , which was subordinate to the commercial coordination department , was also included in the stamp trade.
2. ↑ [Editor's note of the “Collector's Express”]: Our opinion on the bound value . In: Collector Express (specialist newspaper for philately and other collecting areas) , issue 13 from July 1, 1955 (9th year), p. 203
3. ↑ ^{a b} Compare the statements made by Detlef Diederichsen with the involvement of the GDR philatelic functionary Peter Fischer: Less is more ( digitized version ).
4. ↑ The author is also familiar with this practice from personal experience.
5. ↑ See also the page Dresden buildings on German postage stamps .
6. ^ A first edition with a similar drawing was published in 1964 (I) ; another followed in 1968 (III) . In 1971 Sorbian girls' costumes appeared in large format in counter sheets and in small format in stamp booklets.

Web links

• Michael Nay: Postage Stamps and Worldview - A Lesson. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; Retrieved July 1, 2013 .