Germany kicks off 2024 with four creative stamp designs

By Molly Goad

Germany’s Deutsche Post is launching four new stamps on Jan. 4, featuring designs in the World of Letters, Subway Stations and Time Travel Germany series, and a tribute to the 500-year history of the evangelical hymnbook.

World of Letters

The €2.55 Letter Galaxy stamp graces the philatelic scene with its celestial charm, portraying an envelope crafted from stars adrift in a turquoise galaxy.

This captivating creation is part of the World of Letters series, which dates back to December 2021. Conceived by designer Bettina Walter, the artwork for this series, known for its imaginative and surreal motifs, seamlessly weaves elements of the world with letters, yielding original and playful designs.

Subway Stations

The eighth stamp in Germany’s Subway Stations series features the impressive Westfriedhof station in Munich. The series began in April 2020. 

What distinguishes Westfriedhof is its oversized lights adorned with aluminum domes that open at the bottom.

Capturing the essence of Westfriedhof station is the €1.60 stamp shown nearby. The stamp was designed by Jennifer Dengler and Bettina Walter using a photograph by Florian Schutz.

Time Travel Germany

The third stamp in the Time Travel Germany series showcases one of Berlin’s iconic landmarks: the Brandenburg Gate. Depicting the gate through contrasting black-and-white imagery from 1988 and vibrant color photography from 2014, the €0.85 stamp visually captures the changes this historical site has undergone over the past 20-plus years.

The stunning Brandenburg Gate is a popular tourist stop in the western part of Berlin’s city center. It was built between 1788 and 1791 on behalf of Friedrich Wilhelm II, according to plans by royal architect Carl Gotthard Langhans.

The stamp was designed by Thomas Steinacker and Jan-Niklas Kroger. The color photo used in the design comes from Andrey Popov (Adobe Stock), and the black-and-white photo is from the Berlin Wall Foundation, credited to Lothar Kruse.

Hymnbooks

The final stamp arriving on Jan. 4 honors the 500th anniversary of one of the elementary media of Christian faith practice.

The new issue is called 500 Years of the Evangelical Hymnbook and features musical notes and line drawings of a hymnal and church.

The Achtliederdruck, a collection of eight songs (the translation of the name is Eight-Song Book) published by Jobst Gutknecht in Nuremberg at the turn of the year in 1523-24, stands as a pivotal moment in hymnal history.

This compact booklet holds the distinction of being the first German-language Protestant song collection, setting the stage for a hymnbook tradition that would transcend both national and religious boundaries.

The €1 stamp was designed by Luzia Hein.

All of the stamps were printed by multicolor offset. The printers were Joh. Enschede (World of Letters), Bagel Security Print (Subway Stations and 500 Years of the Evangelical Hymnbook) and Bundesdruckerei (Time Travel Germany).

For more details about the stamps, including ordering information, visit the Deutsche Post webshop.

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