Drug addiction is a terrible thing! That said, the aesthetics of this anti drug stamp talk a lot about the crosscurrents in the society of the day. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp owes a lot to Norwegian Edvard Munch, though rendered without his skill. His 1898 painting, “The Scream” was taken to heart as a visualization of the angst of mankind under the pressures of the modern world. This painting was first presented in Munich and the style was much copied in Germany during the Weimar period. There was a reaction against it, Hitler said such painters were savages who should return to their caves and do the drawing on the cave wall. That of course wasn’t going to happen. It was understandable that an anti drug abuse appeal would repurpose Munch style imagery. Doing so with cartoon style coloring seems to just make fun of the junkie for his weakness and bad hair. One wonders if this effect was intended.
Todays stamp is issue A383, a 40 Pfennig stamp issued by West Germany on August 14th, 1975. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.
The early 70s was a fun time in German stamp issues. There were plenty of traditional issues showing idealized Renascence era views of German cities and a few old Prussian guys on horses. There was also my favorite stamp issue of all time. The A328 eleven stamp issue from 1971-74 promoting safety. I have avoided covering them on this website. It would take over two weeks to cover them all with my useful commentary limited to. Hey dummy, don’t light yourself on fire with a match, ha ha, or don’t fall into an open manhole, ha ha.
There were also some strange issues with mixed messages like this one about drugs. There was one about helping the handicapped but showed them as faceless silhouettes, what a burden. There was one showing a drop of blood and a police siren. This might not have meant you better surrender peacefully to the police when they come for you as they have guns. There were several issues about how great Poland was and wasn’t it a shame that our fathers were so mean to them. Given how much of Poland was on former German land, how was this to go over among Germans forced to move west? There were lots of Weimar figures treated as heroes and statesmen when obviously had they been more competent, another war might have been avoided. Interestingly, all these crosscurrents are there on the stamps, if you look for them.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Edvard Munch. He lived on another 46 years and his late output was idealized takes on farm life. So perhaps he came to terms with the pressures of modern life. He died in German occupied Norway and the Nazis had moved from calling him a savage to dubiously claiming him a sympathizer. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.