Germany

After the German Revolution in November 1918, a Republic was proclaimed. That year, the German Communist Party was established by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and in January 1919 the German Workers Party, later known as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP, "Nazis"). On 11 August 1919 the Weimar Constitution came into effect, with the sign of the Reichspräsident Friedrich Ebert.

In a cool climate of economic hardship from both the world wide Depression and the harsh peace conditions dictated by the Treaty of Versailles, and a long succession of more or less unstable governments, the political masses in Germany increasingly lacked identification with their political system of parliamentary democracy. This was exacerbated by a wide-spread right-wing Dolchstoßlegende, a political myth which claimed the German Revolution was the main reason why Germany had lost World War I. On the other hand, radical left-wing communists such as the Spartacist League had wanted to abolish what they perceived as a "capitalist rule" in favour of a "Räterepublik" and were thus also in opposition to the existing form of government.

During the years following the Revolution, German voters increasingly supported anti-democratic parties, both right- (monarchists, Nazis) and left-wing (Communists). At the beginning of the 1930s, Germany was not far from a civil war. Paramilitary troops were set up by several parties, there were thousands of politically motivated murders. They intimidated voters and seeded violence and anger among the public, who suffered from high unemployment and poverty. After a succession of unsuccessful cabinets, on 29 January 1933, President Von Hindenburg, seeing little alternative and pushed by advisors, appointed Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany.

A centralized totalitarian state was established by a series of moves and decrees making Germany a single-party state. Industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements in order to shift the economy towards a war production base. In 1936, German troops entered the demilitarised Rhineland as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policies proved inadequate. Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism to establish Greater Germany. To avoid a two-front war, Hitler concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union, and broke it.

In 1939 the growing tensions from nationalism, militarism, and territorial issues led to the Germans launching a blitzkrieg on 1 September against Poland, followed two days later by war declarations against Britain and France, marking the beginning of World War II. Germany quickly gained direct or indirect control of the majority of Europe.

The war resulted in the death of several million German soldiers and civilians, in total nearly ten million, large territorial losses and the expulsion of about 15 million Germans of the eastern provinces of Germany and various parts of Central and Eastern Europe with ethnic German population. All major and many smaller German cities lay in ruins. Germany and Berlin were occupied and partitioned by the Allies into four military occupation zones controlled by France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union. On 23 May 1949 the U.S, Britain and France united their individual sectors to form the Federal Republic of Germany and on 7 October 1949 the Soviet Zone established the German Democratic Republic.

Capital: Berlin

Government: Republic

Area: 468.787 km² (1925) / 633.786 km² (1937)

Population: 62.411.00 (1925) / 69.314.000 (1937)

Currency: Reichsmark (100 Reichspfennig)

UN country code: -

Internet TLD: -

Dialling code: -

Member of: League of Nations 8 September 1926 - 19 October 1933

ILO 1919 - 1934

ITU 1 January 1866

UPU 1 July 1875

Links

The Weimar Republic in Wikipedia.

Nazi Germany in Wikipedia.

Flag of Germany (1919-1933) in Flags of the World.

Flag of Germany (1933-1945) in Flags of the World.

Stamp catalogue

UPU 50th anniversary

date: May 1924

designer: -

printer: Reichsdruckerei, Berlin, Germany

perforated: 14:14¼

sheet: 100 (10 x 10)

1 60 portrait of Heinrich von Stephan, text "FÜNFZIG JAHRE / WELTPOSTVEREIN"

Venetian red

(cat. Michel 362x/SG 382/Yvert 361)

2 80 portrait of Heinrich von Stephan, text "FÜNFZIG JAHRE / WELTPOSTVEREIN"

slate

(cat. Michel 363/SG 383/Yvert 362)

UPU 50th anniversary

date: 24 June 1924

designer: -

printer: Reichsdruckerei, Berlin, Germany

perforated: 14:14¼

sheet: 100 (10 x 10)

remark: official stamps, overprints on nr. 1 and 2

3 60 overprint "Dienstmarke" on portrait of Heinrich von Stephan

Venetian red, overprint in black

(cat. Michel Dienst 112/SG O 111/Yvert S 75)

4 80 overprint "Dienstmarke" on portrait of Heinrich von Stephan

slate, overprint in black

(cat. Michel Dienst 113/SG O 112/Yvert S 76)

UPU 50th anniversary

date: 9 October 1924

designer: -

printer: Reichsdruckerei, Berlin, Germany

perforated: 14:14¼

sheet: 100 (10 x 10)

5 10 pf portrait of Heinrich von Stephan, text "1874-1924 / WELTPOSTVEREIN" and "H. VON STEPHAN"

deep green

(cat. Michel 368/SG 380/Yvert 359)

6 20 pf portrait of Heinrich von Stephan, text "1874-1924 / WELTPOSTVEREIN" and "H. VON STEPHAN"

deep blue

(cat. Michel 369/SG 381/Yvert 360)

International Labour Office meeting, Berlin

date: 10 October 1927

designer: -

printer: Reichsdruckerei, Berlin, Germany

perforated: 14:14¼

sheet: 100 (10 x 10)

7 8 overprint "I.A.A. / 10.-15.10.1927" on portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven

deep green, overprint in black

(cat. Michel 407/SG 421/Yvert 398)

8 15 overprint "I.A.A. / 10.-15.10.1927" on portrait of Immanuel Kant

scarlet, overprint in black

(cat. Michel 408/SG 422/Yvert 399)

9 25 overprint "I.A.A. / 10.-15.10.1927" on portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

blue, overprint in black

(cat. Michel 409/SG 423/Yvert 400)

UPU 50th anniversary

date: 1928

designer: -

printer: Reichsdruckerei, Berlin, Germany

perforated: 14:14¼

sheet: 100 (10 x 10)

remark: printed on chalky paper

10 60 portrait of Heinrich von Stephan, text "FÜNFZIG JAHRE / WELTPOSTVEREIN"

Venetian red

(cat. Michel 362y/SG 382a)

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last revised: 3 September 2010