NAZI GERMANY
SOUVENIR SHEETS
1937
MICHEL BLOCK 7
Issued on the 5th of April 1937 this minisheet (Michel Block 7) was used to commemorate the 48th Birthday of Adolf Hitler. The inscription reads "Whoever wants to save a people must think heroically" and is a quote from one of Hitler's speeches. This is the first time Hitler appears alone on an official stamp. The design is by Prof. Richard Klein and has a swastika watermark that covers the entire reverse of the minisheet. The sheets were initially printed 147mm x 105mm but there are many available that have been trimmed. The stamps Michel 646 are Perf K14.Click here for more of my block 7 Minisheets.
BLOCK 7
FROM MY COLLECTION
MICHEL BLOCK 8
Issued: 16th Apr 1937. Michel 647 (Block 8), was issued just over a week after Block 7 and is of the same design except this issue was imperforate and again the watermark is a swastika watermark that covers the entire reverse of the sheet. This sheet was issued at the 1st National Stamp Exposition entitled "The German Postage Stamp" in Berlin.The exhibition was staged from 16th to 18th April 1937 in Berlin and a special postmark was issued to coincide with the event. During the first few hours of the event opening there was a mix-up and the organisers mistakenly cancelled these sheet "1936" instead of "1937", however they soon realised the mistake and all further cancellations were correctly dated.
The same minisheet was again used from the 17th to 20th April at another exhibition, "The Life and Work of the Führer", held in Hamburg. This event also has a special postmark depicting the Edelweiss flower.
Click here for more of my block 8 Minisheets.
BLOCK 8
FROM MY COLLECTION
MICHEL BLOCK 9
Michel 648 (Michel Block 9) was issued on 10th June 1937 and like the two previous minisheets it has a swastika watermark that covers the entire reverse of the sheet. This minisheet differs from the earlier design in that it has an additional inscription that reads "25RPf inclusive of Culture Fund donation".Click here for more of my block 9 Minisheets.
BLOCK 9
FROM MY COLLECTION
MICHEL BLOCK 10
Issued: 1st Aug 1937 - This minisheet, Michel block 10, fetures the same stamp, Michel 649, as a minisheet used in 1936 for the previous year's race. However this issue has a red overprint "1 August - 1937 - München - Riem" across the stamp and the minisheet itself has a watermark inscribed "MÜNCHEN - RIEM - 1936". There are known forgeries of this sheet where the overprint is inverted and these are much cheaper than the real minisheet.Click here for more of my block 10 Minisheets.
BLOCK 10
FROM MY COLLECTION
MICHEL BLOCK 11
REICHSPARTEITAG
Michel 650 was used on this minisheet (Block 11) issued on 3rd Sep 1937. It is almost identical to the Culture Fund minisheet (Block 9) but with the addition of extra text on the left and right sides of Hitler's head. The left side reads "Reichsparteitag" and the right side reads "Nürnberg 1937".
From the 6th to 13th Sep the 9th Nazi Party Congress is held in Nürnberg and is titled the "Rally of Labour" (Reichsparteitag der Arbeit) to highlight the reduction of unemployment in Germany since the Nazi rise to power.
These minisheets were first made available at the "Collecting in your leisure time" Exhibition in Berlin from the 3rd to 5th Sep 1937. A Special postmark and an official postcard were also released. In addition to this postcard there was also a series of 8 more postcards, P264, with 6Rpf Hitler Head indicia stamps issued to coincide with rally.
BLOCK 11
FROM MY COLLECTION