PROPAGANDA POSTCARDS
(1941)

This page was last updated
19-Feb-2025 08:58

LEIPZIG SPRING and AUTUMN FAIRS
(1941)

The Leipzig fairs were predominantly trade fairs and their roots can be traced back to 1165. The Spring Fair was held on the third Sunday after Easter and the Autumn Fair on Michaelis, 29th Sep. In 1458 a third fair was added by Frederick III, to be held on New Year's Eve. By the eighteenth century Liepzig had became known as the marketplace of all Europe.

In 1917 Erich Gruner designed the iconic 'MM' symbol. In 1937 the city of Leipzig was renamed Reichsmessestadt Leipzig (Imperial Trade Fair City of Leipzig) by the Nazis. Leipzig was bombed by the Allies during WWII as the area had been converted into armaments factories.

There were six special cancels used during the Leipzig Spring Fair held from 1st to 7th Mar 1941.

LEIPZIG RAILWAY STATION

The postcard below depicts Leipzig Railway station and bears the four official postage stamps Michel 764 to 767 issued to commemorate the 1941 Leipzig Spring Fair (Note the stamps were issued for the Spring Fair and the cancellations below relate to the Autumn Fair). This particular cancel was the fourth variant inscribed "RING MESSHAUS" (Ring Fair Hall).

LEIPZIG VÖLKERSCHLACHTDENKMAL

The following card features the Monument to the Battle of Nations and the first of the six special cancellations.

From October 16 to 19, 1813, Leipzig was the scene of the Battle of the Nations. The allied armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden won the decisive victory over Napoleon and his allies on German soil. The result: 600,000 soldiers from over twenty nations involved, 100,000 dead or wounded and a typhoid epidemic in Leipzig that killed ten percent of the residents.

Just one year after the devastating battle, the poet Ernst Moritz Arndt came up with the idea of ​​a memorial to honor those who died. In 1894, the Leipzig architect Clemens Thieme founded the Deutscher Patriotenbund with the aim of collecting donations for the erection of the monument. In 1898 the sum was sufficient and the foundation stone could be laid.

In 1913 the Monument to the Battle of the Nations was inaugurated as a national monument.