GERMAN PHILATELY

PROPAGANDA POSTCARDS
(1941)

This page was last updated
31-Aug-2026 06:39

TAG DER BRIEFMARKE - LUXEMBURG
THE DAY OF THE STAMP - LUXEMBURG
(12th Jan 1941)

BACKGROUND: Luxemburg also came out with a special postcard for Stamp Day in 1941.

SPECIAL CANCEL:




This card ties directly into the "Tag der Briefmarke 1941" event on 12th Jan, 1941, but with a notable twist: it's explicitly commemorating Luxembourg's special role as the holiday's birthplace, issued from a country under a different flavor of German occupation.

"Geburtsstadt des Tages der Briefmarke": The caption is historically accurate, not just propaganda. The "Tag der Briefmarke" concept originated with Berlin philatelist Hans von Rudolphi in 1933 and was first celebrated in Germany on 7th Jan, 1936. It became an international tradition when the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP), meeting in convention in Luxembourg in August 1936, voted to adopt it as a shared observance across member countries. So Luxembourg genuinely was where the day was internationalized, this card is marking that anniversary, five years on, in January 1941.

Sponsor: Issued by the "Landesverband Luxemburger Philatelistenvereine e.V." (National Association of Luxembourg Philatelic Societies), and numbered, this is card No. 4871 of a limited printing, typical for collector-targeted exhibition pieces and most likely served as the admission ticket to the event.

Map illustration: Shows Luxembourg's outline with the coats of arms of several towns marked, Wiltz, Mersch, Luxembourg City ("LXBG, Stadt Bahnhof"), Differdange, Esch(-sur-Alzette), and Dudelange, representing the local philatelic clubs across the country that took part.

Occupation context: Germany invaded and occupied Luxembourg on 10th May, 1940. After three months of military rule, a civil administration took over on 2nd Aug, 1940, headed by Gauleiter Gustav Simon (whose home Gau was Koblenz-Trier), governing Luxembourg as a "CdZ-Gebiet" (Chief of Civil Administration territory), a step short of formal annexation but functioning as de facto absorption, complete with a Germanization campaign against French language and Luxembourgish national identity. This card, from January 1941, falls squarely in that transitional period.

Stamp: A 6+4 Pfennig green Winterhilfswerk charity stamp from the 1940 "Historische Bauwerke" series, but overprinted "LUXEMBURG", part of a postal transition where German Reichspost stamps overprinted for local use replaced Luxembourg's own currency-denominated stamps starting late 1940, ahead of full postal takeover by the Reichspost on 1st Apr, 1941.

Postmarks: A green circular cachet references the Luxembourg philatelist association and "Tag der Briefmarke 1941," while the black special postmark is the special handstamp commemorating the "Tag der Briefmarke" on 12.1.1941.

So this card sits at an interesting intersection: a genuinely Luxembourg-rooted philatelic tradition being folded into Reich propaganda apparatus just months into German civil administration of the country.