Mi.702-713 (15.09.1939) Comradeship Organisation

Mi.702 - 713

'Comradeship Organisation' of the German Reichspost

Notes: Design: Werner von Axster-Heudtlass. Photogravure printing. Sheets 5 x 10. Without watermark. Perf. 13½:14¼. Quantity issued: unknown. Valid until 31.12.1940

The surtax on these stamps was for the Post Office Employees Fund

Werner von Axster-Heudtlass

Franz Hermann Wilhelm Werner von Axster-Heudtlass (1898 - 1949) and his wife Maria Viktoria Thekla Edle von Axster-Heudtlass (1884 - 1966) were German graphic artists. They designed advertisements for well-known companies, but also propaganda and stamps for the National Socialists.

Maria von Axster-Heudtlass came from a family of lower nobility and had four siblings. She was married four times. She married her first husband, Mr. von Uhlár, who later drowned while swimming, around 1904. Her second husband, Heinrich Julius Georg Altrichter, whom she married on 6th December 1913, also died. She married her third husband, Karl Ludwig Johannes Kabelmann, on 4th October 1917 and separated from him again in 1924.

Her fourth husband Werner Heudtlass (later von Axster-Heudtlass ) was the son of the lawyer Julius Albert Eugenius Heudtlass and his wife Auguste Helene Martha Heudtlass and had a brother, the journalist and author Willy Heudtlass. Maria von Axster and Werner Heudtlass married in 1925 and also worked closely together professionally.

They founded their studio around 1925. The couple designed advertising brochures for many well-known clients, including Lufthansa , Steinway & Sons , Siemens and Eckstein. The Franz-Eher-Verlag , the most important National Socialist publishing house, was also one of the studio's clients. Werner von Axster-Heudtlass first worked as a graphic artist around 1924, Maria von Axster-Heudtlass first around 1905. She also gave art lessons on the side.

In the late 1930s, the couple began designing stamps. At first, the motifs were mostly apolitical or only moderately political. This changed during the Nazi era . This is shown on the stamp 'Wehrkampftage der SA 1942' and a poster with the title 'Hatred and Destruction of Our Enemies - Freedom, Justice and Bread for Our People'. It depicts a Nazi swinging his sword over the heads of four dragons, named 'Judaism', 'Plutocracy', 'Bolshevism' and 'Capitalism'. The couple were both well-known as graphic artists and wealthy during the Nazi era.

In 1949, the couple showed their artistic presence for the last time with the stamp 'Export Fair Hannover 1949'. In the same year, Werner von Axster-Heudtlass died in Hanover at the age of 51. Maria von Axster-Heudtlass died 17 years later, also in Hanover, at the age of 82. Neither of them had any children.

Source: Wikipedia

Note on Mi.720: 'Postschutz' (mail protection) - 'Were part of the 'Feldpost' organisation. For the Polish campaign which gave the Feldpost its first real opportunity of working under actual war conditions, the service was divided into two groups: 1. The units employed in the telephone service; 2. The 'Special Units' consisting of all post office trades, required to take former enemy post offices and installations. The dual role of these units was to repair and maintain these enemy installations, often near the front line and within enemy action. Occasionally they even had to defend these installations against enemy action. So these units were fully armed, and became known as the 'Postschutz'. Naturally as all the 'feldpost' came under army jurisdiction, they all wore normal army uniforms'. Source: Harper & Scheck

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