Block stamp: for us children - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1997 - 100 Pfennig

In our dreams we send the sky blue airmail letters with a big hot air balloon on the long journey. Sometimes you see the big balloons and you want to ride with them, because in the jargon you do not talk about flying, but about driving with the balloon and the Zeppelin. The balloon trip started about 200 years ago. The Montgolfier brothers succeeded in using hot air, a 35-meter-long balloon, to ascend the market square of Annonay near Lyon. The spectators were thrilled, the ride took ten minutes and the balloon climbed 2,000 meters. Of course, this balloon had no mail. The first human in a balloon started and successfully landed on November 21, 1783. The Parisians came to the idea of ​​carrying mail with the balloon 100 years later, in an emergency situation, the siege of their city during the war between Germany and France in September 1870. After the balloon and Zeppelinfahrten the letters learned from 1912 by plane only correctly fly. Today, about 1.7 million airmail letters are flown daily from Frankfurt to the world. Of course, the big colorful hot air balloons, which become smaller and smaller in the distance, and our thoughts, desires and dreams float far away into faraway lands, are more beautiful to look at. (Text: Rosemarie Wesp, Museum of Post and Communications, Frankfurt am Main)