Olympic Summer Games - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1960 - 40

For the Olympic year 1960, the Deutsche Bundespost has provided for the publication of special postage stamps in four different values. This resulted in the task, which was not easy to solve, of picking out from the diversity of sports disciplines a sequence that exhaustively expresses the course of the Olympic events. Naturalistic representations in the sense of reportage should be avoided in order to preserve the character of the brand. The participating artists were advised to interpret the historical origin of the games from Greek antiquity by an appropriate choice of topics. For the rest, they were free to develop solutions at their own discretion. Hermann Bentele and the graphics group Müller and Blase each submitted a series, the latter with four additional variants. Reinhart Heinsdorff and F. G. Boes each delivered two series, the latter with a modification. Heinrich Gerl received three series. In the relatively high number of 37 available sheets there was no actual selection despite some good individual performance. Some of the suggestions were too symbolic in the subject; the chosen graphic means of expression did not always seem adequate to the nature of the task. Thus, from the outset only a single series proved to be suitable, which is inspired by ancient Greek representations in lively lines. These designs, proposed by Reinhart Heinsdorff, are characterized by a well-thought-out compositional scheme that is common to all four values. The series is given an invigorating rhythm through the alternation of two values ​​with structure aligned to the central axis and those based on the principle of the moving course in one direction. The four stamps are combined into a single unit by the uniform arrangement of the inscription in four marginal lines and the white olympic rings placed above the figurative representations. The Federal Minister of Posts and Telecommunications has accepted the recommendation of the Art Advisory Board and decided that the chosen design series will be executed. Bundesdruckerei Berlin has taken over the production of steel engravings and monochrome intaglio printing. The colors used were: for the 7 Pf brown, the 10 Pf green, the 20 Pf red and the 40 Pf blue.