Americans in Berlin: A Cinderella Stamp Commemorative Issue - Page 3

The "Americans in Berlin" commemorative sheet consists of five rows of six stamps. The top row displays the shoulder patch for Berlin Brigade. It is denominated 45, recalling the year in which American troops first entered Berlin at the end of WWII. The second row borrows the classic representation of the Berlin Airlift from the 1956 German commemorative postage stamp. This stamp is denominated 70 to commemorate the number of American (31) and British (39) pilots and aircrew who lost their lives in the Airlift. The third row depicts the silhouette of Field Station Berlin located atop the Teufelsberg ("Devil's Mountatin"), the highest point in Berlin. It is an iconic part of the Berlin skyline. This stamp is denominated 24/7 to recall that the Field Station was "on watch" 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the Cold War, helping to prevent the Cold War from turning hot. The fourth row is a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The colors used in the text allow the numbers from the dates that the Wall stood to be read together with the words on the line below to say "One Berlin - Twenty years." The fifth row seems to repeat the Berlin Brigade shoulder patch, but the flaming sword of the conquerors of 1945 has been replaced by the Berlin Bear, symbolizing that when the Americans left in 1994, they left as friends and "Berliners."

At the left of the bottom margin of the sheet is an image of the crest of the City of Berlin with the honorific banner "Outpost of Freedom." The crest is bisected by one of the perforation lines to symbolize Berlin's other Cold-War title, "The Divided City." The bottom right of the margin hosts a faux cancellation mark for "APO 09742", the Army Post Office number for Berlin. The cancellation shows the date 9 November 2009 as the "First Day of Issue." This is the date of the twentieth Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. In the center of the bottom margin is John F. Kennedy's world-famous statement, made in Berlin in June 1963: "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner). (Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean "I am a jellied doughnut.")

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Article Author: Lou Novacheck

Love music in just about all genres and forms. Love to travel. Been to 41 states, 2 provinces, 3 US possessions, and 34 countries on five continents, plus above the Artic Circle. Ex-military, ex-international sales, ex-self employed, and just about …

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