Wilhelm Busch

Yesterday I bought the new German stamps.

This is one of them:

150 years Max and Moritz (issued 02-04-2015)

Max and Moritz is an illustrated story by the German author Wilhelm Busch and was first published in 1865. The stamp shows an illustration of the third prank out of seven.
The works of Wilhelm Busch were often shown on German stamp. The oldest Wilhelm Busch I have in collection were issued on 9th January 1958 and remembered Wilhelm Busch's 50th day of death. The left stamp shows a self portrait of Wilhelm Busch and the right stamp an illustration of the sixth prank.

The next Wilhelm Busch stamp was issued on 15th April 1982 and celebrated his 150th birthday. The stamp shows the Pious Helene. In my collection I have both, a mint stamp and one cancelled with the First Day Special Postmark. The stamp shows an illustration of the third chapter and the postmark one from the fifth chapter.

On 19th April 1990 four stamps were issued to celebrate 125 years of Max and Moritz. The first stamp shows an illustration of Widow Bolte from the first prank, the second stamp shows the second prank, the third stamp one from the third prank and the fourth stamp the illustration of the preface.

The Teacher Lämpel was used on a stamp (issued 09-08-2001) to encourage to lifelong learning. Teacher Lämpel was featured in the fourth prank of Max and Moritz.

The latest stamps of the Federal Republic of Germany showing a character of Wilhelm Busch were issued on 14th June 2007 to celebrate Wilhelm Busch's 175 birthday. The stamps show a sequence of pictures from Hans Huckebein. The First Day Special Postmark shows again a self portrait of Wilhelm Busch.

Not only the Federal Republic of Germany showed characters of Wilhelm Busch. Switzerland featured Max and Moritz on one stamp from a Pro Juventute set about Characters from children's books (issued 26-11-1984).

The other stamps from the set show Heidi by Johanna Spyri, Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren.

The German Federal Post of Berlin issued four stamps about Max and Moritz on 19th April 1990 to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the publishing of the story. The stamps show illustrations of the fourth, sixth, seventh and fifth prank.