Saar

 

1926-1930: Definitive 'Views'

The Saar Basin (Saargbeit) is a border region which has been contested by France and Germany.  After WW1 it was occupied by France and administered under  the League of Nations for 15 years.  The definitives of views of the area had appeared over several years with differing decorative borders.  The stamp of course shows a colliery shaft-head

and  the cancel is appropriate, in that Quierschieb was a coal mining town.  Saar Post required 60c stamps so revalued the 80c postage stamp first with an overprint in March 1930, then a few weeks later this stamp appeared.  After a plebiscite in 1935 Saar rejoined Germany.  Yes you know what happens next.  After WW2 the territory was autonomous under French protection.

1952: Red Cross Week (Design - Hossfield; Engraver - Pierre Munier)

The stamp shows the Red Cross and refugees.  1952 was also the year of the Helsinki Olympic Summer Games and Saar sent a team but did not medal.  Alas I do not have that stamp and the ones I show here are my complete Saarland 'collection'.

1955: Red Cross Week (Design - Fritz Ludwig Schmidt)

Another Red Cross Week but this time a more optimistic mother and baby and then

1956: Red Cross Week (Design - Herman Mees)

a look back in history to a Red Cross Casualty Station in the city of  Saarbrucken  during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71.  The Saar seems to have been defined by war.  Of course their coal mines would be a prize for any belligerent.  In the year of this stamp, 1956, another plebiscite was held and the Saarlanders once again voted to return to Germany.  The stamps issued from 1957 were under the auspices of the German Federal Republic until the adoption of German currency in July 1959 and German stamps have been used there since.  The return of Saarland is sometimes referred to as the 'little reunification' as opposed to the larger one that happened when the Berlin Wall came down.

1957: Int Correspondence Week

Anglophone stamp collectors always refer to this ex country as Saar whereas German speakers refer to it as Saarland..  My ancient school history atlas refers to it as the Saar Basin (its official name after the Treaty of Versailles was - Territory of the Saar Basin).

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Country names that no longer exist - I'm interpenetrating that theme with some laxity but in mitigation you have a choice of three - the name of the game is - See It On A Postcard