Jugendmarke — youth hostels

On 17 September 1952 the Deutsche Bundespost issued a pair of semi-postals inscribed JUGENDMARKE 1952 — the first of what became the Federal Republic's annual youth-stamp series. The surtax went to the federal government's second Bundesjugendplan and the youth-hostel work carried out under it, which is why the sheet reference files list the pair as «Charity Stamps for Youth Hostels».

Both designs are by Max Bittrof and show hiking youngsters with rucksacks in front of a youth hostel: the 10 + 2 Pf in blackish green-olive shows wandering boys (Michel DE 153, Scott DE B325), the 20 + 3 Pf in carmine red wandering girls with a guitar (Michel DE 154, Scott DE B326). The Bundesdruckerei in Berlin printed both in recess, 28 × 33 mm, comb perforation 13¾ × 14, on paper watermarked multiple BP, in print runs of 1,500,000 each — small for a Bundespost issue, which is what makes the pair scarce today. They were valid for postage until 30 June 1954. Further catalogue references are Yvert DE 39–40, Stanley Gibbons DE 1080–1081, AFA DE 1117–1118 and Unificato DE 39–40.

The pair enters the Scout and youth-movement catalogues through the hiking-and-hostel theme rather than through an organised Scout body: the Deutsches Jugendherbergswerk grew directly out of the German youth movement, and the Wandervogel-style figures on both values are its emblematic subject. Both values are catalogued in rising face-value order and are in the collection.