Notepaper on a letter next to the regular postage Three Note Stamps
The West German Notopfer Berlin of 2 pfennig - nicknamed blue flea - was a compulsory supplementary stamp that had to be stuck on every domestic letter in West Germany in the period 1949-1956 in connection with the Berlin blockade. The proceeds were intended for economic aid for the people of West Berlin.
Initially, the seal was untouched, but from the beginning of 1950 all sheets were perforated. Due to the large edition - 20 billion of these stamps are used - there are several variants known (watermark, tandem, typographic differences), some of which are rare.
In the Michel catalog this seal is included in the Zwangszuschlagmarken (compulsory stamp) category.
The post was not obligatory, or by post to the Soviet occupation zone in Germany (SBZ) and its successor, the Deutsche Democratic Republic (DDR). The GDR gold as a foreign country. The Notopfer seal also gave rise to a post war between West and East Germany (SBZ / DDR). The Deutsche Post, the East German postal service, did not acknowledge the seal. If it was accidentally stuck on a mail to the SBZ / DDR, that mail item was returned to the sender or the stamp was made black.
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