Ernst Barlach stamp

On 2 January 2020, Deutsche Post issued a stamp commemorating the 150th birthday of German expressionist sculptor Ernst Barlach (1870–1938).

The design by Thomas Mayfried shows a detail of Der Schwebende (“The Floating One”). Also known as Güstrower Ehrenmal (“Güstrow Cenotaph”), this sculpture was created in 1927 as a memorial for the victims of World War I. Barlach stated that the angel’s face unintentionally resembles the one of his colleague and fellow pacifist Käthe Kollwitz. In 1937, under the Nazi regime, the bronze sculpture was removed from the Güstrow Dom as so-called degenerate art and later melted down. After World War II, a recast was reinstalled at the original location.

All text is set in Archive Mono, a monospaced transitional serif. It complements the proportionally spaced Archive family designed by The Entente and released in 2013 by Colophon.