Commemorative Postal Card for the 1934 Winter Aid (Michel P 253)
Issued at the same time as the Nothilfe stamps, the postal card depicts an SA trooper with an eagle and swastika background. The stamp was designed by Professor Spiegel.
Right: On September 1934, the Prussian Ministry of Interior authorized a state lottery, with prizes totaling 150,000 marks, for the benefit of the Nothilfe. Tickets were sold through the lottery offices at 50 pfennig each. The lottery ticket measured 180 mm by 290 mm, and the sheet was folded to act as an envelope to hold a joined pair of post cards. The envelope was then sealed by machine imprint. The post card was not available from post offices, but went on sale 29 December 1934. The post cards were advertised as having a special new imprinted stamp designed by Emmy Glintzer to aim at the collectors’ market.
What was not made clear to the public was that only one of the joined cards had the imprinted stamp, and only one in ten of the double cards had the single imprinted stamp.
So, in addition to being a money lottery, it was also a postal stationery lottery. Officially, eighty-two different views were used in the series, but one hundred four are known to exist, the extras being rare misprints. The drawing took place on 20 March 1935 with a top prize of five thousand marks.