Gerd Aretz (18 February 1930 – 5 July 2009) was a German artist. From 1960 until his death he designed

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

for the Deutsche Bundespost including the

Women in German history series Women in German history (''Frauen der deutschen Geschichte'') is a definitive stamp series issued in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and West Berlin from 1986 to 1990, and in reunited Germany 1990 to 2003. The series was replaced by the curr ...

portraits. Born in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

, he used to teach art in the local university. In 1982, the "presidential souvenir sheet" designed by Aretz appeared, featuring the German presidents Theodor Heuss, Heinrich Lübke, Gustav Heinemann, Walter Scheel and Karl Carstens. Their successors Richard von Weizsäcker, Roman Herzog and Johannes Rau had refused to appear on stamps during their lifetimes. After Rau's death, the Federal Ministry of Finance issued an urgent order to submit a design for a commemorative stamp within 72 hours; together with his son, Aretz succeeded in fulfilling this order on time. In the same year, he also designed the stamp for Stamp Day. Among other things, it shows a letter holder with letters addressed to him, franked with stamps designed by him. His son, Oliver Aretz, is a designer in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and has worked with him on some stamps.

References

1930 births 2009 deaths Artists from Wuppertal People from the Rhine Province German stamp designers {{Germany-artist-stub