On 21 November 2010, German Naval Academy Mürwik as the main training establishment for all German Navy officers celebrates its 100th anniversary. On this occasion, the Deutsche Post (German postal services) issues on 12 August 2010 a so-called “Ganzdrucksache” (stamped commemorative envelope), a C6 envelope with printed commemorative picture and a stamp of 0,55€ for a price of 0,75€ plus shipping and handling.
The stamp shows the training ship Gorch Fock and had already been published in 2008 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the tall ship. The date of issue may be of some astonishment, as it does not link to any event of the jubilee celebrations.
Even more reasons for astonishment is the picture on the envelope to remember the Naval Academy’s anniversary: one could think it may be a sailing school or an academy for the merchant navy. The only military link (besides the aforementioned ship that the viewer has to classify as a military vessel) is the academy’s badge, and it looks as un-military like many of the Bundeswehr’s badges. Besides, there is a nautical chart of the area, another picture of the Gorch Fock and parts of the entrance area and the main building of the “red castle”.
Well, nobody expects to see gun-blazing warships on a Federal German stamp or envelope. Nor is it surprising that one can mainly read in special interest magazines (and hardly even on the pages of the Deutsche Post) about this commemorative envelope.
But was it impossible, instead of picturing the training vessel for a second time, to show the Academy’s centrepiece: its sailors? But one should at least be happy that the jubilee of the Naval Academy Mürwik is being officially remembered “somehow”, that also had been seat of the “Flensburg Government” under Großadmiral Karl Dönitz between 3 and 23 May 1945.
