On November 9, Deutsche Post issued two new definitives in the series "Women in German Histroy". The new stamps bear demonination in both pfennigs and euro. With the introduction of the euro on 1 January 2002,  it has become necessary to display the values of the permanent series in both pfennigs and euro so that these stamps remain valid after 01.07.2002. The new stamps valued at 100pf and 110pf respectively, depicting Grethe Weise and Kte Strobel.

Grethe Weiser

Mathilde Ella Dorothea Margarethe Nowak was born on 27 February 1903 as the daughter of entrepreneur Gottlieb Ernst Ludwig Nowak and Elle Nowak in Hanover. She spent her childhood and adolescence in Klotzsche and Dresden. Following her marriage to the Viennese merchant Josef Weiser, the couple moved to Berlin together with their son. There, Grethe Weiser took up singing lessons and gave her debut in the chorus of a production of Lysistrata in 1926. During the 1920's and 30's, she appeared as an actress and singer in Berlin (Komische Oper, Theater am Kurfrstendamm), Hamburg (Thalia-Theater) and Dresden (Komdienhaus) as well as in various cabarets in the capital city. Her first screen role came in 1932. Her main role in the film Die gttliche Jette (directed by Erich Waschneck, 1937), in which she proved her capacity for dramatic expression and portrayal, brought her great public acclaim. Having separated from her husband, from 1934 Grethe Weiser lived with the film producer Dr. Hermann Schwerin whom she married in March 1958. For her long years of outstanding performance on both stage and screen, Grethe Weiser was given the Verdienstkreuz of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On 2 October 1970, Grethe Weiser and her husband died in a fatal car accident near Bad Tlz.

Kate Strobel

Kate Strobel was born in Nuremberg on 23 July 1907 into a working-class family of social democrats. Thanks to her home environment she developed an early interest in politics, joining the USDP's youth labour movement in 1921 and becoming both a member of the SPD and the social-democratic movement Kinderfreunde when she was 18. After the war, she became a member of the German Federal Parliament (1949-1972), the European Parliament (1958-1973), the SPD party's executive committee (1958-1973) and its management committee (1966-1971). From 1966, during the Grand Coalition, she headed the Federal Health Ministry, and between 1969 and 1972 the Federal Ministry for Youth, Family Affairs and Health during the social-liberal government. She died in her home town of Nuremberg on 26 March 1996.

Technical Details:

Design: Professor Gerd Aretz and Oliver Aretz, Wuppertal
Motif and Denomination: Grethe Weiser, 100 pfennigs, 0.51euro
                                       Kate Strobel , 110 pfennigs, 0.56euro
Paper: White fluorescent postage stamp paper DP 1 M
Printing: Two-colour intaglio printing by the Bundesdruckerei GmbH, Berlin
Size: 23.02 mm x 27.32 mm
Layout of stamps on the sheet: 2 rows of 5
Date of issue:  09.11.2000