A huge post for a small small stamp,
I found the info on a forum for stamp collectors
The origins of this stamp are in the
June 21, 1948 Currency reform by the western zones of Germany, which caught the
Soviet with their pants down and lead to a rushed currency reform in the Soviet
(and Berlin) on June 24th (June 25th in West Berlin). Emergency stamps were
over- printed in many post offices (the so-called "District
Handoverprints") every night to meet the next day's demand, until
machine-overprinted stamps became available on July 3rd.
This immediately lead to the Soviet
Blockade of West Berlin and the Berlin Airlift (Operation Vittles). The
population of West Berlin suffered greatly during the time of the blockade,
which was not lifted until May 12, 1949. (The Airlift continued until Sept.
30.)
As a means to defray the costs of
this massive resupply operation and to provide continuing assistance to the
people of Berlin, the German parliament (with military government approval)
passed a law requiring a 2 Pfennig tax on various classes of mail. (Covers
franked contrary to this law exist, e.g. Notopers used to pay postage and
ordinary stamps used to pay the tax.)
The tax was to be paid ONLY by the
"blue flea" stamp, first issued on Dec. 1, 1948 and inscribed
"NOTOPFER / 2 BERLIN / STEUERMARKE". This translates to
"Emergency Victims / 2 Berlin / Tax Stamp". Although this is
technically a tax stamp, it was in fact sold by the post office and it had no
use other than on mail.
Covers franked contrary to this law
exist, e.g. Notopers used to pay postage and ordinary stamps used to pay the
tax.
The Notopfer was not required on all
pieces of mail. Initially, the Notopfer was required only in the Bizone
(combined American and British zones). It was later used in the French Zone. It
was never used in Berlin itself. It was not required on mail to Berlin, on mail
to the Soviet Zone and on mail to foreign destinations. Examples used
inadvertently to the Soviet Zone or Berlin were often defaced and returned by
the Soviet Zone authorities (and are very collectable).
For mail that was not exempt per the
above, initially every class of mail required the Notopfer. This represented a
10% tax for letter mail, but was a whopping 50% for printed matter. Businesses
complained loudly about this and printed matter was later made exempt.
Even official mail that was
otherwise free required a Notopfer!
The period of use for the Notopfer
was Dec. 1, 1948 to March 31, 1956, thus surviving the transition from occupied
Germany to Federal Republic. Overall, more than 10 billion of the
"fleas" were printed.
