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Commemorative stamps May
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In recent years, the Austrian Post’s commitment to electric mobility has been the central theme of its "Stamp Day" commemorative issues. With this year’s final edition, the present has officially been reached.
Austrian Post has been using electric vehicles for over 100 years and now operates the largest electric fleet in the country. Since 2022, only electric vehicles have been purchased for delivery services, and by 2030, the goal is to achieve nationwide carbon-free delivery on the last mile. Recently, the 5,000th electric vehicle—a new Mercedes-Benz eSprinter—was added to the fleet, meaning that roughly half of all delivery vehicles are now electric. The Mercedes-Benz eSprinter is a versatile delivery van, offering generous cargo space and efficient battery management, making it ideal for courier, express, and parcel deliveries. As a contemporary design element, the new electric vehicle stamp is accompanied by a definitive stamp from the 2012 “Art museums” series, featuring the Frauenmuseum Hittisau (Women’s Museum Hittisau) in Vorarlberg. Designed by Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architects in 2000, the striking wooden building also houses the local fire department in its basement. It is the only women’s museum in Austria—and the only one in the world located in a rural area. The museum is dedicated to showcasing and documenting women’s cultural contributions and offering a female perspective on history.
This year’s motif in the “Modern architecture in Austria” series showcases the newly constructed City Hall in Hohenems, Vorarlberg.
The new RathausQuartier, located at the northern entrance of the Hohenems historic center, combines residential, administrative, cultural, and commercial spaces across a total usable area of about 9,800 square meters. The namesake of the 2021 project is the newly built City Hall, a distinctive “urban building block” that opens to the adjacent city garden with a transparent, publicly accessible ground floor. It also marks the beginning of a new shared public zone, extending into the surrounding street space.
The design by BERKTOLD WEBER Architekten was selected through an EU-wide competition. The six-story building was constructed using an environmentally friendly hybrid timber design with recyclable materials, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, and natural airflow for ventilation and nighttime cooling. A large clock and integrated text fragments on the façade symbolize the building’s openness to the citizens of Hohenems. Alongside the City Hall, the RathausQuartier will include residential buildings, shops, an underground garage, a public park, and the restored Villa Iwan and Franziska Rosenthal, which will house the new Literature House Vorarlberg.
The theme for the 2025 EUROPA stamp series, issued annually since 1956, is "National archaeological discoveries". Austria’s contribution features the Hallstatt burial ground.
This significant burial site lies in a high valley above the village of Hallstatt and lends its name to the Hallstatt Period of the Early Iron Age. Discoveries began as early as the 1600s, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that its significance was recognized. From 1846 to 1863, mine foreman Johann Georg Ramsauer excavated 980 graves and meticulously documented his findings. Over the decades, additional excavations and scholarly analysis followed. Since 1877, the Natural History Museum Vienna has been involved in the site's research, conducting modern investigations since 1993. The stamp features a period map of the burial ground created during Ramsauer’s time and a bronze ladle adorned with animal figures likely used in ritual contexts. The graves date from around 800 to 350 BCE and are believed to contain the remains of about 5,000 individuals. Burial practices included both cremation and inhumation, with ashes placed in containers or scattered. Grave goods included jewelry, weapons, and ceramics—often filled with food and drink—as well as luxurious items made from gold, glass, amber, and ivory.
Native trees and shrubs take center stage in Austrian Post’s new definitive stamp series.
Following the “Traditional costume – Accessories” series, which celebrated Austria’s cultural heritage, this new series focuses on the natural world. Trees and shrubs play a vital role for both humans and animals: they produce the oxygen we breathe, absorb greenhouse gases, offer shade, cool the environment, store water, and provide habitats – making them essential to a healthy ecosystem and invaluable as recreational spaces.
The new stamps feature trees and shrubs native to Austria, many of which are familiar: lindens, elderberry bushes, and spruces can be spotted on any nature walk. Spring offers a colorful guide for plant identification: bright white sloe blossoms, fragrant elderflower clusters, multi-colored pussy willows of the purple willow, and the sunny yellow blooms of the Dirndlstrauch (Cornelian cherry) transform the landscape into a sea of color. Blossoms also help identify tree species – such as the sweet-smelling linden flowers beloved by pollinators or the sausage-shaped catkins of alder trees.
Autumn brings another wave of color as leaves turn red, yellow, and brown. A wide variety of fruits become ripe: red Cornelian cherries and barberries, blue juniper berries and sloes, black elderberries, and pink-orange “bishop’s caps.” Cones from pines, spruces, and the rare cone-bearing alder, the winged fruits of maple and linden trees, and the tiny nutlets of the weeping birch all showcase nature’s astonishing diversity.
When? 1 May 2025, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Where? Lion Ceremonial Hall, Schlossplatz 9, 6845 Hohenems Presentation at 9:00 a.m. Where? Hohenems New City Hall, Radetzkystraße 5, 6845 Hohenems Group images, picture 1 Picture of presentation: © Stadt Hohenems – Simon Egle Peter Schmid (Exhibit Director, Montfort Philately Club), Hubert Kinz (Vice-President of the Vorarlberg Regional Parliament), Dieter Egger (Mayor of Hohenems), Martina Prinz (interim. Head of Philately at Austrian Post), Helmut Kogler (President, VÖPh), Christine Böhmwalder (Philately Liechtenstein), Helmut Schneider (President, Montfort Philately Club), Helene Weber and Susanne Bertsch (BERKTOLD WEBER Architects)
