COVER N. 269 - GERMANY

Postmark: Garching B. München 85748 - 14.06.2023 / Briefzentrum 85 14.06.23

Posted on the 14  June; Received on the 19th June 2023

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The more the merrier, so says the old aphorism, and I couldn't be more consonant with it, upon receiving another of Alex's unexpected but always interesting covers.

This time, no less than 7 stamps on the cover, each with its own individual postmark, a couple of postmarks on the envelope too, plus a mechanical double cancellation on all the stamps too... Ah, all that and three more postmarks on the back of the envelope...

Thank you so much Alex, unique, to say the least :-)

- On the 10 June 1923, the departure flag for the  the first ever  race at the Schleizer Dreieck circuit was waved thus inaugurating a tradition that would persist to this day.

The non-permanent circuit is located close to the Turigian city of Schleiz and all over its history has had three major iterations, the current configuration having been set out in 2004 with a total length of 3.805 km, that is to say, about half the original 7.631 km of 1923.

Of note is the fact that the circuit is one  the few where races are generally ran in counter-clockwise fashion, although ramp and slalom events that also take place on it run in the more orthodox clockwise direction.

The circuit hosts car races but also bike and sidecar events and holds the distinction of being he oldest motor sports circuit of Germany.

On 01JUN2023, Deutsche Post issued the 0,85 € stamp that can be seen on the left upper corner of the cover, celebrating the centenary of  the Schleizer Dreieck circuit.

- Moving on to the opposite corner of the envelope, the 80 Pfennig stamp with an image of  the Lutheran  St. Reinoldi Church, Dortmund, the city's oldest church, was issued on 05APR2001, as part of a definitive series dedicated to sights of Germany.

- The 0,10 € "message in a bottle" stamp, of which there are no less than four on the cover, was issued on 02NOV2022 as part of the current definitive "World of Letters" series.

- The 0,05 € water lilly stamp is also part of the "World of Letters" series and it was issued on 02DEC2021.

The manual postmarks tell us that the cover was mailed from Garching bei München, a city located close to Munich where the first German research nuclear reactor was installed in 1957. This was considered such a significant event that the reactor's dome features on the city coat of arms.

The mechanical postmarks indicate that the letter was processed via Briefzentrum 85, located in Munich Airport.