East Germany 1956 – Dresden Observatory 

The highest face-value member of a set of three commemorating the 750th anniversary of the founding of the city of Dresden. It shows the 40-m-high tower of the Dresden Technical University’s observatory, a familiar landmark in the city. It was opened in 1913 but badly damaged by air raids in February 1945 and subsequently rebuilt. The dome on top contains a 30-cm refractor, installed a few years after the observatory opened. 

In 1968 the observatory was named the Lohrmann Observatory after Wilhelm Gotthelf Lohrmann (1796–1840), a German astronomer best known for his atlas of the Moon. Lohrmann was one of the founders of Dresden University and its first director. 

The other two stamps in the set show the old market square (10 pf) and the bridge over the River Elbe (20 pf). 

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