The eighth edition of Deutsche Post’s special stamp series on underground railway stations in Germany is dedicated to a station in north-west Munich. The “Westfriedhof” station, located between the districts of Neuhausen-Nymphenburg and Moosach near the cemetery of the same name, Orpheusstraße and the municipal stadium on Dantestraße, was built between 1993 and 1996 and opened on 23 May 1998. It is located on the almost 34-kilometre-long main line 2, which is served by the U1 line and, if required, by the U7 booster line.
Due to its architecture – and especially its lighting design – Westfriedhof station is considered by many to be the most beautiful station in the Bavarian capital: Eleven open and differently coloured aluminium shells with an enormous diameter of 380 centimetres are lined up next to each other and bathe the platform in zones of blue, red and yellow light. As the walls and ceiling have been left rough and are illuminated in blue, the underground station designed by architects Auer and Weber is reminiscent of an elegant cave. The lighting concept was developed by industrial and lighting designer Ingo Maurer (1932 to 2019), who is highly regarded for his experimental and humorous designs.
The Westfriedhof underground station is not the only station in Munich where Maurer has worked as a lighting designer. In 1999, he was involved in the realisation of the “Moosfeld” underground station in the Trudering-Riem district. In 2009, he worked on the “Münchner Freiheit” underground station in Schwabing, and in 2015 on the underground and suburban railway stations at Marienplatz in the Altstadt-Lehel district. The special stamp for the Westfriedhof station with a value of 1.60 euros was created by designers Jennifer Dengler and Bettina Walter based on a photograph of the illuminated station by Florian Schütz.
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