For Children: Zdeněk Smetana - The Little Witch

Catalogue number	0685
Date of issue	1.6.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	30 stamps
Size of picture	30 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Otakar Karlas, Zdeněk Smetana
Engraver Printing method	Bohumil Šneider rotary recess print in black combined with photogravure in brown, blue, red and yellow

This year's stamp of the series For Children commemorates Zdeněk Smetana, Czech animator, screenwriter and graphic designer. 
Smetana was born on July 26th, 1925 in Prague. He worked in the Bratři v triku film studio and as a director in the Krátký film Praha film studio, received more than fifty awards at both national and international film shows and festivals, including a Golden Lion, Golden Bear, British Academy Film Award, created a large number of characters and helped animate popular Czech TV bedtime stories, such as Pohádky z mechu a kapradí (featuring Křemílek and Vochomůrka),Rákosníček, Štaflík a Špagetka, Radovanovy radovánky and Malá čarodějnice (The Little Witch). He also illustrated several children's books.
Aged no more than a couple of centuries, the Little Witch is still too young for a fully qualified professional witch. Despite her poor command of magic, she's dying to see the fabulous annual witches' Sabbat soon to be held on an isolated mountain. Abraxas, her old raven, tries to dissuade her, but she won't listen! Hidden in bushes on the mountain, she finds it impossible to stand back and joins the dancing witches. The witch in chief commands the culprit to become a "good" witch in no longer than a year's time! The Little Witch understands it to mean that she is supposed to conjure the good, and not to be good in conjuring the bad, and immediately starts increasing her proficiency as a "good" witch. She conjures bundles of wood to help poor old women, helps an ill-treated horse, adds a charming smell causing euphoria to a poor flower girl's paper roses. But her good doings do not fail to leave heartburnings in a Little Witch's colleague, and when the Little Witch breaches the strict ban on Friday conjuring and helps two small children one Friday, she is punished with a heavy frost and snowstorm. She is able to turn the bad into a good magic, however, and the calamity ends in a merry carnival and snowmen building fun. By then it is time for the next annual Sabbat where the Little Witch is about to pass the qualification examination consisting of three tasks.

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Beauty of flowers - Chrysantemum

Catalogue number	0684
Date of issue	27.5.2011
Face value	2 CZK
Print sheets	100 stamps
Size of picture	19 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Anna Khunová
Engraver Printing method	Bohumil Šneider rotary recess print in greenblack combined with photogravure in yellow, red and dark green

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Folk architecture - Z

Catalogue number	0683
Date of issue	27.5.2011
Face value	20 CZK
Print sheets	á 100 stamps
Size of picture	19 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Jan Kavan
Engraver Printing method	Bohumil Šneider rotary recess print in black combined with photogravure in grey-green

Timber-frame houses: A couple of timbered houses from North Bohemia (front); a timber-frame house from the West Bohemian border area (back); and a small-sized Wallachian cottage.

A stamp identified with the letter Z corresponding to the price of Ordinary Item up to 20 g - non-European countries in international priority service (current price according to the Price List of Basic Postal Services: CZK 20).

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Johann Gerstner (1851-1939) - Common Czech-Slovenian Issue

Catalogue number	A0682
Date of issue	27.5.2011
Face value	34 CZK
Print sheets	A + 1
Size of picture	80 x 120 mm
Graphic designer	Karel Zeman
Engraver Printing method	Jaroslav Tvrdoň recess print from flat plate in black combined with offset in blue, red, yellow and black

This common Czech-Slovenian issue featuring violinist Johann Gerstner commemorates the 160th anniversary of his birth.
Johann (Hans) Gerstner (August 17th, 1851, Žlutice - January 9th, 1939, Ljubljana) spent most of his life in Ljubljana where he left a deep mark in the local community, although the memory of him and of his special merits is rather marginalized and suppressed. 
Emanuel Wirth, who later became a renowned and successful violinist and teacher, brought Gerstner to music. Both boys were taught how to play violin and music theory by Karl Rohm in Žlutice. Gerstner took also flute and singing lessons. Thirteen-year-old Gerstner (1864) was admitted to the Prague Conservatory, at that time one of the best music schools, to study violin. Josef Krejčí, the school's director, taught him harmony and general bass, the other theoretical subjects were taught by Josef Foerster whose brother Anton Foerster recommended Gernster to take up a job in Ljubljana. 
His post as a second violinist in Benewitz Quartet gave Gerstner (still as a student in Prague) an opportunity to play top contemporary Czech compositions, often directly from the original music sheets. He also played violin in the local German Opera Orchestra conducted by Bedřich Smetana. 
As a fresh graduate Gerstner took up the job of director of the Slovenian Theatre and violin teacher at the Filharmonic Society's Music School in Ljubljana. Teaching was at the core of his activities in Ljubljana. He taught at up to ten schools. During his 48-year career at the Filharmonic Society's Music School he formed more than a thousand violinists; Leo Funtek from Slovenia, who became a renowned violinist, conductor and composer based in Helsinki, Finland, was the most successful of Gerstner's students. 
Gerstner gave more than 700 concerts as an active performing violinist. He also played first violin at 154 concerts of chamber music. At his last orchestra performance (1911) he played both Beethoven's Romances. He gave his last public performance in 1929 at a concert commemorating 100 years from Franz Schubert's death. He also played violin in the main church choir in Ljubljana every Sunday for a long 40-year period, regularly attended workshops in Graz, Vienna, Salzburg, Mannheim and Cologne as a violinist and teacher, and worked as regional representative of Richard Wagner Company in Ljubljana. 
Gerstner married Josefina Gnezda (Gnesda), daughter of the Slon Hotel in Ljubljana, who gave him three children: Edith, Maria and Hans Gerstner Jr. All three were talented musicians. Hans, who took violin lessons from Gerstner's fellow student and famous violin teacher Otakar Ševčík, followed in his father's footsteps for some time. 
Despite his merits and medal received from Emperor Franz Joseph in 1902, Gerstner spent his old age in destitution and poverty. He was unable to earn some extra money because of his impaired vision. He died in 1939, his wife and a daughter met tragic death in a bomb attack on Ljubljana in 1945. His son Hans moved to Vienna where he wrote several books. 
As a skilled violinist and teacher Gerstner paved the way for the development of the art of violin play in Slovenia. All further generations of violin teachers were able to build on the first and most essential foundations laid by him. But his contribution and unselfish dedication were not sufficiently appreciated, possibly due to his German origin because at the time of his life in Ljubljana the Slovenian population greatly disliked Germans. Yet he was a Ljubljaner who together with his family spent most of their life in Ljubljana. During his life he did not gain a position he was entitled to, despite his great contribution to the development of Slovenian culture.


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The Čtyřlístek Comics - Bobík

Catalogue number	0681
Date of issue	4.5.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	á 10 die-cut self-adhesive stamps
Size of picture	23 x 30 mm
Graphic designer Printing method	Jaroslav Němeček multicoloured offset

Bobík the Pig, sitting on the grass, playing guitar and singing a love song. The Bobík the Pigstamp is the final one of the series of stamps featuring the Čtyřlístek comics characters.

A stamp identified with the letter A corresponding to the price of Ordinary Letter - Standard up to 50 g in domestic service (current price according to the Price List of Basic Postal Services: CZK 10).
Price of the booklet as of the date of issue: 10times CZK 10, i.e. CZK 100.

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Europa - Forest: Alluvial Forests

Catalogue number	0680
Date of issue	4.5.2011
Face value	20 CZK
Print sheets	6 stamps
Size of picture	33 x 33 mm
Graphic designer Line detailing Printing method	Adolf Absolon Martin Srb multicoloured offset

This year's central theme for the annual EUROPA issue, announced by the Association of European Public Postal Operators PostEurop, is "Forests".

An alluvial forest is a hardwood forest found on low levees, ridges and terraces with a high level of underground water within the floodplains of streams and rivers. This type of forest grows in areas that are slightly elevated above floodplain swamp and are usually flooded for a portion of the growing season. Formerly a normal biotope, it has been disappearing with the growing number of river realignment projects.
The largest alluvial forest in the Czech Republic grows at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje rivers. Residual alluvial forests can be found in the area of the confluence of the Labe and Cidlina rivers (Libický Alluvial Forest Natural Reserve), and on the banks or in the headwater area of the Morava and Dyje rivers. 
The presence of a stream or river, or a high level of underground water leads to a lower amount of oxygen in the soil and subsequent reduction processes. The products of the processes contribute to the typical bluish colour and special smell of the so-called gley soil. 
Primary trees found include poplar (Populus L.), oak (Quercus L.) , ash (Fraxinus L.) , elm(Ulmus L.) , alder (Alnus L.) , willow (Salix L.) , lime tree (Tilia L.) . Shrubs and small trees, such as cherry (Prunus serotina) , honeysuckle (Lonicera) , cornel (Cornel) , viburnum (Viburnum) , elder (Sambucus) , are present at places with more light. 
The mix of plants found in alluvial forests depends on the shadow prevailing in the lower layers of the forest. Creepers, such as hop vine (Humulus lupulus) , try to penetrate into the upper layers. Other plants, such as ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) , bramble (Rubus) , catchweed bedstraw (Galium aparine) , spread by vining stems. 
Light-demanding herbs flowering before leaves bud on the surrounding trees give the forest so-called spring aspect. Spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum) , snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) , lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) , yellow star-of-Bethlehem (Gagea lutea) , starwort (Stellaria holostea) , lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) , early-dog violet (Viola reichenbachiana) , hollowroot (Corydalis cava) , are among the herbs most commonly encountered in spring. A mix of grass species and other shadow-demanding herbs such as wild angelica (Angelica sylvestris), true forget-me-not (Myosotis palustris) , yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus) , enchanter's-nightshade (Circaea lutetiana) , European birthwort (Aristolochia clematitis) , moneywort(Lysimachia nummularia) , creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) , common comfrey(Symphytum officinale) , common figwort (Scrophularia nodosa) , touch-me-not balsam(Impatiens noli-tangere) , cover the ground in summer.
The patchy mossy underground tends to cover maximum 10% of the forest floor.
Soil fauna in alluvial forests is relatively rare due to the high amount of water in the soil. Earthworms and harvestmen are among the most common species. Amphibians are frequent in wet areas. Birds typical of alluvial forest include yellow throat, different species of warbler, chaffinch, whitwing, robin, starling, stork, silver and night herons, bee eater, buzzard, kite, hawk, falcon, sea eagle.

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