Germany issued this attractive miniature sheet on 4th June 1971 to promote the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, in Sapporo, Japan (Germany's former wartime ally.)

Philex # 684 - 687. Mint unhinged, and in pristine condition.

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The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XI Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was held from February 3 to February 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

Prior to these games, Japan had never won a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. The host country's fans in Sapporo were boosted when three Japanese athletes, led by Yukio Kasaya, swept the ski jumping 70 m (current K-90 normal hill) event for gold (Kasaya), silver (Akitsugu Konno), and bronze (Seiji Aochi).

Galina Kulakova of the USSR won all three cross-country skiing events for women. Dutch skater Ard Schenk won three gold medals in speed skating.

In Women's Alpine Skiing, American Barbara Ann Cochran, one of three siblings on the U.S. Ski Team, surprised the world and became the first U.S. woman since Andrea Mead Lawrence to win a Gold Medal in Skiing when she took first place in the Slalom with an excellent first run backed up by an even better second run.

In Alpine skiing, virtual unknown Swiss Marie-Thérès Nadig won both the downhill and the giant slalom events.

Magnar Solberg from Norway was the first repeat winner in the individual 20 km biathlon event, having first won in Grenoble.

Three days before the Games, controversy over amateur status arose when IOC president Avery Brundage threatened to disqualify 40 alpine skiers who received endorsement and other deals. Austrian skier Karl Schranz, who received over $50,000 per year from ski manufacturers, was banned as an example. Meanwhile, Canada refused to send an ice hockey team, maintaining that professional ice hockey players from Communist nations were allowed to compete with no restrictions.

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