This is an unaddressed 1987 German event cover featuring a special pictorial cancellation commemorating the beginning and end of the early passenger airship era, released in conjunction with a local stamp exhibition.
Year of Issue: 1987.
Cachet Design: A large black-and-white photograph of the Graf Zeppelin airship in flight.
Postmark / Cancel: Two strikes of a special pictorial handstamp from Leinfelden-Echterdingen 1 (ZIP 7022), dated May 23, 1987. The cancel features an airship illustration and text for a "Briefmarken-Ausstellung" (stamp exhibition).
Stamp: A 20-pfennig red Deutsche Bundespost definitive stamp.
The cancellation text reads "Echterdingen 1908 - Lakehurst 1937 / Anfang * Ende Einer Ära" (Beginning and End of an Era). This marks two major bookend events in airship history: the early crash of the LZ 4 at Echterdingen in 1908 (which paradoxically rallied massive public funding for Zeppelin), and the Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey in May 1937, which effectively ended the era of the great passenger airships exactly 50 years prior to this postmark.
This is a clean, informative piece for collectors of aviation postal history, Zeppelin topicals, or German event covers.