Baron Munchausen is a fictional German nobleman created by the German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe in his 1785 book Baron Munchausen's Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia. The character is loosely based on baron Hieronymus Karl Friedrich Freiherr von Münchhausen, who fought for the Russian Empire during the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–1739. After retiring in 1760, he became a minor celebrity within German aristocratic circles for telling outrageous tall tales based on his military career. Raspe adapted them anonymously into literary form.
The fictional Baron's exploits focus on his impossible achievements as a sportsman, soldier, and traveller: riding on a cannonball, fighting a forty-foot crocodile, and travelling to the Moon, swallowed by a giant fish in the Mediterranean Sea, saves himself from drowning by pulling up on his own hair, enlists a wolf to pull his sleigh, and uses laurel tree branches to fix his horse when the animal is accidentally cut in two (which is the basis for the 1970 stamp issue from Germany). Intentionally comedic, the stories play on the absurdity and inconsistency of Munchausen's claims
1970 Czechoslovakia - Historic Artillery
1971 Ajman - one of 7 stamps including souvenir sheet
2005 Latvia
Sam Jones Poster Stamp - Stamp Forum
Liechtenstein 2012 from a set of 8 stamp commemorating children's literature
Baron Munchausen by Fred Nordley - 1936 - Strippers Guide
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