Neo-Nazis have left Germany's Deutsche Post rather red-faced after using its "design-your-own" stamp service - Plusbrief Individuell - to issue a limited edition Rudolf Hess stamp.

While Deutsche Post apparently monitors Plusbrief Individuell - which launched in February and promises to deliver pre-franked, personalised envelopes in a week - for outrages including porn, firearm and drug-related imagery, the 20, 55-eurocent Hess collectibles slipped under the radar.

Deutsche Post spokesman Dirk Klasen offered: "It was a slip-up. We are very sorry about it. It runs in most cases without difficulty. Only with the Hess image did something go awry. I presume it came from the far-right scene. But those 20 envelopes won't affect German democracy."

The German far right is, unsurprisingly, delighted at the coup. Hannes Natter declared in the May issue of the resolutely-Aryan Deutsche Stimme (German Voice): "The Hess stamp is out there."

Deutsche Post has promised to tighten up security to prevent further Nazi war criminals popping through German letterboxes.

Klasen noted that it had already prevented an attempt earlier this year to deliver a snap of Hitler as a small child through the mail system. ®

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