The stamps and books were the initiative of the Die Brücke association. This was an initiative of Emperor Wilhelm II to make an archive of published material. At the same time the association developed standard sizes for publishing material. To promote their activities and their new standards, they encouraged companies to publish material in their standards. The Kaffee Hag company was one of the companies that agreed to do so. Hence the stamps are published in the so-called "Weltformat V der Brücke" (or 4 × 5.66 cm), which is also printed on the back of the stamps. The albums were published in the "Weltformat IX" (16 × 22.6 cm). Only on the German and Swiss stamps was there the reference to the "Weltformat".