Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story to tell of an organization painstakingly building a palace, but then leaving it unoccupied because their failure left them unworthy.
This is a good looking stamp. It looks twenty years newer than it is. Switzerland must have seemed an oasis from all the political and economic turmoil around them. Avoiding all the destruction and defeat must play into while the style is so predictive of Switzerland’s neighbor to the north 15 to 20 years later.
The stamp today is issue A64, a 30 centimes stamp issued by Switzerland on May 2nd, 1938. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the opening of the League of Nations facilities in Geneva. This stamp displays the Palace of Nations complex. According to the Scott catalog, it is worth 25 cents in its cancelled condition.
The League of Nations was formed after World War I. The destruction from that war was so overwhelming that it was referred to as the war to end all wars. The winners of the war hoped that by setting up an organization to mediate disputes a future war could be prevented. With advancements in the field of arms, the death toll became worse over time. It was hoped that a League of Nations could bring global pressure on potential combatants to allow for mediation of disputes.
The problem arose when a powerful country had a dispute with a less powerful one. The other powerful countries would have had to be willing to take big chances to successfully reign in a powerful country. This proved impossible because the other countries in the final analysis just do not care enough. So despite the League of Nations countries like 30s Ethiopia and Czecheslovakia were left to their fate and the world went into World War II.
The Palace of Nations took 17 years to build. Over 300 proposals for the design were submitted and the organization could not decide whose plan to use. After several years they settled on a team of 5 architects from 4 countries to build the classically inspired building. It was the second, to Versailles, largest official complex in Europe when new. Under the foundation is a time capsule with items from all the countries who were members of the League. With World War II approaching the building was left empty and it was decided during the war that a new organization, The United Nations, would take over from the failed league after the war.
By the time the building was complete it was obvious that the league was a failure and so to commemorate a giant palace must have been a little embarrassing to those involved. This is of course on the big assumption they were self aware. The building was later turned over to the UN where it has hosted great figures in world peace like Yasser Arafat. It is now being renovated, so it can continue the embarrassment for many years to come.
Well, my drink is empty, and so it is time to open the conversation in the below comment section. I might be a little hard on the league and the UN, the intentions if not the results are good. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.