Tag: Switzerland stamp

Chasing off the Austrians was a huge building block toward building a modern Switzerland. So why not remember an important battle in that struggle. Well you might say that the modern multiethnic Switzerland has little to do with a confederation of cantons chasing off Holy Roman Hapsburgs that even the Austrians themselves have now chased off. Think about if the battles had gone the other way and the land was still Austrian. Would not the people have been kept down with all the wars and would the area have achieved such peace and prosperity. 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. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Visually this stamp is a mess. The old style cursive writing style is unreadable and the red playing card with the old fashioned guy also makes no sense. I doubt better eyesight and a knowledge of old German helps much. Fail

Todays stamp is issue A367 a 50 cent stamp issued by Switzerland on March 8th, 1988. It was a single stamp issue remembering the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Nafels fought between the Canton of Glarus of the Old Swiss Confederacy and Hapsburg Army of Austria. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The Old Swiss Confederacy grew up as Alpine market town dominated cantons began buying more self rule from their ruling but apparently cash poor Austrian nobility. At this point there was still tribute due the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire but on the ground there was fighting for the allegiance of Swiss towns.

In 1388 Austria sent two armies of over 5000 men toward the town of Nafels with the goal of capturing it and then breaking the Canton of Glarus away from the Swiss. The town only had 400 defenders and after a short siege the town fell with the defenders fading intact into the surrounding hills. The Austrians than broke military formation to loot the town. Remember the armies then were put together by knights in service to the King but with a definite profit motive for the knight. At the height of the looting of Nafels the Swiss counter attacked to great success with the total element of surprise. The Austrians retreated in some disarray and this was compounded by a bridge collapsing on the Linth River. 20-30 % of the large Austrian Army was lost. A peace treaty was signed in Vienna the next year acknowledging the Swiss claim to the area. The loss of the area to the Holy Roman Empire meant there was now a buffer zone between Hapsburg Austria and Bourbon France. The old Swiss Confederacy ended when it was conquered by Napoleon in 1799.

Every year on the first Thursday in April, the is a pilgrimage to the site of the battle  called the Nafelser Fahrt. Usually in attendance is a potential pretender to the Hapsburg Throne for whom it is possible to spit upon for a small fee. I am kidding about that last part.

Well my drink is empty and the first Thursday in April is a while off so there is time for another round. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Utopians never stop believing. Hence the organization still goes on today in it’s hundredth year even though it was born in a way that guaranteed failure. 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. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp from the interwar years shows the Brutalist structure built along Lake Geneva to house the International Labor Organization. The organization was intended to standardize labor practices at a high level across countries. A tall order and clearly something that rose from the socialist workers movement. As such, a brutalist building is a must, and this stamp does a good job of showing the building in its best light.

Todays stamp is issue A63, a 20 Centimes stamp issued by Switzerland on May 2nd, 1938. It was a four stamp issue celebrating the new League of Nations buildings in Geneva. I covered the Palace of Justice stamp here, https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/07/the-league-gets-a-palace-but-so-late-they-just-leave-it-empty/  . According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

World War I had seen Europe devastated. There was wide agreement across countries that there should be a new set of standards for the working person post war. The Second International Socialist Movement had excluded the movements earlier association with anarchists and now was in a better situation to suggest improvements for workers. Among them were no child labor, an eight hour work day, a minimum living wage, right to organize, and equal pay for equal work for women. All sensible demands that would be enacted and enforced by the League. At the time there were still worldwide European Empires so the European countries could by extension set the standard worldwide.

That is until the USA got involved. The USA sent labor leader Samuel Gompers to negotiate and his position was to water down the standards. Gompers was a Jewish immigrant from Britain and Netherlands who entered the labor movement from cigar making in New York City’s lower east side. That sounds like someone who would fit in well with the European Socialist movement. Gompers differed from them in several ways. He thought the movement should be particularly about the worker represented and less about a wider class struggle. He also worried that the international standards would act as a maximum as well as a minimum standard. Through Gompers intervention the standards were watered down and had no enforcement mechanism. The USA after fundamentally changing it, actually refused to join the organization until 1934.

Post war the organization continues under the United Nations and employs 2700 people. It also operates a training program in partnership with a University in Turin, Italy. The organization keeps statistics and sets goals but is ever hampered by having no enforcement capability and now with so many small, poor countries to deal with.

It is fun to imagine if the organization had worked as intended. The high standards would have lead to a high cost of labor that would have been fairly uniform across countries. This would probably reduced international trade but at the same time reduced economic dislocations that come from profit seeking capitalists seeking out ever cheaper labor. It also would have been interesting to see how it would have coped with decolonization. It may have surprisingly found itself in favor of continued colonial status in order to maintain the hard fought standards. This then might have prevented the increase in migrant workers as they often are seeking countries where their labor will be more valued.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the architects of brutalism. Imposing socialism from above was going to be a tall order. The architects gave them a building, that while not beautiful, leaves you imagining the people within are capable of accomplishing it. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

Switzerland for quite a while as been one of the worlds rich countries. Part of doing better is the ability to travel for leisure. Switzerland found a unique way of keeping more travel local and opening up the experience to a wider group of potential travelers. 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. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp is one of the many Swiss issues that show off some aspect of the society that makes life easier for some of it’s citizens. Now that we are all global citizens such issues date a bit. As period pieces, these stamp shows how hard the government was working to show they are being good stewards of Switzerland’s economic success. I wish todays governments thought as hard about how things look. To outsiders though, they can come across as bragging.

Todays stamp is issue A384, a 50 Rappan stamp issued by Switzerland on August 25th 1989. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the reka travel organization. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

As Switzerland got wealthier there was more world travel both for it’s citizens and tourist visiting. Switzerland had the idea of a new system that encouraged getaways to stay in Switzerland. 1939 was an advantageous time to start such a plan with war breaking out all around peaceful Switzerland. The increased local travel protected hospitality jobs and increased infrastructure for tourists.

The reka organization set up a point system where you buy points that can be then used on travel. Paying for travel with reka points results in a 17 percent discount over paying cash. There is the ability to save reka points in anticipation of travel that is not taxed. When points are redeemed, the hotel for example pays a three percent commission to the organization. The organization is not for profit and instead uses the revenue to subsidize travel for single parents and those with a low income.

The subsidy for the poorer is not complete. Their website is currently offering a weeks vacation for a mother and child for 200 Swiss Francs. This equalization of outcomes must be difficult to pull off successfully. You have to avoid filling hotels with ungrateful lower classes that ruin the experience for paying customers while still providing a social good that justifies the not for profit status of the organization. As Switzerland becomes more diverse and takes in ever more refugees that share little with the Swiss citizens supporting them, it will be interesting if subsidies like reka survive. So far so good, the stamp celebrated 50 years and in 2019 reka still operates after 80 years.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what the dynamic is at Swiss hotels. Are reka people welcomed as a step up from say American tourists or are they thought of as economy travelers that only are taken when the hotel is not full? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Switzerland is the globalist ideal. A multi language, multi religion place that is a peaceful, prosperous model for the world. It was not always this. 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. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

As I write these articles, I become more and more enamored by these female embodiments of a nation that were so common on 19th century. Here we have Helvetia, the female Latin embodiment of Switzerland. Switzerland had just transferred more authority from the canton to the federal government. Without the human frailties of an actual person and slightly short of religious heresy, these images provided a united ideal to strive toward. It seems a little silly now, but then us moderns have lost a little of the ability to strive.

Todays stamp is issue A20, a 50 Centimes stamp issued by Switzerland in 1882. There are many versions of this stamp issued over 20 years. The early printing was the worst and the least valuable which I believe this stamp displays. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $25 used.

The 19th century did not start out well for the Swiss. They were conquered by Napoleon. The many changes to the legal and business structure took years to undo. There was also discord between Catholic areas in the south and Lutheran areas in the north. Lutheran appropriation of Church land and a takeover of the educational system lead several Catholic Cantons to form a rival “Sonderbund” to the weak federal government. The Sonderbund counted on support from Catholic France and Austria but in 1848 they had there own issues. When the Federal army moved to bring the Sonderbund cantons back into line, the Sonderbund quickly folded. The Federal government was strengthened and the Jesuits banned.

The post 1848 government seemed to find just the right balance of enough autonomy for the different people in the different cantons and yet still with a national identity. It was the time of industrialization and of people moving to the cities. Even in this Switzerland was lucky. Many of the new factories were textile, that offered opportunities to women, and the paychecks did much to raise their lot. At the same time, high end watchmaking took off that offered great rewards for people who learned the intricate skills.

The working classes doing well coincided with a great deal of growth in finance. The tradition of neutrality meant that the Swiss Franc  was often left as the only readily convertible currency during a crisis/war. Large amounts of gold especially from Germany were transferred to Switzerland in exchange for Swiss Francs that could be used to fund needed imports. This is in addition to all the private wealth moved in for preservation. The fees collected for this safekeeping were quite high. All was not profiteering, the Red Cross was founded in Switzerland and the country took in wounded veterans and political dissidents from all sides during both World Wars.

While you still see her red cross shield regularly on Swiss stamps, Helvetia herself no longer appears. The newest I could find was 1922 on an overprint of an earlier issue. This Philatelist is ready to welcome her again on a stamp. Perhaps one of the Europa Cept issues were all the nations display once more their Latin female embodiments.

Well my drink is empty and the $25 value of todays stamp would cover a few more rounds. Decisions! Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

In the 19th century, there was an internationalist movement toward standardization of things like weights and measures, and even languages. The hope was that it would make the world more peaceful by different people having more in common. 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. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Neutral, rich, picturesque Switzerland. What a great place to hold international conferences. Not just for the attendees but for the country. The conference recognized on todays stamp attracted over 1600 people for 8 days of activities. The hot air balloon on the stamp suggests that all waking hours were not filled with business. Conferences like this bring a lot of money into in this case Lucerne. The conferences often also bring important personages to town, for the benefit of all. I wonder how many locals in Lucerne were inspired to take up the study of Esperanto.

Todays stamp is issue A277, a 70 Centimes stamp issued by Switzerland on February 21, 1979. It publicized the annual World Esperanto Congress being held that July in Lucerne. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 70 cents used.

The language of Esperanto was the work of Polish ophthalmologist L.L. Zamenhof. His work grew out of an earlier effort of his to standardize Yiddish. He soon expanded his efforts to construct a universalist language that would be simple to learn and incorporated aspects of Hebrew, Latin, and German. He dispensed with verb conjugation, He also attached adverbs and adjectives to the noun as is done in German. The alphabet is a simplified Latin. This achieved a shorter alphabet and many fewer words. The hope was that it would replace French as the language of diplomacy and make literacy more achievable by new countries starting out with public education. The language achieved many adherents and was an official language for a part of Belgium(Moresnet) that was jointly administered by the Dutch and the Prussians. Shah era Iran was also a big user and the type of country that was rapidly trying to expand literacy. The League of Nations in 1935 suggested Esperanto as a second language of instruction for member countries. Dr. Zamenhof was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Esperanto became most common among Eastern European and Soviet Communists, who were heavily Jewish in the interwar period. As such opposition popped up. France felt the language was a challenge to French being the language of diplomacy. Hitler was dismissive of Esperanto, saying it was just a method of uniting Jewish diaspora around the world. He banned the teaching of the language in Germany. In 1937 there was a more unexpected blow. Stalin declared it a language of spies and banned its use. This was during his purges and many Jews were targeted at the time.

Post war the language has continued to lose momentum. There are still annual congresses and the United Nations has repeated the suggestion that member states teach Esperanto as a second language. The fact that is a secondary language to all it’s users means that even after a hundred years there has been little reversion to slang as is otherwise common. In 2017 a new smartphone app called Amikumu was launched that helped find nearby speakers of a certain language. The first language it started with was Esperanto.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Switzerland. A country with three languages might think that was enough and some thought Esperanto abandoned Switzerland while  the organization avoided Hitler and Stalin. Yet still they hosted the conference and thought it important enough for a stamp issue, always a high honor. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Basel is an important city and needed a bigger airport. Why not build it in another country then. 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. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp is attractive with vivid colors. It is a little strange though that Swiss stamp would have the tail of a Air France jet to go with Swissair tail. I also like that the Swiss included the name of this stamps designer, Heinz Burgin. It is not often we get to see on a stamp who the designer was. Switzerland started this practice on commemorative in the late 30s and has continued till the present day.

Todays stamp is issue A278, an 80 Rappen/ Centimes stamp issued by Switzerland on February 21st, 1979. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating Swiss engineering achievements. This stamp celebrates the then recent expansion of the Basel Mulhouse International airport, as it was then known. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used.

In the 1930s the Swiss developed an aviation plan that called for 5 cities to have major airports, among them Basel. Basel already had a small airport but it had no way for it to be expanded to the proper size. The idea was arrived at to build the new airport on the other side of the border in France. Negotiations for this were halted during World War II, but got going again soon after wars end. A deal was struck that the resulting airport would be jointly administered by the French and the Swiss. The land for the airport was provided at no cost by the French and the Swiss Canton of Basel-Stadt was to provide the entire construction budget.

So anxious were the Swiss to get the project moving that the airport was built and operating  in 1946 two years before the treaty that governs how the Airport operates was ratified. The Airport actually has three different airport codes depending on whether you think you are going to Basel, the French City of Mulhouse or the nearby German city of Freiburg.

A road was set up from the terminal to Basil that provided a way to get there without going through French customs. Passport control is jointly manned by the French and the Swiss and your passport can receive a different stamp depending on which agent you walk up to.

The Swissair plane would not be seen at Basel any more. Swissair went through bankruptcy and the smaller successor was soon acquired by Lufthansa, the German flag carrier. The planes still have the Swiss livery. The decision was taken to stop flying to Basel because of the many low cost airlines that operate out of it, most notably Easy Jet. It is still possible to fly Air France to Paris from Basel.

This stamp celebrates the expansion of the airport. This expansion has been almost continual since it opened in 1946. This expansion has been necessary. At the time of this stamp in 1979 annual traffic through the airport was about 700,000 a year. Last year it was more than 10 times that amount.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to celebrate the Canton for being so quick to get the airport operating. I don’t see how such a thing could happen today, perhaps China excepted. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.