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Germany 1993, in the end, all of Germany decides to remember Herbert Frahm as Willy Brandt Statesman

The center right in Germany really had it in for the politician with the alias Willi Brandt. After all there was the exile, the fighting for Norway against Germans, the abandonment of all the lost land, the loose living, the strange payments coming from both the CIA and the Stasi. How could you choose him to be the leader of West Germany? Well he had JFK and the 68ers on his side. They reveled in his differences, after all they were themselves different, and they were the future. 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.

The year before this stamp, as part of the same series of stamps on deceased German statesman, Germany did a stamp honoring political rival Konrad Adenauer, Brandt was portrayed as a younger man with intelligent eyes. Adenauer is cast as old, dark, and bitter. This gets into the generational shift. Brandt was himself too old to be a 68er but like JFK had a youthfulness they could identify with. When the 1960s political rivals are then remembered in the 1990s, Adenauer naturally gets the short end, His people and manner are just gone.

Todays stamp is issue A803, a 1 DM stamp issued by Germany on November 10th 1993. It was a single stamp for Brandt, but there were many similar stamps for dead German statesman. No not East Germans, but they had many stamps in their time and place. Interestingly most of their guys resembled Adenauer more than Brandt. The uprisings of the late 60s arose from the left. However the decrepit old left leadership in the East were not the type to harness it. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 90 cents used.

Herbert Frahm was born in Lubeck to a single mother, a store cashier in 1913. He was raised by  his step grandparents. That does sound modern. From a young age he was an SPD party activist while working for a ships broker. With the Nazis coming into power, SPD activists were no longer welcome and Frahm invented the name Willi Brandt and went into exile in Norway. He worked as a journalist in Norway and kept contact with fellow SPD activists in Germany by posing as a Norwegian student under another alias and visiting. The Nazis in 1938 purged the roles of German citizens who left due to them including Frahm. Frahm then applied and received Norwegian citizenship under the Willy Brandt alias. He volunteered for service in the Norwegian army when Germany invaded and was captured and briefly a POW. Upon release he moved to neutral Sweden, At wars end he quickly went to Berlin employed as a Norwegian diplomat. Back in Germany, he rejoined the reformed SPD under the Willy Brandt name under which he reapplied and received German citizenship. He wrote for an SPD newspaper and quickly rose in politics. The occupying powers approved of him since he lacked Nazi connections. In 1950, the CIA paid him secretly 170,000DM which is now about 400,000 Euros.

He rose to be mayor of West Berlin and the head of the SPD party. When JFK became American President in 1961 he openly supported Brandt over aging long time Chancellor Adenauer. Brandt lost the election in 1961 but got a great deal of positive world publicity during the construction of the Berlin wall by the East in the early 1960s. As the administration of West Berlin was separate from West Germany, he changed his affiliation to a safe SPD seat in Rhineland to get into the Bundestag.

The SPD and Brandt finally had their day in 1969 with the first SPD government since 1930. Social spending increased while military draft terms shrank as one would expect of a left government. What was new was Ostpolitik, that sought closer relations with the East. A peace treaty was signed with Poland and the East German government was better recognized, To achieve this, Brandt gave up German claims to land that had been taken at the end of the war. This especially angered Germans who had been forced to move west from the end of war ethnic cleansing. In 1972, several members of his coalition thought he had gone too far on this and called a vote of no confidence. Most thought Brandt would lose but he won by three votes. It turned out the East German Stasi had paid a few Christian Democrats to vote for Brandt.

Speaking of Stasi there was a close aid of Brandt that turned out to be one. Gunter Guilliaume had crossed from East Germany in 1956 but was a Stasi plant. When this was discovered, Brandt resigned under pressure from more conservative factions of his own party. The Stasi came to realize what a blunder it was as Brandt was their friend. He remained in the Bundestag, and was a thorn in the side of the next SPD German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

My drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Sri lanka 1972, UNESCO would prefer if you would read more-guess less

Sounds like an instruction to me on how to make these articles better. But no, The United Nations  had figured out that book output was not keeping up in newly independent areas. In fact in terms of percentages it was going down. Thus we have slogans and conferences to embarrass them about it. 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 from Sri lanka, newly renamed from Ceylon that year, shows the logo of the UNESCO International Book Year 1972. The budget for the book year was only $100,000. What was left after the professionally done slogans and logos? Well there was a conference in Paris, where plenty of people already read and wrote books.

Todays stamp is issue A163, a 20 cent stamp issued by Sri lanka on September 8h 1972. It was a single stamp issue that came out on World Literacy Day. So you know, two birds one stamp. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.

UNESCO was formed in Paris under the auspices of the United Nations in 1946 to increase international collaboration in areas like education to promote universal respect for justice and human rights. Even that sounds like a good excuse to have many action packed expense account conferances. I nominate Johnny Dollar to represent the USA at the next one. UNESCO was a successor to a similar program of the League of Nations. If it doesn’t work the first time, try, try again.

Lets look at the world circa 1970 when the idea of a book year in 1972 was cemented. 70 % of the worlds population lived in parts of the world that only produced 19% of the worlds books. This had not improved with the decline in colonialism. In fact it had gotten worse down from 24% of the worlds books 20 years before. The problem was most acute in Africa where 10% of the worlds population  produced only 1.5% of the worlds books. Most of the newly independent African nations had created zero books. Imput from publishers and bookselling organizations was that it was never cheaper to produce and distribute a book. Naturally UNESCO lept into action, or rather scheduled conferences.

Regional conferences were held in Tokyo for Asia in 1966. In Accra, Ghana for Africa in 1968. In Bogotá for Latin America in 1969. In Cairo for Arab states in 1972. Then the conferences moved to where UNESCO was more comfortable, the big cities of Europe. A “Books on Books” fair was put together as part of the prescheduled book fair in Frankfurt, Germany. This display then hit the road to Paris and then around the world for the next two years. Some of the stunts revolving around the book year was printing the logo on textbooks made in Mexico that year that the government was paying for anyway. There was a manuscript contest for would be publishers in Rwanda and a “book flood” in Fiji that saw one classroom of 35 school children receive 500 books. Gee we have a logo, and slogans, now how about some photo opportunities.

Well my drink is empty and I am afraid I will not be pouring another to toast UNESCO. If you are not going to solve a problem, you shouldn’t expect people to pay you to rub their nose in it. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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France 1987, implying Marshal Leclerc liberated France with his American tanks and Sengalese Askari troops

In 1940, France was conquered by Germany in a few months despite having a larger Army and hosting a large British force. Quite embarrassing and partly a result of being only ready to return to World War I trenches not a battle of maneuver. France did have a tank general, recently promoted, with a fake name and too much money in his pocket. Why not talk up his tiny role in liberation. Is that better than just forgetting? 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.

American troops had done the bulk of the work liberating France. They tended to stop before major cities already abandoned by the Germans to allow the Free French forces march in first. This was also done out of nervousness as to reception. So this stamp shows the Liberation of Strasbourg in November 1944. Leclerc may not really have been really his name but he definitely looked the part of a Marshal of France. The tank on the stamp is an American Sherman, but you can’t expect the average stamp user to know tank models. Notice the troops commanded by Leclerc are not shown, if they were French???

Todays stamp is issue A1101, a 2.2 Franc stamp issued by France on November 28th, 1987. It was a single stamp honoring Marshal of France Leclerc on the 40th anniversary of his death in an American airplane gifted to France. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Philippe de Hautclocque was a junior officer in the French Army during the fall of France. He was briefly taken prisoner as he tried to run away disguised as a civilian refugee. The Germans found his French Army pay stub in his pocket. Upon Armistice, French soldiers were allowed to return home to their families. His wife had gone to southern France where she had family. She had obtained an identity card under the alias Leclerc thinking that would make life easier for him. He decided to apply for a visa to Spain and leave his family behind and make his way to Free French Forces in Britain. He got his visa but took several tries to get over the border as he was carrying far too much cash. Once in Spain, he presented himself to the British Embassy and they arraigned his travel to Britain. He decided to continue to use the name Leclerc and General de Gaulle promoted him and assigned him to armor.

The Free French forces recruited Askari troops from their African colonies, mainly Senegal and outfitted them with equipment given by America. His tank force, which he called the Leclerc division, guarded the flank of British forces in North Africa and Italy. It deployed to France well after D Day in 1944. His force did win one fight with the Germans when his division came upon an understrength brigade of Panther tanks. He complained that the Panther tank that the Germans had built for themselves was better than the Sherman tanks that had been gifted France by the USA. America’s surprise that Leclerc had not been beaten by force one quarter Leclerc’s size was greater than their disdain for his insolence and American General Patton award the Silver Star medal to now General Leclerc. He marched into Strasbourg unopposed.

Strasbourg was held by Leclerc’s Senegalese troops and an American all black division. Strasbourg was important to Germany as many residents were of German heritage. A counterattack was launched from Colmar that was one of Germanys last. Eisenhower considered abandoning Strasbourg but realized it would be bad PR while the Battle of the Bulge was also raging further north. He instead moved in many more American soldiers but put them under French command to make it appear the French were holding their ground, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/11/wurttemberg-1945-an-ex-vichy-general-goes-from-jail-to-commanding-americans-in-their-zone-of-germany/ . Strasbourg did not refall to the Germans but the battle went on into February 1945, long after most German troops were out of France.

After the European war ended, Leclerc, he had legally changed his name by now, lead a 25,000 troop expedition whose mission was to reclaim French Indochina from the Japanese, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/09/vichy-fights-on-for-empire-in-indochina/  . Before his troops arrived off Vietnam, he struck a deal with Ho Chi Minh that Vietnam would be independant but a part of the French communitity and his troops would be welcome for five years to provide security. This meant his army would not have to fight but France would not be getting back Indo China. French were outraged, Leclerc was fired and the deal was not ratified. It should have been of course.

Leclerc was next assigned to Algeria where he died in the crash of an American B-25 bomber in French service. Posthumously Leclerc was made a Marshal of France. The current French tank, the Leclerc is named for him. The previous French tank, the AMX 30 was an updated copy of the German Panther tank that Leclerc had so many problems with.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Leclerc not so much for his war service but rather for what he nearly pulled off in Vietnam. Imagine all the misery avoided if he had been listened to. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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South Korea 1957, Japanese poisoning the last Emperor leaves you with Syngman Rhee

Korea had been occupied by Japan for 40 years when they were defeated. So who could run Korea? The last Emperor was poisoned in 1920. Well luckily a pro western “provisional government” had been set up in China and received much funding to play lets pretend. After the USA occupied Southern Korea back comes no longer Provisional but appointed President Syngman Rhee, a man who had only been away a few decades. If you smell a fish, for gosh sake don’t join the Bobo league. 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.

The printing on this stamp might lead you to believe this stamp was North Korean instead of South Korea. The fact was in the 1950s there was not much difference between the two in terms of economic development. This stamp might imply South Korea liked their tigers, but perhaps not enough. In 1900 you could have found Siberian tigers in Korea. By 1990, both Koreas had lost them though Siberian tigers still exist across the North’s border with Russia.

Todays stamp is issue A121, a 30 Hwan stamp issued by South Korea in 1957. This was from the final redrawing of an issue that had been around since 1953 but had to reflect the hyper inflation of the period. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Japan began formally administering Korea in 1905. The Emperor was forced to abandon his Throne in 1910. He was poisoned in 1920. After which there was a large uprising against the Japanese. The Japanese brutally put down the uprising and sent the leaders that survived into exile in China, Some of those folks gathered in Shanghai under Syngman Rhee and began putting forth that the rebellion was not inspired by the murder of the Emperor but instead that they were inspired by a speech given in English  by former USA President Wilson laying out points of peoples movement toward independence and democracy. Syngman Rhee had been a Christian Missionary and worked with the YMCA. Obviously the fish is begining to smell but the USA and the KMT in China began supporting this Korean “Provisional Government”.

During World War II it was decided that Korea was one of the occupied nations needing liberation from the Axis, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/01/09/usa-1943-korea-is-listed-as-a-country-to-be-liberated/  . Syngman Rhee, remember this is nearly a quarter century after the rebellion of 1920 came out of a retirement in Hawaii to go to Washington to be a part of liberation. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, Americans landed unopposed at Inchon and the Russians crossed into the North. The division was only to be tempoary although the Soviet Army left after a communist regime was set up in the North. The American occupation of the south continued and Syngman Rhee was made President in 1948. He was 73. The north refused Korea wide elections and the UN endorsed Rhee’s regime as the legitimate government of all Korea.

Rhee was an outsider to Korea so not all were ready to support him. Much of the development had been owned by Japanese and while such things were quickly nationalized in the North, in the South there was less change. Rhee began to label all opposition to him as communist spys from the North. Several hundred thousand suspected trouble makers were rounded up and sent to a series of reeducation camps known as the Bobo League. When the North invaded the South in 1950 prisoners at the camps were liquidated before South Koreans withdrew south.

After the end of the war the camps did not reopen but resistance still grew. The constitution was reinterpreted to allow Rhee to seek reelection. His last reelection effort in 1960 at age 85 was helped immensely by his opponent having died before election day. Protest got large and the USA sent a plane to get Rhee safely out of the country. On the flight out,  Rhee’s Austrian wife went to the cockpit and gave the American pilot a large diamond. Rhee’s first wife had been Korean but remember  he had spent so many years abroad and his second wife had been an interpreter at the League of Nations. Rhee had spent much time there with his hand out, excuse me, making his case for the Korean people. Rhee died in 1965 and afterward his body was returned to Korea. After Rhee’s death his wife Franziska moved to Austria for a few years but from 1970 was able to return to Korea and live in the old family home with her adopted son and his family.

From the exile years, Syngman Rhee and his soon to be wife Franziska

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering how these folks come of out of nowhere to fill the void in an ex colony. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Sweden 1872, new King, new gold backed money, industrialization and sending off the spare sons

Sweden fought it’s last war over 200 years ago. That in itself might have guaranteed fast development. Fast development means much change and dislocations. Some of those changes still show their effects. 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 bulk postage, (if only it was unused) puts the numeric value front and center. Sweden had just followed Germany’s lead and moved to a gold instead of a silver backed currency. They had also entered a monetary union with old rival Denmark. Remember at the time Sweden controlled Norway, and Denmark controlled Iceland, so if not for those pesky Russians in Finland, Scandinavia was coming together and taking off.

Todays stamp is issue A5 a 12 Ore stamp issued by the Kingdom of Sweden in 1872. It was a 32 stamp issue that came out over several years and had to take into account the currency change. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used. Sometimes old bulk postage issues are worth much more unused and that is the case here. The unused value of this stamp rises to $225. An imperforate pair of them rises to $1,000.

Agriculture was changing rapidly in 19th century Sweden. There was a move from village based large communal farms under rich often absentee landowners to smaller much more productive personally owned farms. You can guess this lead to what to do with excess sons. Farms tend to want to get bigger not be subdivided between heirs. So what to do with the excess boys. Well even with a pacifist foreign policy, there was still military conscription offering that traditional relief valve. There was also fairly rapid industrialization in the growing cities. What perhaps changed  Sweden the most was sending over a million immigrants to North America. At the time the population of Sweden was under 5 million.

In the short run sending them off made sense. Some returned having made a fortune. The ones that stayed had less competition and more was being done for them. Schooling became much more complete and began taking on a more physical component to retain fitness absent farm work. Mandatory gymnastics that resembled Asian martial arts were added for both boys and girls. Far more skiing that at the time took on a military flavor became common.

At first there was political change but in the 19th century it was mostly finessed. Up until the 1870s there was no Prime Minister and the legislature was a single house comprising wealthy landowners. New King Oscar II slowly allowed a few changes. The new Prime Minister was just the old Foreign Minister and there would now be a new bicameral legislature. The old order mostly survived though and why not, things were working.

One thing that might not have worked so well was letting all those young men go abroad to make their lives away. More education and living in cities leads to later and smaller families. Now Sweden finds itself short of people and as opened itself up to much immigration. The population is still only 10 million with a quarter of those being of immigrant heritage. One third of children have at least one foreign born parent. With the change lead to the new Somalis and Syrians learning to love gymnastics and skiing or will Sweden have to change to accommodate to what the new folks love?

Well my drink is empty and I may have another while I brood over my copy of todays stamp being used. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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West Germany 1970, showing off a little of Munich in the excitement leading up to the 1972 Olympics

When Bavaria was a separate German Kingdom, much work was done transforming Munich into an important cultural center. This legacy meant there was still a lot to show off when it was Germany’s time again to shine at the Olympics. We know the 1972 Olympics didn’t come off the way West Germany hoped, but this stamp lets us go back to the runup when people were excited that it might. 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 semi postal issue, the surcharge went to Olympic promotion, shows off some of the architecture of Munich. In this case the Residenz Palace. This housed the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach when in Munich. The castle was started in 1385 as a sanction against the City of Munich after an uprising against King Stephen III. The castle was much expanded over the years and is today the largest urban palace in Germany. The facade shown on the stamp is the Konigsbau, which was added by King Ludwig I in 1835. The Wittelsbachs are of course no longer in residence. I did a stamp of the last Bavarian Kings here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/14/bavaria-1900-with-king-otto-too-crazy-to-rule-the-prince-regent-peacefully-eases-into-germany/     . As a result when war damage was repaired, it was done in a much simpler style. The current Wittelsbach pretenders still reside in the separate Nymphenburg  Palace, which sounds like a fun place to live, but not for locked up Otto.

Todays stamp is issue SP299, a 10 +5 Pfennig stamp issued by West Germany on June 5th, 1970. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

Munich was awarded the 1972 Olympic Summer Games over bids from Madrid, Montreal, and Detroit. The slogan for the Olympics was the “Cheerful Games”. They went all out on new Olympic venues and the female hostesses dressed in traditional Beer Garden atire. For the first time there was an official mascot for an Olympics, a dachshund plushtoy named Waldi. The course of the marathon was laid out in the shape of a dachshund. Is it just me or does all of this sound a little out of Germany’s comfort zone. Well maybe Bavaria is a little different.

Waldi and pretty girl from Munich

God did not grant Germany a cheerful Olympics. Israeli athletes were attacked and held during the second week of the games by Palestinians. There was a shoot out eventually at a military airport and 11 athletes, a German police Sargant, and all but three of the attackers were killed. Germany perhaps compounded their black eye by trading the facing trial attackers for hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. Israel over the next years hunted down and killed two of the Palestinian attackers in operations that very much resembled Nazi Hunters from the decade before.

The Olympics were not a success. They had also cost three times what Mexico spent on the 1968 games. Waldi took a little bit of a hit to his reputation. The dachshund was supposed to represent resistance, tenacity, and agility. These are good things for an athlete. There were however now unofficial posters of Waldi using the Olympic Tower as a fire hydrant.

Well my drink is empty and and I will pour another to toast Waldi. Sure the Olympics didn’t work, but Germany was asking an awful lot from one of it’s plush toys. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Djibouti 1979, The French also learn to read the writing on the wall

In the late 1950s the French and the British colonial authorities realized there was no way to continue their colonial administration against the will of the African majority. What to do in a place that is majority Arab and welcomed French administration as a buffer between them and the natives. Will France spend up to continue the protection in Djibouti or leave the Arabs to their fate as the British did in Zanzibar in 1965? 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.

Already 2 years after independence, independent Djibouti was heavily into  licensing their name for topical stamp issues. Here we have what was already their second issue of sea shells. The Cypaecassis rufa, or more commonly the red helmet shell, was first cataloged in 1758. It is most common on the west coast of southern Africa in Natal and Mozambique but occasionally as far north as Kenya.

Todays stamp is issue A100, a 10 Franc stamp issued by independent Djibouti on December 22nd, 1979. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled to order.

In colonial times Somaliland was divided into an Italian, a British, and a French part. For the most part the colonies were coastal trading posts with mostly Arab populations that had some affiliation with the Arab traders of Muscat in Oman and Aden in Yemen. The desert interior also held clans of mostly nomadic black Africans. During the war, Italian Somaliland was taken from them and the many Italians that lived there made a quick departure. Into this void the black Somalis arrived. In the late1950s it was decided to allow the British Somaliland to unite with the former Italian one as independent Somalia. France held a plebiscite to give the colony a choice whether to join Somalia. In the runup to the vote a large number of black Somalis appeared in Djibouti to turn the vote. France saw this happening and deported as many of the new arrivals as possible. They also required voter cards to be allowed to vote. It was now the turn of the blacks to claim voter suppression, noting the truth that the percentage of Arabs that voted was far higher than the percentage of blacks. The vote along racial lines was won by those that chose to remain French. Riots ensued and the French had to reinforce their military.

Ethiopia, Somalia, and Yemen were all quickly arming with mostly Soviet weapons. The British gave up in Aden in 1968. The French military deployment now had to consist of a full brigade of the French Foreign Legion backed up by French navy ships and a squadron of Mirage fighters. Meanwhile the UN was suggesting the French leave Djibouti anyway no matter the vote. The arms given to blacks in Djibouti by Somalia was now backed by further aid from the Organization of African Unity.

France decided in the late 1970s to go ahead and give up on the last European colony in black Africa. The expenses however continued. The new African government decided that it really had no desire to join the failed states of Somalia or Ethiopia. To keep them out, they requested that France keep up fighter planes and Foreign Legion Brigade in independent Djibouti. They stayed another quarter century.

The population of French Somaliland was only about 70,000 at the time of the first independence vote. Now it is about a million with less than a third Arab mostly in enclaves outside Djibouti city. Americans will of course be thrilled to learn that the French military presence was replaced by an American one. The USA deploys 4000 troops to Djibouti. Briefly Saudi Arabia considered building an 18 mile Bridge or the Horns that would connect Djibouti and Yemen and include new build twin Arab cities called Al Noor at both ends of the bridge. The estimates from 10 years ago is that it would cost 20 billion dollars. In 2010 the Saudis decided to indefinitely delay the project after reading their own writing on the wall.

The proposed site of the Bridge of the Horns as seen from space

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait until  there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Fake Equatorial Guinea 1976, Looking forward to an Olympics they would not attend

Can you really boycott an Olympics when there is no Olympic team to send. Of course, especially when you are doing it with fake stamps. 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.

Equatorial Guinea was in a bad place in the 1970s. The Dictator, Macais Nguema had changed his title from President to “the Unique Miracle”. His rule was not known for good governance. From 1972-1979 it is known that the Central Post Office left over from the Spanish was padlocked and there was no mail service. There were however many stamp issues emanating from Spain. They are considered fake.

We do know however that this was an 11 stamp issue in various denominations issued May 7th, 1976. There was also several souvenir sheets including one embossed in gold foil. It would be another unique miracle if any of them had any value.

South Africa had been excluded from the Olympics starting in 1964 over their then apartheid policies. Therefore there was never an invitation to attend the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal. The Supreme Council of Sport was at the time the governing body for organized sports in black Africa. They desired a way to show solidarity with violent protests then happening in black South African townships like Soweto. They hit upon the sport of rugby. This was not an Olympic sport, but a team from New Zealand was playing a series of matches in South Africa with integrated teams. New Zealand was invited to the games and the Supreme Council of Sport would pull the African teams already there if New Zealand was not removed. Over 40 mostly African nations boycotted the games with the Olympic Committee reminding that rugby was not their business since it was not an Olympic sport. The boycott had the desired effect with several news cycles dominated by South Africa’s apartheid policy.

Equatorial Guinea was officially a boycotter but the reality was that they never sent a competitor to any summer or winter Olympics prior to 1984. To date, they have never sent a competitor to a winter Olympics. The country does have an important footnote from the 2000 games in Sydney. Swimmer Eric Moussambani recorded the slowest time in Olympic history during a 100 meter Freesyle heat. With disqualifications of the other two swimmers due to false starts, he won the heat. Mr. Moussambani had never before been in an Olympic size swimming pool and was barely able to complete the distance. Nonetheless his time was a national record in the event. The press labeled him Eric the Eel and congratulated him on his courage for finishing. When he finished the cheering was so loud he thought he had won the Gold. He is currently the coach of the swim team of Equatorial Guinea.

Eric the Eel after finishing

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Eric the Eel. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Bavaria 1920, coming out of a crazy time

Bavaria went through a crazy time after World War I with eventually two rival Anarchist governments replacing the monarchy. Eventually Bavaria was brought back into the German fold and putting a big stain on the idea  of Soviet Republics in Germany. No wonder this first new design stamp after that featured Madonna and Child, there was much to pray about. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of tour adult beverage, and sut back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The political whirl going on in Munich was not well represented on the stamps. When the Weimar German Army intervened on the side of the Bamberg socialist government, finally there was time for a new hopeful stamp issue. Almost as soon as it came out though, Bavaria integrated with Germany and the many copies of this stamp were overstamped German Reich and could be used for postage throughout Germany.

Todays stamp is issue A17, a 2.5 Mark stamp  issued by the Free State of Bavaria in March 1920. It was a 17 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, this example with the Germany overprint is worth 95 cents unused. The value goes to $95 if used, showing perhaps that there was more anarchy than a functioning government.

A mainstream left center socialist government attempted to take the reigns in Munich after the Monarchy fell. The left though was quite splintered with many on the far left and from abroad enamored with the idea of a Soviet Republic  in Munich as was happening in Budapest. There were also right wingers and disaffected aristocrats in Munich. This group in Munich stood somewhat apart from the otherwise conservative Catholic country. When the leader of the mainstream left leader was assasinated by a disaffected aristocrat, there was another round of assassinations among the left. The government then fled to the city of Bamberg and left Munich to anarchists. The Anarchists declared a Soviet Republic of Bavaria under Jewish playwright Ernst Toler.

The anarchists made all sorts of wild declarations. They declared that money should be free. They stated that the University of Munich should be free and open to all except nobody was allowed to study history. Within a month of being in power, they had declared war on the Bamberg government but also the governments of Switzerland and Württemberg. The Swiss had apparently refused to loan Toler some locomotives. The foreign minister wired the Pope and Vladimir Lenin complaining that his predecessor had absconded to Bamburg with the key to the foreign minister’s toilet. Max Levien, a Soviet of French heritage was soon given more power as the Soviets tried to bring their republic under more control.

It was not to be. The Weimar National German government intervened on the side of the Bamberg socialists. After much street to street fighting in Munich, the Bamberg socialists were back in Munich as the short lived Free State. The anarchists on the left and right were given short prison sentences.

Bavarian Head of State Ernst Toller during his short stay in jail

The Bavarian Soviet Republic leaders weren’t given much trust by the later Soviet government of Stalin. Max Toler died under mysterious circumstances while in exile in the USA. Max Levien returned to Russia and worked on war relief and ironically as a history professor. In 1937, Stalin ordered Germans or former Germans to be rounded up on the assumption that they were probably all spies of the Nazi Gestapo. It is easier to label someone a Nazi then just admit it was someone who can’t be trusted. Levien was executed 6 months after his arrest.

Well my drink is empty. The anarchists had hoped theirs would be a revolution of love and a coffee house government. Does anywhere really want to be ruled by the whims of such people? Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Serbia 1880, Unlike so many places, Serbia had it’s own royal line, or more problematically two.

As the mostly Christian Balkans tried to extract themselves from the Ottomans rule, a King who could play in European power games was useful. Instead of employing an out of work German Royal as did others, Serbia was blessed with it’s own royal line. Some times however the blessings come fast and furious. For Serbia that meant a second royal line to compete and joust with. 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 shows Prince Milan I, at 26 a few years before he was able to get Great Power support for Serbia being upgraded from Principality to Empire and Milan I to King. Rulers didn’t last too long at the time so the stamp did it’s best to disguise his youth with the elaborate uniform and newly acquired mustache.

Todays stamp is issue A5, a 25 Paras stamp issued by the Principality of Serbia in 1880. It was part of a 6 stamp issue in various denominations. There are two colors of the 25p denomination, blue and ultramarine(a darker blue). I think mine is blue but that is open for debate with possible fading on a 141 year old stamp. According to the Scott catalog, the blue version is worth $1.90 mint. The ultra version is $1.50.

Serbia got a measure of independence from the Ottomans in the early 19th century. Some areas contained Muslim holdovers and also many Serbs were in Austrian and Montenegrin areas that were still Ottoman. The two royal lines were Karadordevic line and  the Obrenovic line to which Milan I belongs. His line was more simpatico with Austria and the Karadordevic line more with Russia. Milan grew up in exile in Moldavia as it was the other lines turn. He lost his father fighting for Romania as a mercenary and his mother became the mistress of the Moldavian King bearing him several out of wedlock children. She no longer had time for Milan and he was adopted by his cousin the ruling Prince Mihailo who had the Karadodevics expelled in 1858. Milan was given a Paris education. He had to return early at age 14 when Prince Mihailo was assassinated leaving no offspring. After some chaos a regency was agreed upon with a council of politicians advising now Prince Milan.

The young Prince faced one or two attempts on his life as a teen. One was a bomb and the other an incident in an outhouse. He was doing his business sitting on a wooden seat that gave way under his weight sending him into the pit below. He couldn’t climb out but had his sidearm and fired to summon help. There were rumors that the wood had been treated with acid so to give way under him. There were also rumors that both attempts were from his regents to scare Prince Milan into not dismissing them upon majority. It was not just a rumor that that was one stinky pit.

It was a violent time. There was a disastrous war with Bulgaria that was almost the end of Serbia. Only Austrian intervention preventing that. The other was more successful with the stripping of the last ties to the Ottomans and the recognition of Serbia as an Empire and Milan has the King. Austria was prominent in this and with so many Serbians living unhappily in Austrian territory an alliance with them undermined King Milan’s popularity. To address this, he took a Russian wife Natalie as his Queen. The union was unhappy although a son Alexander was produced. They divorced and she took the Crown Prince with her moving to Germany. Milan eventually was able to regain control over Prince Alexander. He then passed a new constitution friendly to Austria and then abdicated to his 13 year old son. He tried to serve on his son’s regency council but then Alexander’s mother returned from Germany with paperwork declaring her divorce from Milan invalid. The young Prince Alexander, incensed with both of them for not approving of his choice of wife had both his parents sent into exile. Former King Milan died in Vienna a year later at age 43. In 1903 King Alexander was assassinated at age 26 allowing the rival Karadordevic line to assume the throne. This put Serbia firmly in Russia’s orbit in time for World War I. Queen Natalie converted to the Catholic Church after exile and became a Nun serving the Church in France until her death in 1941.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast King Milan I. Getting out early and dying of natural causes was quite a feat for a leader in that time and place. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018