Month: June 2018

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Belgium celebrates 100 years of independence by remembering their first German King

The nineteenth century European small country Kings are fun and invariably German. The German city states they were from were being absorbed at the same time new states were popping up seeking legitimacy. In Belgium’s case, the fact that it and the same Royal house was around 100 years later proves legitimacy is what they got. 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 remembers the first Belgian King Leopold I by using his official portrait painted by Belgian portrait painter Lievin de Winne. The stamp engraving was done by Jean De Bast who himself was later honored with a stamp we covered here. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/03/26/belgium-honors-a-stamp-engraver/. He always treated the Royals well and todays stamp is no exception.

Todays stamp is issue A67, a 60 Centimes stamp issued by the Kingdom of Belgium on July 1st, 1930. It was a three stamp issue on the occasion of the 100th anniversary  of Belgian independence from the Netherlands. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or in this case used.

Leopold was born Royal in Coburg Germany in a small German state in modern day Bavaria. When his home was overrun by Napoleon he traveled to Paris to seek an appointment in Napoleon’s Court. Unsatisfied with an offer of an adjunct position, Leopold was off to Russia to fight France as a part of the Czar’s Army. His service was distinguished and he was made a Lieutenant General by the age of 25 in 1815. Post war he moved to London and obtained British citizenship. There he married Princess Charlotte who would have been Queen of Great Britain had she lived. Leopold would then have been Prince Consort. It was not meant to be however as Charlotte died a year later a day after giving birth to a stillborn son. Leopold then had a long relationship with German actress Caroline Bauer. In her late in life memoirs she claims to have had a private religious marriage to Leopold but this is denied by his family.

Greece was breaking off from the Ottoman empire and offered it’s new throne to Leopold. He thought their situation was too precarious and refused. Greece found another German King. Belgium was in a long war to break away from the Netherlands. A series of French royals was considered and rejected but then Leopold was a compromise choice favored by Great Britain. Leopold accepted becoming King Leopold I of newly independent Belgium. There was a last short war with the Netherlands that was  beaten off with help from the French. Most Belgians were closer to France ethnically then Dutch. Leopold entered a second marriage to Louise of Orleans, the daughter of French King Louis Philippe. This resulted in four children. Leopold worked very hard to avoid European wars of the time by staying neutral. The economy however was not in good shape since ties with the Netherlands were cut.

Leopold managed to survive the insurrections of 1848. A group of Émigré alleged Belgians crossed from France to overturn the monarchy but Belgian troops managed to capture and disarm them. The political conflicts at the time were between conservative Catholics and secular liberals. As a Lutheran, liberals saw Leopold as one of them but he tried to keep an aura of being above politics. This worked as the liberals won most of the elections of the period.

Queen Louisa died of tuberculosis in 1850 at age 38. Her children were the Royal line. During this period Leopold fathered two sons via a mistress. At his request the sons and the mistress were given minor titles by the German city state of his birth. Leopold’s close connection to the British royal line is shown by the fact that both Queen Victoria and her husband Prince consort Albert were Leopold’s niece and nephew in different but close lines. Leopold died in 1865 and was succeeded as King of the Belgians by his son who served as Leopold II.

Well my drink is empty and I find the close interconnection of European Royals to almost like a prototype of modern Euro integration. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

 

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Sweden’s August Strindberg. He hates everything, except himself

This one is going to be a difficult one. Strindberg is well remembered in Sweden, but his life and work shows far more hypocrisy than what his works tend to lampoon. 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 aesthetics of todays stamp are terrible. The printing is bad and the paper is cheap. Sweden prospered in the years of this stamp issue so one can only deduce that postage stamp issuance was just not a priority.

Todays stamp is issue A93, a 20 Ore stamp issued by the kingdom of Sweden on January 22, 1949. It was part of a 4 stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the century of the birth of August Strindberg, the playwright and author. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

August Strindberg was born the son of a shipping executive and his wife who had been a maid before marriage. He resented his mother for her religious convictions and stupidity. He resented his father for not passing enough money to him, I am sure that also convinced Strindberg of his father’s stupidity. That his mother had been a maid allowed Strindberg to see himself as a working class invader in the world of the aristocrat. The fact that his father spent enough on his private education and university to give Strindberg entry into the aristocratic world where there are plays and literature seems not to have made any impression on him.

After university, Strindberg saw a play of his staged at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm while still in his early 20s. The King of Sweden thought enough of the young playwright to give him a monetary stipend. Strindberg did not like his play. His elaborate and expensive education had seen him exposed to the more modern form of play called naturalism that was the idea of the Frenchman Emile Zola. It sought more reality  in language and less plot and more characterization and politics. Strindberg sought to emulate this supposed ideal.

The first thing though was his affair with a married baroness. He eventually married her when she was 6 months pregnant. The affair and marriage led to his biggest success in a novel named “The Red Room” and a play named “Miss Julie”. Both were quite popular and satire the lives of the female aristocrat from the point of view of a seducing servant.

Strindberg thinking himself a nihilist wanted to go much further. He believed society was unreformable and needed to be burned down. To put him in the right frame of mind there were all the usual tropes. Dabbling in the occult. travel, psychedelic drug use, heavy alcohol consumption. repeated divorce and marrying ever younger wives. Sounds more like a narcissist. oh well….

As Strindberg aged he sought to become the national poet of Sweden and thought a return to his routes in historical works was the way to get there. The honor was not forthcoming and these works were not well received. What was working was many of his middle period works were redone and much seen worldwide giving him much fame. Perhaps in the way that Paul McCartney and Elton John perform their work from 40-50 years ago to much acclaim. The new stuff, not so much.

I have been somewhat harsh on Strindberg who was thought to be influential. Perhaps he was but personally I resent people spitting at a system they are living well off of. Feel free to correct me with facts in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Royal Castle Warsaw, Poles worldwide unite to restore after German destruction

After Germany invaded Poland, the Germans destroyed the old Royal Castle not as a fortune of war but as a direct attack on the nation. So even though the post war government was communist and therefore not much inclined to royalty or history, the decision was taken to rebuild. Something all Poles agreed with and many worldwide donated to. 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.

Photobombing todays stamp is the also put back together Sigismund’s Column. Remember the 1920s Polish stamp featuring the column. Here is a link. https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/30/a-long-ago-symbol-of-a-great-poland-in-a-new-poland-before-germany-knocks-it-down/. Notice the quality of printing on the two stamps. Now the stamps are almost 50 years apart but still this was one area the communist regime was doing a good job.

The stamp today is issue A557, a 60 Groszy stamp issued by Poland on October 14, 1971. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the rebuilding of the castle and it being declared a heritage site. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

The Castle was built on the site of a previous royal residence by King Sigismund III coinciding with the move of the Polish capital from Cracow to Warsaw around 1600. The site was devastated by World War II. It partially burned in the initial attack and the castle staff stabilized the damage and began to hide artifacts. Hitler ordered the Castle dynamited and a historian team of Germans and Poles removed other artifacts. The building was not actually dynamited at this time but left a shell. After the Warsaw uprising was put down by the Nazis the dynamiting happened. The Germans planned to build a large Nazi center on the square but their time in Warsaw was almost over.

The new communist government put in place by the Red Army agreed to have the palace rebuilt and care was taken to recollect as many of the old artifacts as possible. A subscription was organized to pay for the restoration that occurred over many years and was still ongoing at the time of todays stamp. A majority of the funds for the work came from Poles in the United States.

A lot of Polish legends involve the castle. An interesting one involves King Sigismund Augustus who was mourning the death of his beloved wife Barbara. He sought out the services of mystic Pan Twardowski to conjure his departed wife in a séance. It was believed that Pan Twardowski had sold his soul to the devil in return for special powers. His wife appeared on a magic mirror that still exists in the castle. It was thought that this was achieved by the King’s mistress also named Barbara playing dress up with the assistance of the royal chamberlain. Pan Twardowski had a special codicil in his contract with the devil in that his soul could only be taken in Rome, a city he never intended to visit to cheat the devil. However the joke was on him when the devil came for him while staying at the Hotel Ryzm, Ryzm is Rome in Polish. When taken away, Pan Twardowski prayed to the Virgin Mary who had Pan Twardowski dropped on the moon with his friend that he turned into a spider. He still lives there today and his spider friend occasionally returns to earth on a string to bring him news of Poland.

Well my drink is empty and I will definitely have a few more pondering that legend. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Hungary swimming at the Helsinki Olympics

Hungary came in third in the medal count in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. The stories of their golden female swim team shows the struggles they faced to get their gold. 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 is a big colorful stamp of the type so common in eastern Europe during the cold war. What to me makes it rise above the average is the pose of the swimmers mid dive. It shows the athleticism and strength required to compete with the best in the world. By showing as a generic athlete and without any national team markings, it hints at what the sorority of the best must be like.

Helsinki was awarded the 1952 summer games after their previous would be Olympics was cancelled in 1940. It marked the debut of the USSR, the PRC, Indonesia and the return of Germany and Japan to the Olympics. The medal count had the USA in first, the USSR in second, and Hungary in third. There was a funny bit of fake news out of Russia at the time when authorities announced that Russia won the games. When it was pointed out that USA had won the most medals, the Russians corrected kind of saying now that USSR and USA had tied under a point system that they invented.

The first Hungarian swimmer from 1952 we will talk about is Katalin Szoke. Author’s note: I have wrote the swimmers names in western style, in Hungarian, family name comes first. She won two golds in 100 meter freestyle events. She competed again without success in the 1956 games. Her father was a policeman and a member of the then right wing party. After the war the communist government sentenced him to death in absentia. He had run to Argentina. Katalin took her mother’s maiden name to sever ties to him and after divorcing a member of the water polo team married another teammate of her first husband and defected to the USA. She died in 2017.

Judit Temes won a bronze in the 100 meter freestle and a gold as part of the 100 meter relay team. She was Jewish and remained in Hungary. She died in 2012.

Valeria Gyenge won gold in the 400 meter freestyle event. She again competed in the 1956 games and afterword  defected to Canada with her future husband who was on the water polo team. Her father in law was a 1928 gold medal Olympian in Fencing that later died in a Nazi concentration camp. She is still alive at age 85 in Canada.

Eva Novac won four medals in freestyle and breaststroke. This includes a bronze from the 1948 games in London. She later defected to Belgium where she died in 2005.

Eva Szekely won a gold in 1952 and a silver in the 1956 games. She is also a Jew and credits her surviving the Holocaust because she already at a young age held the national speed swimming record. She also married and divorced a member of the water polo team. Her daughter competed and won in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics after being coached by her mother. Her daughter slightly broke with tradition by marrying and divorcing a member of the canoeing team. Eva is still alive in Hungary at age 91 and has authored 3 books about her experiences.

One can see that from war to Holocaust to the repression of 1956 the kind of  struggles faced  by the Hungarian athletes of the day. That they overcome to the extent of such a small country coming in 3rd in the medal count is extraordinary. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.