This is a stamp that looks strange to this American. Charlemagne, the French Holy Roman Emperor, repackaged as Kaiser Karl and placed in Aachen at the western edge of modern Germany. Well the past 50 years had Germany facing west. 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.
Germany united around 1870. America in 1781. You will see precious little on American stamps showing history before 1776 but Germany is not afraid to go back much further in this case to 800 AD. Interestingly, the stamp celebrates Charlemagne as one of it’s own, showing the accomplishment of the Cathedral in the Holy Roman capital of Aachen. Charlemagne had conquered and by force Christianized Saxony which was ruled by actual German Widukind and practiced a native religion. Widukind has no stamp, well he lost and no one practices his religion except a few Nazis. Besides the area along the Rhine river is the center of power in Europe again with French and Germans at the lead. So time again to get all holy roman.
Todays stamp is issue A991, a 1.1DM stamp issued by Germany on January 13th, 2000. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the 1200 or so years since the completion of the Cathedral at Aachen. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents used.
Charlemagne is still the subject of debate as to where and when he has born but somewhere in the general area of Aachen. Of course in modern terms that could place him as Belgian, German, French, or even from Luxembourg. Notice how central that area is to the modern EU. He started out as King of the Franks, but also added over time western Germany, Northern Italy, the Alpine region and the Pope named him Holy Roman Emperor. This was the first time such a great area was under one leader since Rome had fallen 300 years before. Notice the mention of the Pope, as one of the things he was doing was forcing Catholic Christianity on his subjects. This was progressive at the time and spurred advancement of the human condition.
He was not able to put back together the whole of the old Roman Empire. The breaking with the Orthodox Church based in Constantinople was getting more serious. The churches had different positions on the Holy Trinity. The west emphasized more God the Son and the East more God the Father as the originator of the Holy Spirit. That Charlemagne promoted the western view precluded him from being their leader and Eastern Europe to not fall to him. Also he had only limited success with then Muslim, Moorish Spain.
The fact was that for many years after Charlemagne there were Holy Roman Emperors crowned in Aachen the Germans could recognize as one of their own. Frederick Barbarossa, a Swabian later Holy Roman Emperor canonized 300 year earlier Charlemagne sealing the claiming of him as German. Over time the Holy Roman Empire lost territory in Germany and under Hapsburgs the Empire became Austrian. It was left to Prussia to unite Germany, but they were more of the East in modern Poland.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Aachen Cathedral which still stands, though in a country less religious and with plenty of Lutherans. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.