Month: June 2022

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Prussia 1861, the great questions will not be resolved by speeches and majorities, but by iron and blood

Prussia went from being an important region of German speakers to a Greater German Empire. Well it did have the best army, but it also had a leader with many tools and many enemies. So slip on 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 power of Prussia is not well presented by the stamps. Even in 1861 though, there are the signs of coming together. Lubeck does a version of this stamp and of course the eagle emblem will be common on German Empire stamps in later decades.

A note about currency and the transition. Prussian currency was not yet decimalized and a Silbergroshen as on this stamp was a coin valued at 12 Pfennig. 30 Silbergroshen equaled 1 Thaler, a large silver coin dating from medieval times. After decimalization, a 10 Pfennig coin replaced the Silbergroshen and there were no longer Thalers except as a  slang way to say 3 Marks. Dutch Daalers, Scandinavian Dalers and yes countries that use Dollars can trace these names to the Thaler.

Todays stamp is issue A7, a 1 Silbergroshen stamp issued by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1861. It was a 4 stamp issue in various denominations. There were 2 updated versions with the new currency in 1867. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.60 used. This is the lowest value of any Prussian stamp, and I think too low as there are no Prussian stamps less than 150 years old. No doubt this stamp was common when issued. but this poorly printed on cheap paper had to survive in many collections in the many years between then and now.

In 1862, Prussian King Wilhelm I appointed Otto von Bismarck chancellor of Prussia. Bismarck was an aristocrat, then known as Junker. Being appointed, he was only responsible to the monarch and did not face election or interference from the legislature. His main goal was to unite the German people under a single government. That he was able to do this in 3 short victorious wars and through able diplomacy is quite impressive. The first was a war aligned with Austria, the big power in southern Germany against Denmark, taking German speaking areas. Those areas were at first jointly administered with Austria and the inevitable disputes were then used to start a war with Hapsburg Austria, really the only other viable rival to govern all Germans. This war left only France as an obstacle. Their army though was smaller and spread out over their vast empire. France was defeated and could no longer object to Germany coming together.

That does not mean the leaders of the individual German states did not object. Bismarck designed a Federal system for Germany that left some autonomy with the states and even refashioned Prussia as the North German Confederation to make the states feel less conquered.

The dark blue shows how small Prussia was and how little of it is in modern Germany

Once united, Bismarck sought to make Germany more unified. He offered the first safety net for workers to greatly improve their lot in life and to try to connect working class loyalty to the new state. He instituted tariffs to protect German industry. Innovative steps at the time and not what was expected of a conservative figure. At the same time he was aggressively opposed to non German speakers, Socialists and Catholics. This went as far as banning the Socialists and Jesuits who he thought were too tied to the Pope in Rome. After the wars, he promoted peace, having good relations with England and Russia and not challenging them for far flung Empires.

In old age he was replaced as he clashed with the new Kaiser who wanted empire and saw the socialists as less of a threat. Germany thus returned to a war like stance and sure enough Socialists overthrew the Kaiser after World War I. On his death bed in 1898 he made predictions that were prescient. He predicted Germany would last only 20 more years on it’s current foolish course and that war would come from some foolish thing from the Balkans.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast united Germany whether bigger or smaller. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Bophuthatswana 1985, The Tswana people get industrious in the Bop

South Africa granted a measure of self rule to several black enclaves. This did not satisfy world opposition to apartheid, but that does not mean there was not some achievement during the 17 years of existence. There was also complications when they were forced back in to the new South Africa. 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.

I do like stamps that show off otherwise unknown industry in far off places. Here we have a plastic bag factory. There must be a lot of those all over the world but I have never seen any. This issue also had stamps for a lady’s hosiery factory and a place that spray painted metal beds. Economic activity in the Bop, as it was unofficially known, is more remembered for platinum mines and the Sun City Resort, neither of which was part of the stamp issue. I am glad they showed more obscure endeavors. It does a good job of communicating that there is more going on than you know.

Todays stamp is issue A36, a 15 South African cent stamp issued by the semi independent Tswana people homeland of Bophuthatswana on October 25th, 1985. It was part of a 21 stamp issue in various denominations showing industry. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents.

The Bop got its independence in 1977. It was a string of disconnected enclaves. It had a black government including a tribal chief, Lucas Mangope, as an elected President. No country recognized the black South African homelands under UN pressure to oppose  Apartheid. The UN worried that recognizing the black homelands meant also recognizing white ruled South Africa. The reality was that the Bop had dealings with neighboring Botswana and Israel through De Beers. The homeland was better situated than many African areas with revenue from platinum and other mines. They also took advantage of their independence to open the Sun City Resort and Casino that provided revenue and much employment. Gambling was otherwise illegal in South Africa and Sun City was an easy drive from several large South African cities. It was open to white and black.

The revenue saw Bop build a large civil service and police. This added complication when white rule was coming to an end in early 90s South Africa. The intention was that the homelands would take part in the first multiracial South African elections and then rejoin new South Africa. People in the Bop including the civil service and President Mangope wondered what that meant for them, their jobs and their pensions. The ANC stroked the fears and the Civil Service went on strike. Mangope ordered his police to put down the strike and announced that they intended to skip the election and stay independent. The police mostly sided with the strikers. Mangope then invited in Right wing armed Boers to beef up what remained of his police. This was a big mistake as the police were not willing to work with them and the resulting looting was enough to bring in the South African police and end the Bop government. Interesting the looting was more aimed at the large shopping mall than the government buildings. Mangope was replaced in the interim by the South African Ambassador.

In modern South Africa, Mangope formed a small conservative. black political party that represented the Tswana tribe, He died in 2018 and his statue still stands in his hometown. It had been moved there from the old Bop government complex in 1994. So far at least, it is still okay to remember fondly the history of the Bop and it’s President.

Bop President Lucas Mangope statue

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to all the small forgotten factories that provide so much needed employment. More stamp issues like this please. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Poland 1984, remembering the day the red poppies of Monte Cassino drank Polish blood instead of dew

The 4 battles of Monte Cassino were disastrous. The abbey was destroyed and the Allies took 3 times the casualties of the Germans but took the abbey ruins and then Rome. Among the Allies were Americans, New Zealanders, French Algerians, British, and free Poles, whose story we will tell. 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 remembered the Polish participation in the Battle of Monte Cassino 40 years later. There would not have been a stamp on the 10th anniversary. The first position of the communist government was not to honor the service of the free Polish forces in the later campaigns against the Germans. The free thing was the issue, many of these veterans did not return to Poland ruled by communists. Eventually a good story will be told though and many nations tried to climb that hill over several months and it was the Poles who made it to the top.

Todays stamp is issue A826, a 15 Zloty stamp issued by Poland on May 18th, 1984 on the 40th anniversary of the taking of the ruins of the abbey. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The abbey of Monte Cassino was built in 529AD. In 1943, Italy was occupied by Germany after the Royal government deposed Mussolini and changed sides. The allies had landed in Sicily and were slowly pushing north. The Germans set up a defensive Gustav Line that took advantage of mountains and a river in order to defend the approaches to Rome. The Abby itself was not occupied by the Germans, it was already an historic site, and the Germans had assisted in relocating the abbeys treasures to Vatican City. As a stone edifice at the top of a high mountain it still became a symbol of what stood between the Allies and Rome. First the abbey was heavily bombed by the allies but at that point it only held Italian civilians seeking refuge. That does not mean the Germans were not elaborately emplaced with strong artillery support. The first two assaults were carried out by Americans who suffered horrible losses. At that point the Americans were poorly lead and had little fighting experience. The third assault was by the British and as per their usual, many of their troops were from their Empire, including New Zealanders and Gurkhas. The Free French in the form of their colonial Algerians and Moroccans took part. Some progress was made but the British did not follow through on gains.

By now the Germans were evacuating Rome and withdrawing their army intact to the new Spengler line further north. It fell upon the British and the Poles fighting alongside for the final assault on the Monte Cassino abbey. The mountain had now been fought over for many months that spring and allies looking up at it marveled at the red poppies that sprang fourth every morning with the dew. This inspired the Polish song written the night before the final assault by Alfred Shutz and quoted in translation in the title of this piece. The assault cost the Poles 1000 men but they were the first to reach the summit. Only 20 Germans were captured that were too wounded to move. Rome fell without a fight to Americans a few weeks later.

I mentioned that many of the Polish veterans did not return to Poland under the communists. Alfred Shutz was among them settling and marrying in Munich post war. When he died without heirs, the rights to the song passed to the German state of Bavaria. That was awkward, but the state than gifted the song to the modern Polish government in 2009.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the soldiers on all sides who fought near Monte Cassino. The allied assaults were poorly planned with little follow through with the bombing of the Abbey itself a militarily useless tragedy. The Germans for there part commited their reserves too early that made it harder to hold Rome. The Italians themselves were no shows. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019