Tag: Bavaria stamp

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.

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.

With such an overabundance of Royals, it became devilishly difficult for Germans to unite. For Bavaria, a long lived but schizophrenic King Otto was sidelined by his uncle and therefore the inevitable unification happened. 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.

What is a Kingdom to do when the King is drugged and confined to castle. Do you do a nice portrait and put him on the stamp anyway? In Bavaria’s case, the coat of arms was used on the stamps of the period. The Regency is going fairly smoothly after all, so the system is working well enough.

Todays stamp is issue A5, a 40 Pfennig stamp issued by the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1900. The stamp had gone through numerous variations from 1867-1910. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 used. A lilac 10 Kreuzer version from 1870 is $4,800 used.

In the nineteenth century, the Kingdom of Bavaria sought the type of dominance that Prussia had in northern Germany, for itself in Southern Germany. It was natural that there would be rivalries with Prussia to the north and Austria to the south. Bavaria did not have the military tradition of Prussia and was landlocked, so was playing a weaker hand.

Part of that weak hand and head was the state of the Royal House of Wittelsbach that had ruled for centuries. During the troubles of 1848, the last Bavarian King to have his sanity abdicated. His son, Ludwig was more interested in building castles than ruling and his cabinet was forced to declare him insane and remove him. He was found dead in a lake two days later under mysterious circumstances. That left the throne to Otto, who was King for 27 years but never ruled. Bavaria had agreed to affiliate with Prussia and Prince Otto had fought with the Bavarian army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. He found the unification of Germany humiliating even though Bavaria was allowed some separateness. including an army and postal service. His mental state though was rapidly deteriorating with the onset of schizophrenia. There is debate whether this was caused by post-traumatic stress disorder from his war service or syphilis. Either way, Bavaria declared Otto melancholic and had his uncle Luitpold named Prince Regent. Otto had made a spectacle of himself by charging into the Catholic Cathedral during high mass in hunting clothes and then dropping to his knees and begging forgiveness for his sins from the Arch Bishop. He was then taken to his castle and heavily drugged the rest of his long life.

The Regent presided quietly allowing ever more integration with Germany but also much work building Munich as a cultural center. When he died at age 92 in 1912 his son took over the regency. Bavaria then finally changed it’s rules so that if there is not prospect for the King to actually serve after a year the regent becomes King. King Ludwig III was a lot like the earlier Ludwig and was more interested in the Royal Estates than his people. At the end of World War I, the Royal line was deposed and the people were finally heard from  in the form of the short lived Bavarian Socialist Republic of 1919. Even defeated Prussia/er Germany wouldn’t have that  and sent the Weimar Army to bring them back into the fold. The House of Wittelbach was anti Nazi and the current pretender to the thrown, Franz spent time in his youth at Nazi concentration camps. He still lives alone in Nymphenburg Castle, but not restrained there like crazy King Otto was.

Well my drink is empty and I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.