Tag: Germany stamp

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.

Drug addiction is a terrible thing! That said, the aesthetics of this anti drug stamp talk a lot about the crosscurrents in the society of the day. 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 owes a lot to Norwegian Edvard Munch, though rendered without his skill. His 1898 painting, “The Scream” was taken to heart as a visualization of the angst of mankind under the pressures of the modern world. This painting was first presented in Munich and the style was much copied in Germany during the Weimar period. There was a reaction against it, Hitler said such painters were savages who should return to their caves and do the drawing on the cave wall. That of course wasn’t going to happen. It was understandable that an anti drug abuse appeal would repurpose Munch style imagery. Doing so with cartoon style coloring seems to just make fun of the junkie for his weakness and bad hair. One wonders if this effect was intended.

Todays stamp is issue A383, a 40 Pfennig stamp issued by West Germany on August 14th, 1975. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

The early 70s was a fun time in German stamp issues. There were plenty of traditional issues showing idealized Renascence era views of German cities and a few old Prussian guys on horses. There was also my favorite stamp issue of all time. The A328 eleven stamp issue from 1971-74 promoting safety. I have avoided covering them on this website. It would take over two weeks to cover them all with my useful commentary limited to. Hey dummy, don’t light yourself on fire with a match, ha ha, or don’t fall into an open manhole, ha ha.

There were also some strange issues with mixed messages like this one about drugs. There was one about helping the handicapped but showed them as faceless silhouettes, what a burden. There was one showing a drop of blood and a police siren. This might not have meant  you better surrender peacefully to the police when they come for you as they have guns. There were several issues about how great Poland was and wasn’t it a shame that our fathers were so mean to them. Given how much of Poland was on former German land, how was this to go over among Germans forced to move west? There were lots of Weimar figures treated as heroes and statesmen when obviously had they been more competent, another war might have been avoided. Interestingly, all these crosscurrents are there on the stamps, if you look for them.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Edvard Munch. He lived on another 46 years and his late output was idealized takes on farm life. So perhaps he came to terms with the pressures of modern life. He died in German occupied Norway and the Nazis had moved from calling him a savage to dubiously claiming him a sympathizer. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Yesterday we talked about how the Polish gradually improved their Warszawa model so it could serve properly local and even export automotive needs. This is important as without local production, cars must be imported and much wealth is exported. Germany through Mercedes addressed the same need by building an austere version of  a luxury car that could provide the production numbers required to make the whole enterprise worthwhile. How do the volume models compare? 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.

In the late 1950s, Mercedes worried that their pontoon styling, shared with Warszawa and many others, was becoming dated. So they joined with the American and Italian trend and added tailfins to their sedan. These “fintails” proved embarrassing both for following American trends and doing so late on a car with a long production life. This stamp dodges the mistake by emphasizing the front end of the car which has more in common with the earlier pontoon style.

Todays stamp is issue A1514, a 1.45 Euro stamp issued by Germany on April 2nd, 2015. The 2 stamp issue in the same denomination remembers the Mercedes W1111 220 S and the BMW 507. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.60 used.

The W111 launched in 1959 and was built until 1968. This car shows the six cylinder version that was aimed at the private well healed buyer. It was less than one third of the volume of cars produced. Below that was a four cylinder gas 190 aimed at more frugal private and fleet buyers. Below that is the 190D with a four cylinder diesel engine that aimed at the taxi market in Germany and elsewhere. We learned yesterday that the proposed six cylinder Warszawa did not make it to production so lets compare the two cars where they matched up best, the 4 cylinders. For private owners, the Mercedes has some definite advantages. Sharing so much with a luxury model allows for higher build quality and better safety design. The smaller MB overhead cam gas engine beats the Warszawa slightly in acceleration and mileage but neither car is stellar and both have a top speed around 80 miles per hour. The smaller engine had to work harder to achieve the advantage and was far more complex. This was okay though as Germany was richer and therefore did not have to struggle for that last bit of life from their cars.

When we look at the diesel taxis power and economy are similar. The Mercedes taxis retain the complex independent rear suspension that may come up short compared to solid Warszawa rear axles in taxi service. Both cars had manual steering boxes and drum brakes with at first only manual transmissions. Mercedes and Warszawa both later added Borg Warner automatics. The Mercedes one was based on a design for the American Studebaker and the Warszawa was based on Borg Warner’s copy of the Ford Cruiseomatic.

Sophistication was the direction that this type of car was headed and therefore being built off a luxury car was ahead of the game. Poland gave up on the Warszawa line and replaced it with a smaller more disposable model based on the Fiat 125. In doing so, comparisons to Mercedes become ridiculous and instead the car was more comparable to a simpler Volkswagen Passat/Dasher. A sign that communism was preventing Poland from catching up to Germany.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering why no one thought of offering simplicity with the higher build quality. Wait calls are coming in, Rover on line one, Volvo on line two, and the real threat with their aggressive price dumping, Toyota on line three. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

I am generally more impressed with stamp issues that promise a better future than remember a great past. With an achievement like the Porsche 356, why not take the time to remember, especially when the remembrance supports a good cause. 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.

With a new stamp from an old car comes the question of how to photograph it. Period photos from advertising? No you are remembering a car, not trying to sell it. A modern photo of a classic car? No, an old car in great condition is probably more about the owner than the car itself. Germany decided to use a series of car drawings of the type a car identification book for children might have, even with some quick stats. This is a great idea as there were more kids dreaming about Porsches than adults driving them.

Todays stamp is issue SP434, a 55 +25 semi postal stamp issued by Germany on October 9th, 2003. This was an 8 stamp issue that remembered important cars from Germany’s past. All cars were post war and a few were even East German. The 25 cent surcharge benefited something called the Federal Working Party on Independent Welfare. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.90 whether it is mint or used.

The Porsche 356 was a post war development of the pre war Volkswagen Beetle. The car had a smaller, lighter body and had engines that were uprated over their state of tune in Beetles. The car used the independent swing axle suspension of the Beetle but over time upgraded it to cope with more power. Initial thoughts of aluminum bodywork were deleted to keep expenses down. The car was still quite expensive costing a little more than an American Corvette with 3 times the power and 40 percent more weight. The British Austin Healy 3000 split the difference with less power, weight  and expense than the Corvette, but more weight and power than the Porsche.

What all three of these cars did well was demonstrate the 3 countries different approaches to going fast. To Germany, it was important to keep light so only as much power as could be gotten out of the light Beetle engine. In this period of the 356 in the early 60s, that power was as much as 3 times what the Beetle had. The Corvette was bigger with the engine out of big, powerful American cars. The American car was far faster and more stable, but the light Porsche could catch up in the turns where its agility, rear engine traction and independent, if dangerous suspension helping. The Corvette in this period sold better with about 25 percent more volume despite a fewer percentage exported than the 356. The Austin Healy sold less still despite it’s lower price but did achieve many exports. One thing the three cars had in common was souped up sedan engines rather than specially designed engines for sports cars. It kept prices down.

The 356 was made from 1949- 1965. The B model shown on the stamp had larger window and changes in the floorplan to add room. The C model came along in 1963 adding disc brakes. Over time the car gained a few hundred pounds as more equipment was added. The 356 was replaced in 1965 with the Porsche 911 that attacked the problem of higher weight by adding a six cylinder overhead camshaft engine still in the back. Weight was up 30% over the early 356 but power more than doubled. Prices also went up but for a few years a 912 version sold with the 356 engine at only a slightly higher price.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the German attitude toward speed. The idea now seems to be that all cars must now be built to a world standard so it matters less where a car comes from. I preferred it when the cars better reflected the attitudes of where they were from. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

When a national symbol is shown over and over again on stamps, the challenge becomes how not to be repetitive. So this one is about it’s builder Carl Langhans. 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 Brandenburg Gate was constructed as a symbol of peace. As with the Arc de Triumph in Paris, previous centuries had a different idea of peace. Don’t think peaceniks, but rather the celebration the successful completion of a war. Thus when there is an unsuccessful war outcome it becomes a symbol of taunting. Napoleon marched under the Brandenburg Gate when he conquered Prussia. He even removed the Quadriga statue relocating it to Paris. Prussia later occupied Paris and took it back. The Soviet Union flew it’s flag from the gate for 12 years after the war until finally yielding to the East German flag. When American President Kennedy taunted the Soviets for walling off Berlin and closing the gate, he was greeted by a giant Red Banner covering it. The opening of the wall in 1989 was centered at opening the Brandenburg Gate with lots of flag waving.

Todays stamp is issue A1259, a 55 Euro cent stamp issued by Germany on December 27th, 2007. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents used. Being so modern there is also a self adhesive version, that inexplicably does not effect the value.

The site of the Brandenburg gate was already a gate as part of an earlier customs wall. Prussian King Frederick William II commissioned the Gate in the late 1770s. Carl Gotthard Langhans the Royal Court superintendent of buildings, was in charge. He had started his career in Silesia. Langhans was ethnically German but most of his life and buildings are today found in Poland, a reflection that war isn’t always victorious and reflective of the German peoples shift westward. Like the English architect Inigo Jones, the subject of the first stamp we covered at The Philatelist, seehttps://the-philatelist.com/2017/10/02/remembering-inigo-jones/ Langhans was the recipient of much Royal largesse that allowed him to study the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. This inspiration allowed him to construct buildings in the neoclassic style. This was much desired by the Royals of the day. The Peace Gate, as it was then called was in the style of the Propylaea, the ancient gateway to the Acropolis in Athens. The Quadriga statue on the German gate was Victoria, the Roman God of Victory on her 4 horse chariot. At first, only Royals were allowed to pass through the center columns but this was a special honor granted the family of Ernst von Pfuel, who had seen to the Quadriga statue’s return from Paris.

Despite the devastation of the bombing and the Battle of Berlin in 1945, the Brandenburg Gate survived mostly intact. The devastation around it and the division of Berlin limited the amount of Allied victory parades around it then. The Gate was closed in 1962 upon the construction of the Berlin wall and lay in East Berlin. The East German government saw to it’s refurbishment, perhaps surprisingly still in the Imperial style. It was a fixture on many East German stamps. The opening of the gate was symbolic in 1989 when the West and East German Chancellors were the first to cross and shake hands. Today you will see much new construction around it as it is a favored view of important embassies relocated to Berlin. Unfortunately the new construction is somewhat less than neoclassic architecture. At least the area is now a pedestrian street.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast Carl Langhans. If  peace had been as long lived as was then hoped, the Royal Building superintendent would have seen the buildings around his gate were still neo classical and perhaps even Prussia and Silesia not now be Poland. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.