"Do you know that feeling that whenever you want to devote your time to a specific theme there are already multiple other themes that are at least as interesting?"
I had written down this sentence a year ago on 30th December 2022. Back I then I was planning to write a blog post called Looking Back and Looking Forward - 2022 and 2023 like I had done the year before for 2021 and 2022. I had structured the post, included pictures, but never came around to actually write it. Now a year has passed without any activity here on the blog (or on my main blog for that matter) and I was actually intending to write a post for 2023 and 2024. What however should happen to the things I have written down in 2022? I have now decided to at least show you my favourite history stamps of 2022 and include those of 2023 plus some outlook for 2024 below them. Thus there is leastwise a single post for 2023 on this blog.
So without further ado these were my favourite stamps about historic themes issued in 2022.
9. Leaders of the Lithuanian Anti-Soviet Resistance (Lithuania)
These two stamps show Romas Kalanta and the Priests of Vilkaviškis. Citing Wikipedia, "Romas Kalanta (22 February 1953 – 14 May 1972) was a 19-year-old Lithuanian high school student who killed himself by self-immolation in an act of protest against the Soviet regime in Lithuania. His death provoked the largest post-war riots in Lithuania and inspired similar self-immolations." The contrast of the coulourful stamp and the fact that the man killed himself by setting himself on fire strikes me as an interesting design choice.
This stamp is a beautiful remainder of how many magnificient historic items might still be found in the oceans.
Alexander Roda Roda was an Austrian writer and satirist born in 1872. Since 1911 he was writing articles for the Neue Freie Presse, one of Austria's most respected newspapers, and especially during World War I produced over 700 articles as war correspondent for the paper. He also contributed to the German satirical magazine Simplicissimus and in the 1920s his humorous and satirical book publications were largely successful. He lived in Germany when the Nazis seized power in 1933, which forced him to move to Graz, which again he left after the Anschluss in 1938 for Switzerland and later the USA. Alexander Roda Roda died in New York in 1945. I included this sheet, because last year I had read the book Februar 33 by Uwe Wittstock, which chronicles the lives of different literary figures during the first month of Adolf Hitler's rule in 1933.
In 2002 the Euro was introduced as common currency in different European countries. Unfortunately the 20th anniversary was not really commemorated on stamps making these stunning stamps from Portugal even more special. The coins on the stamps are embossed and metallic.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 the city of Belfort offered fierce resistance to the German troops. To honour their resistance the city was not annexed by the newly formed German Empire like the rest of Alsace, but remained with France. The monumental Lion of Belfort was created in 1880 by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. Anything connected to the Franco-Prussian War deserves to be included on this list in honour of my master thesis.
The stamp commemorates a jubilee which I would have liked to see on a German stamp as well. Shown here is the famous Cappenberg Head, a reliquary of John the Evangelist. For a long time it was believed that this sculpture shows the Emperor, as it was a present to his godfather, researches however have shown that this is not true. I have seen it twice in Magdeburg 2021 and Münster 2023.
Otto Braun was a Social Democratic politician and Minister President of Prussia during the time of the Weimar Republic. He reorganised Prussia along democratic lines, thus turning it into the "Rampart of Democracy" in Weimar's turbulent years. In 1932 however he was ousted from power in the Prussian coup d'état (Preußenschlag) by Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen. I really like the design of this stamp resembling an old election poster and I am always happy to see stamps about the Weimar Republic.
I really like to see Egyptian antiquities. Actually I wanted to use the jubilee of Tutankhamun to dive deeper into Egyptian history, but other things prevented me from doing so. For some reason I am delaying it as much as the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum. This French stamp is printed with gold foil.
1. 450th anniversary of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel (Germany)
The Herzog August Library was founded by Duke Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1572. It houses a large collection of manuscripts of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period and is one of the oldest libraries in the World which have never suffered loss to its collection. Its most famous librarians were Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Today it is a major international research centre for Medieval and Early Modern culture. Some of its rooms are used as museum. Among the most important and famous manuscripts of the library are the Gospels of Henry the Lion, a copy of the Sachsenspiegel, a printed edition of the Latin Psalter with annotations by Martin Luther, Luther's German translation of the New Testament and parts of the Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection. The latter three are even part of the Memory of the World Programme of the UNESCO. How could I not put this wonderful stamp about a regional anniversary on the first spot for 2022?
Due to external circumstances my collection had to lie still for a big part of the year. Nonetheless I still get some amazing stamps, so after the nine issues of 2022 let's get right to the ten issues of 2023.
10. Centenary of Bambi (Austria)
Bambi is probably best (only?) known due to the 1942 Disney movie. However the young deer first appeared in a book by Felix Salten in 1922, which was used as the basis of the movie. On a sad note, the government of Nazi Germany banned the book in 1936 as "political allegory on the treatment of Jews in Europe." Many copies of the novel were burned.
9. Max Oppenheimer (Austria)
Max Oppenheimer was an Austrian artist, however this stamp is not on the list due to him. Way more I included it due to the depicted woman in the artwork: Tilla Durieux was an Austrian actress. She played a minor role in Fritz Lang's 1929 science fiction silent film Woman in the Moon, which played a role in my state examination this year.
After the hard years of Covid-19 the museums are finally back on track. This year I hence visited some wonderful special exhibitions including Dürer in Berlin, Machine Room of the Gods and Renaissance in the North in Frankfurt am Main, Benin Bronzes in Hamburg, Otto the Great in Magdeburg, Venetian art in Munich, Barbarossa in Münster and Fischer von Erlach in Salzburg. One of favourites was Goddesses of Art Nouveau in Braunschweig. Of course also Mucha was thematised in the exhibition.
One of the big jubilees of 2023 was the 175th anniversary of the Revolution of 1848. Once again however there was no stamp to honour an important event in Germany's history. As some type of mockery or probably more due to historic ignorance this stamp about the Stralsund Letter was issued in the series Treasures of Philately. The stamps used on this historic piece show Frederick William IV of Prussia, the king who crushed the revolution. I just had to get this stamp together with a special postmark about the revolution.
6. Wreck of a Hanseatic Ship (Estonia)
Following my post about the Hanseatic League I am always happy to have a new stamp. This one I bought during the IBRA in Essen.
5. 400 years First Calculating Machine (Germany)
Wilhelm Schickard, a friend of Johannes Kepler, created the first Calculating Machine in 1623. The original one is long lost, but it was possible to reconstruct it due to an image in a letter sent by Schickard to Kepler. As a mathematician and historian this stamp was supposed to be higher on my list, but went down due to its ugly design.
For the creator of its most famous landmark France issued this beautiful souvenir sheet. Not sure why, but I just like it.
The World's Fair in Vienna was just the fifth event of its kind and the first in the German-speaking World. It was held to commemorate the 25th throne jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph and was a way to show the new confidence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the lost war against Prussia in 1866. It must have been a magnificient event to visit.
The Orient Express is a symbol of the elegant travelling by train and one of the great train journeys in the World. This souvenir sheet perfectly captures the spirit of the time. Regarding design aspects this might be in my opinion the most beautiful stamp issue of the year.
Copernicus was one of the most influential persons in European history. Although he might not be the first to formulate such a model, he is connected with the heliocentric worldview, which places the sun in the centre of the universe rather than the Earth. The publication of the model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, just before his death in 1543, was a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution. A few countries issued stamps for his jubilee, but my favourite is this joint souvenir sheet from Poland and the Vatican.
So these have been my favourite history stamps of 2022 and 2023, which I have chosen not only due to artistic reasons, but mainly by looking at the themes which left an imprint on me during these years, two years which have been extremely exhausting. Luckily I hope that 2024 will be much calmer, so it is suitably to look forward to what comes next.
One of the backbones of this blog have been the Big Jubilees, but for the fourth year in a row there seems to be no deserving theme. Looking at stamp programmes the 150th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union will be celebrated by many countries. I am however hesitatant to consider it as the Big Jubilee. The themes I have chosen for myself for a deeper involvement are the 100th death anniversaries of Franz Kafka and Lenin, the 125th birthday of Erich Kästner and the 300th birthday of Immanuel Kant. Other interesting jubilees include the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, the 150th birthday of Winston Churchill, the 250th anniversary of the First Continental Congress and Benjamin Jesty's experiments of smallpox inoculations, the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich, the 500th anniversary of the German Peasants' War and the 700th death anniversary of Marco Polo. Will I write blog posts about any of these themes? I hope so, but I doubt it.
Wishing You all a Happy New Year that will hopefully be filled with learning and collecting!
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