My Favourite History Stamps of 2019

For years I have selected my favourite stamps of each year on my stamp blog and usually I was contented with my selection. This year however I think I had to exclude too many stamps from that list, mainly history connected stamps. In general my favourite theme for stamps are cartoons, children's books, movies and similar things and this year there were so many great stamps about these themes that there was not enough space for history stamps on the list. That is why I decided to choose My Favourite History Stamps as well and present them here. Below you now find my selection in descending order. What were your favourites?

15. Centenary of the Women's Suffrage in Germany (Germany)

When this stamp was issued in January, it was on the top of my favourite stamp list for quite a while, but during the course of the year it went deeper and deeper and is now finally not among the Top 20. I still like it, but also here it just gets the poor last place. For everyone who is wondering, like I did when it was issued, the woman on the stamp is Marie Juchacz, a German social reformer, member of the Social Democratic Party and in 1919 the first ever female Reichstag member to address a German parliament.

14. 450 years Union of Lublin (Poland)
If I am not mistaken only two stamps were issued this year about European Heritage Label Sites. While I still not have the one about the Historic Ensemble of the University of Tartu from Estonia, I already have the Polish sheet about the Union of Lublin. The scan really does not do justice to this beautiful sheet! It nicely combines the "real" history with "remembered" history. At the bottom it features a passage from the Act of the Union of Lublin, but the main part of the sheet shows a painting by Jan Matejko, which also includes a kneeling Marcin Zborowski. According to Wikipedia Zborowski was already dead in 1569.

13. 500th death anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci (Vietnam)
The 500th death anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci was one of the big jubilees of 2019, but honestly one I did not cared about much, not because I do not like it, but because I wanted to spend my time with Renaissance themes in 2021 (Dante, Dürer, Kepler anniversaries). Still I followed with interest the discussions about the da Vinci exhibition in Paris and also I actually saw one of his paintings, The Lady with an Ermine in Kraków. That is also one of the reasons why I put the Vietnamese stamp into this list, but not the only one. Most of the stamps issued for his jubilee either came in big sets (Italy, UK), were overpriced (France) or were real catch penny issues. Vietnam on the other hand issued just this nice decent set.

12. 500th anniversary of the Beginning of Magellan's and Elcano's Circumnavigation of the Earth (Portugal and Spain)
The Beginning of Magellan's Circumnavigation of the Earth was another big jubilee for this year, but also not my favourite one. These two sheets are actually more on this list as they are a joint issue and shaped than due to the theme.

11. Upright Democrats - Fritz Bauer (Germany)
The German Fritz Bauer stamp was one I was really looking forward to this year. He is an interesting person and even connected to my home town. Easily this stamp might have been on the top of this list or even the main list if not the German Post decided to make it a 2,70€ stamp. Who actually needs this value? I definitely do not. Still it is a nice stamp.

10. Madame de Maintenon (France)
The Reign of King Louis XIV of France is among my favourite themes, so a stamp about his wife really needed to make it on this list, also because it is a special formed one.

9. 80th anniversary of the creation of the Polish Underground State (Poland)
To be honest four months ago I have not heard anything about the Polish Underground State. Luckily during my trip to Kraków there was an open air exhibition across the city which dealed with the early years of this very interesting organisation during World War II. This is definitely a theme I want to learn more about in the next time.

8. Emperor Charles V (Austria and Luxembourg)
Here is another joint issue of souvenir sheets. Not only do I really like this issue, but it also includes a small mystery I tried to solve.

7. Centenary of the Weimar Constitution (Germany)
Actually after World War I in 2018 and planned World War II for 2020 I wanted to delve into the Interwar Period this year. Due to some reasons I did not do that, but still I am working on a post about the Weimar Republic, which I will hopefully publish early next year. Honestly I am not sure, why the German Post often issues text stamps for important jubilees (they already did it for the National Anthem and the German Unity), but I think its easier and safer than trying to find a picture. Also for a constitution this might actually be the best you can do. I still especially like the stamp in combination with this special postmark.

6. 500th death anniversary of Emperor Maximilian I (Austria)
Maximilian I really sweetened my summer, as during my summer holidays I visited some awesome special exhibitions about him in Augsburg and Innsbruck. These exhibitions were representative for so many interesting exhibitions and museums I visited this year. Also I like the plainness of this stamp.

5. Singapore Bicentennial (Singapore)
Colonial history and especially early globalisation are currently among my favourite history themes. The set about the Singapore Bicentennial nicely captures this theme. In addition to that Singapore is one of my dream destination and I really like the design of this set. You can see the complete set on my stamp blog.

4. 450th death anniversary of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Belgium)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder is my favourite artist and I really hoped that for his 450th death anniversary some stamps would be issued, but unlike for Leonardo there are unfortunately only such stamps in Belgium. Also I did not see any of his pictures this year, although I already saw some of them in Brussels and Vienna some years ago including prominently The Fall of the Rebel Angels, for which I saw an interesting virtual exhibition in Brussels and which is also shown on the Belgian sheet. This year I only saw two paintings of his son in my home town and in Kraków. The one from Kraków was recently even shown on a stamp.

3. 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad (USA)
Especially at the beginning of the year railway history was something that really interested me. Unfortunately it was replaced by other things for the rest of the year just to come back again in recent weeks. Earlier this year I even thought about starting a train stamp collection, but never did so. A train stamp set still deserves a place on this list, my favourite history-themed one however is not from Europa but from the USA. The gold applications are unfortunately not visible very well on the scan.

2. 50 years Moon Landing (Faroe Islands)

The biggest jubilee for this year is definitely the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing and a stamp about it needs to be on this list. My favourite issue about the theme comes from Austria, as it glows in the dark, but for this list I decided to choose the stamp from the Faroe Islands. It beautifully shows the fascination of this event and its impact on the people even in the remotest regions. Here you can see my complete collection of Moon Landing stamps.

Honourable Mention: 60 years Asterix (France)
If it commemorates a jubilee it is a history stamp, right? This stamp from France, which I like very much, clearly celebrates a jubilee, but I still hesitate to add it to this list as full contestant. If I would it would probably be the first place, but so it is now just a honourable mention.

1. Birth Bicentenary of Queen Victoria (United Kingdom)
In 2019 I am actually a bit ashamed of choosing a stamp set of from the island for the first place, but just look at this beautiful stamp set about Queen Victoria. Victoria was already shown on dozens of stamps during her reign, but interestingly she was rarely on any stamp since her death (if you exclude stamps featuring the Penny Black or Blue Mauritius). That was clearly compensated for this year. The selection of paintings for the stamps is great and I also very much like the sheet about Prince Albert, especially the stamp with the Crystal Palace.

A Mystery about Charles V in 2019

Charles V (1500-1558) was the ruler of an empire on which the sun never sets. Apart from being Holy Roman Emperor he was also Archduke of Austria, King of Spain (Castile and Aragon) and Duke of Burgundy. As King of Spain he was also ruler of the southern Italian kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia and the Spanish colonies in the Americas. He was a proponent of the idea of an universal monarchy and tried to unify the European princes against the Ottoman enemy. His plans however were undermined by both the Reformation and the opposition of France. In 1557 Charles retired to the Monastery of Yuste in Extremadura. His Empire was divided between his son (Spanish Habsburgs) and brother (Austrian Habsburgs). 

500 years ago Charles V became Archduke of Austria. To commemorate this jubilee and the Multilaterale stamp exhibition both Austria and Luxembourg issued a beautiful miniature sheet on 8th November 2019. The sheet shows a painting of Emperor Charles V by Jakob Seisenegger shown in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Beside the years of his reign and life the sheet also include the quote "Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales" ("How many languages you speak, that many people you are worth") and the flags of the countries, which took part in the Multilaterale stamp exhibition. The text is printed with gold plating. 

Luckily I was able to get the Austrian sheet on a matching postcard. While looking at both back and front side of this card, I noticed an interesting difference between the original painting as shown on the card and the sheet. Do you see it?

In the blank space at the upper right corner of the original painting the sheet shows a map. Since I saw it I was wondering where this map comes from. At first I thought that the sheet might show a different version of the painting, but all versions I found on the Internet lacked the map as well. A closer look at the map reveals that it is probably not from the 16th century as the painting. At the end I finally found the map that was used on the sheet on Wikimedia Commons (here). It originates from the Historischer Schulatlas (historic atlas for schools) from the late 19th century. With this question answered there is now actually another one: Why was this map chosen? Especially as this part of the map does not show Luxembourg? The answer probably only knows the designer of the sheet, but I guess they just did not wanted to keep the blank space on the sheet.

The Future of this Blog

First of all, sorry for not posting for such a long time! I actually planned so much for this year and also already for the next, but somehow I did not managed to write any of the planned posts. The reason for that is not only that I did not have enough time for writing, which I really did not have, but in fact there were three main reasons which kept me from writing:

• I had changed the theme of this blog from World to European history, because I thought it would be easier. But it was not, as I now got a question which I still can not answer. What is European history? In the mean time I decided on three different definitions:
  1. The European history is the product of the histories of all European countries. (That is what I tried to create with the Index, but which instantly raises the question whether some events in one country are important enough for a "European history")
  2. The European history is formed by events and movements which had an impact on the complete continent. (This seemed to make more sense, but I am often not sure which things should be included then and which not.)
  3. The European history is everything that created the Europa of today and/or which might help to create a common European identity. (This is what I like the most, but I am still failing to find some good book which follows this idea without just excluding everything before the 19th century)
  As I am still working on that, I really do not want to invest time in things which I might need to remove later on when they might not fit anymore. Due to that some things I planned were already cancelled.
• I had created the Index, because I wanted something to work off. The creation of this Index took some time, but still not enough time, as I often find new things that I want to include. Sometimes it is very easy to include them in what I already have, but sometimes one new thing opens a gate for many, many new things which can not be included easily. In fact the Index is very oriented on political and cultural history, as these are the things that interest me the most. Nonetheless I still think that there are many things that need to be included for a "complete" "European history" without being able to do that properly. This also leads directly to the last reason.
• I really do not have enough time for everything and even worse I am also not interested in everything, not even in everything on the Index. But this unfortunately makes some/many of the posts short, badly constructed and sometimes maybe even (unplanned) biased. Which really does not do justice to some of history's great themes.

To cut a long story short, I decided that I do not want to keep working off the Index. I began this blog to have fun with history, but during the last year it merely became an obstacle in having that. In the future I will return to writing mainly shorter and deeper posts (like essays and tidbits) about themes that really interest me with the hope to make this blog more spontaneous, up-to-date and also interesting for readers. I am really sorry that I am once again doing a complete somersault, especially as the last one was not so long ago, but for the moment I prefer it that way. Still I also will keep the pile of fragments I created in the last years. This will also include the old Index, as I still think that it is actually a nice work result, but just not what it was supposed to be. Once again I can just say, Stay tuned and this time I really hope that there will be some nice things for you to read in the future.

The Bauhaus Connection (Germany, Israel, Japan, Netherlands)

2019 marks the centenary of the foundation of the Bauhaus. Although the Bauhaus was just a small part of the modern architecture movement in Europa, it is still interested to see how many famous examples of modern architecture have a connection to the Bauhaus or one of its architects. Therefore the modern architecture is here captioned with The Bauhaus Connection. As architectural history is not one of my main themes, I mainly oriented myself by the UNESCO World Heritage List. If you think that I have missed any important example of European pre-war modern architecture in this post please tell me in a comment.

While preparing this post I realised that I still miss things about some famous example of modern architecture in my collection. If anybody could help me with stamps or postcards about these things I would love to swap: Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp, Complexe du Capitole in Chandigarh, Musterhaus am Horn in Weimar, Neues Frankfurt, Tugendhat Villa in Brno, Unité d’habitation in Marseille.

Walter Gropius, who later founded the Bauhaus, was born in 1883 in Berlin. His great-uncle was the architect Martin Gropius, who is famous for his representative buildings in the style of the Historism. At the age of twenty, in 1903, Walter Gropius began his studies of architecture in Berlin, which he continued in Munich in 1906, but which he terminated without graduation in 1908. His biggest problem was the drawing of blueprints.

Nonetheless Gropius was able to begin working at the architect's office of Peter Behrens in the same year. Peter Behrens was known for his industrial buildings and is today considered as the first industrial designer in history, as he designed the entire corporate identity for the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG). His most famous building is the AEG Turbine Factory in Berlin. Beside this, Behrens' importance for the modern architecture is also justified by his architect's office, which became a working place for many now World-famous young architects. These architects include beside Walter Gropius also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Adolf Meyer.

After working for Peter Behrens for two years, Walter Gropius went into business for himself in 1910. The most famous building of this early independent period is the Fagus Factory, a shoe last factory in the small town of Alfeld in modern day Lower Saxony. It was commissioned by its owner Carl Benscheidt and was designed by Walter Gropius together with Adolf Meyer between 1911 and 1925. It is considered to be a landmark in the development of modern architecture and industrial design and still today it is used for the production of shoe lasts, although also a museum was established in a part of the complex and although it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2011.

In 1917 a movement of artists and architects emerged in the Dutch of Leiden, which would later have an important influence on the architecture of the Bauhaus - De Stijl. Proponents of De Stijl advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour. Theo van Doesburg, one of the movement's most important members, later even moved to Weimar. Without a permanent position at the Bauhaus he still held architectural lectures and influenced the students and professors.

The most famous example of the De Stijl architecture is the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht. It was commissioned by Ms Truus Schröder-Schräder as family house and was designed by the architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld. It was built in 1924.

UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000

In 1919 the Weimar Saxon Grand Ducal Art School and the Weimar Academy of Fine Art were merged to form a new school. The school became known as Bauhaus and Walter Gropius became its first director. The Bauhaus soon gathered outstanding architects, artists, craftsman and designers. Its aim was to unite art and craft and shape and function for the creation of a functional total artwork for the mankind in the industrial age. Based on the fundamental courses (Josef Albers, Johannes Itten, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy) the Bauhaus offered for example courses in printing (Lyonel Feininger), pottery making (Gerhard Marcks), weaving (Georg Muche), mural art (Wassily Wandinsky), glass painting (Paul Klee) and sculpting (Oskar Schlemmer). The students, which included many foreigners and women, were encouraged to become both artists and craftsmen.

Due to the pressure of conservative parts in the Thuringian government the Bauhaus had to present its first exhibition in 1923. Although the professors thought it would be too early, the exhibition became a success. The main product of the exhibition was the Musterhaus am Horn, the first real Bauhaus-style building which was created as collaboration of the different courses.

Also after the exhibition the pressure of the Thuringian government did not decrease, in fact they even reduced the funding in 1924 and terminated the professors' contracts for 1925, which forced the Bauhaus to find a new home. This new home was found in Dessau, which had a liberal city council and where the aircraft manufacturer Hugo Junkers offered financial help. In Dessau the Bauhaus had its heyday. There many new pieces of furniture were designed and the cooperation with the industry began. Also the most famous Bauhaus-style buildings, the Bauhaus Building and the Masters' Houses, were built in Dessau.

In 1927 Walter Gropius designed two houses for the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart. The Weissenhof Estate was built for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition and was an international showcase of modern architecture. All together it included 21 houses, which were designed by 17 European architects. The estate in Stuttgart became the first in a series of six, which are currently trying to get the European Heritage Label (EDIT: They got the label in 2019!).

Another famous architect who was involved in the Weissenhof Estate was Le Corbusier. In 2016 17 projects by Le Corbusier in seven countries were inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List as The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement.

One of Le Corbusier's two houses at the Weissenhof Estate

Le Corbusier's National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo

In 1928 Walter Gropius resigned as director of the Bauhaus. The new director became the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer. Meyer intensified the cooperation with the industry and focused more on architecture. One of the most famous buildings designed by Hannes Meyer is the ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau bei Berlin.

One of the big problems of the Weimar Republic was the acute shortage of affordable housing. During Hannes Meyer's time as director the Bauhaus took part in a project in Dessau, which tried to produce relief - the Dessau-Törten Housing Estate. It was conceived as a solution for cost-effective mass housing.

Another important modern housing estate of that time was the Großsiedlung Siemensstadt, which was built with the participation of Walter Gropius in Berlin between 1929 and 1931. Unlike the other significant public housing projects of the time, which were produced under government sponsorship, the Siemensstadt was constructed by a private housing cooperative as worker housing for Siemens' nearby electrical factory. The Siemensstadt is the youngest of the six Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2008.

After Hannes Meyer had become the new director, he shifted the orientation of the school further to the left than it had been under Gropius, which resulted in conflicts with Dessau's city council. In 1930 Meyer was fired by the city's mayor. His successor became Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but at this time the days of the Bauhaus were already numbered. In 1932 the NSDAP gained control in the city council and proceeded to close the Bauhaus. Rohe tried to save the school by moving it to Berlin and privatising it, but after the Nazi seizure of power the school was forced to voluntarily shut down.

New National Gallery in Berlin (built after the war)

But the closure of the school did not bring an end to its ideas. In fact it even helped to spread them, as in the following time many members of the school emigrated. Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for example went to the USA, where they continued their teachings, and Hannes Meyer went to the Soviet Union. As many of the students were Jews, many of them later also went to Israel, where they created the White City of Tel Aviv. Still until today the Bauhaus influences architecture, art and design and during a jubilee year like 2019 this becomes even clearer again.