Freistadt Danzig Post 150th Birth Anniversary of Authur Schopenhauer - 1938

FREISTADT DANZIG POST issued on 22 February 1938  three  first day cover stamps to commemorate  the 150th birth anniversary of philosopher Authur Schopenhauer. A 10 Pf illustrated stationery postcard was issued as well. The first day cancellation postmark originated from and states Danzig Schopenhauer Gedenkfeier.

The postage stamps of 'Schopenhauer' from the Free City of Danzig (in values of 15 Pf, 25 Pf and 40 Pf) were designed by Danzig painter and graphic artist Max Buchholz.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) was a German philosopher born in Danzig. He is best known for his 1818 work "The World as Will and Representation" (expanded in 1844), which characterises the phenomenal world as the product of a blind noumenal will. His work has been described as an exemplary manifestation of philosophical pessimism.

Although his work failed to garner substantial attention during his lifetime, Schopenhauer had a posthumous impact across various disciplines, including philosophy, literature, and science. His writing on aesthetics, morality, and psychology influenced many thinkers and artists. Those who have cited his influence include philosophers Emil Cioran, Friedrich Nietzsche and Ludwig Wittgenstein, scientists Erwin Schrödinger and Albert Einstein, psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, writers Leo Tolstoy, Herman Melville, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Machado de Assis, Jorge Luis Borges, Marcel Proust and Samuel Beckett, and composers Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Arnold Schoenberg and Gustav Mahler.

That said, I personally do not subscribe to Schopenhauer's philosophy. My interest in these stamps is purely philatelic, as these were among the last postage stamps issued by Freistadt Danzig before it was incorporated into the Third Reich. The stamps and postcard also command a premium price among stamp collectors.

Oesterreich Post Great Austrian art exhibition in the Viennese Künstlerhaus

OESTERREICH POST on 20 June 1947 issued a series of surtax stamps entitled "Great Austrian art exhibition in the Viennese Künstlerhaus".

"Österreichische Ausstellung in London" (Austrian Exhibition in London) which took place from 12th June till 5th July 1947. The stamps were postmarked "LONDON 1 WIEN 1 17.7.47" and "IM MESSEPALA" (in the Exhibition Palace). The cover was addressed to Mr. C.W. Nearn in Bexleyheath, Kent, England. 

The stamps depicted:
   - Corvinus cup (15th century)
   - Fountain figure "Providentia" by Raphael Donner
   - Benedictine monastery, Melk
   - Wife of Dr. Brante of Vienna
 - Farmer with children at window; Painting by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
   - Vienna, main gate of Belvedere Palace
   - Nymph Egeria at the Schlossbrunnen in Schönbrunn
   - National Library of Vienna
   - Workshop of the engraver Ernst Rohm; Lithograph by Ferdinand
   - Girl with straw hat; Painting by Friedrich von Amerling

Deutsche Post 100th Anniversary of the International Aerospace Exhibition in Frankfurt

DEUTSCHE POST issued in 2009 this commemorative  stamp marking the 100th anniversary of the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Frankfurt (Germany). It depicted a zeppelin, biplane and balloon against the background of the Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew in Frankfurt.

USPS “Early Football Heroes” -- Walter Camp and Bronko Nagurski

 

USPS (United States Postal Service) issued four stamps on 8 August 2003, honoring “Early Football Heroes”, which  included Walter Camp (founder of American football), Bronko Nagurski (Chicago Bears), as well as Red Grange (Chicago Bears) and Ernie Nevers (Duluth Eskimos & Chicago Cardinals). The official release was at the College Football Hall of Fame at South Bend, Indiana.

Netherlands 40th Anniversary of Liberation during WWII

THE NETHERLANDS issued a set of four first day cover stamps to mark the 40th Anniversary of Liberation from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

Stamps included:
- 50 Ct - Dutch Resistance in the Netherlands
- 60 Ct - Allied Liberation of the Netherlands
- 65 Ct - Holocaust Internees from the Netherlands
- 70 Ct - East Indies Dutch Nationals at the Burma-Thai (Death) Railway

 

 

Hellenic Post "National Resistance 1941-1944"

 

HELLENIC POST on 8 November 1982 issued a First Day Cover set of eight stamps dedicated to "National Resistance 1941-1944" against Nazi Germany. The cachet is an engraved woodcut by artist Loukia Maggiorou showing Greek independence fighters and WWII antifascist partisans.

The horizontal and vertical designs included:

-   1d, Demonstration of 24 Mararch 1942.
-   2d, Sacrifice of Inhabitants of Kalavrita, by S. Vasiliou.
-   5d, Resistance Fighters in Thrace, by A. Tassos.
-   9d, The Start of the Resistance in Crete, by P. Gravalos.
- 12d, Partisan Men and Women, by P. Gravalos.
- 21d, Blowing Up a Bridge, by A. Tassos.
- 30d, Fighters at a Barricade, by G. Skaliotis.
- 50d, The Fight in Northern Greece, by V. Katraki.

Freistadt Danzig Scientific Innovators 1938 with Cancellation 1939

FREISTADT DANZIG (FREE CITY STATE OF DANZIG)  released  a set of three commemorative stamps on 29th April 1938, the final postage stamps issued in the independent Freistadt Danzig. They were issued to honour the achievements of the scientific innovators of the nation.

The stamps of 10 pfennig, 15 pfennig and 25 pfennig depicted Gregor Mendel, Dr. Robert Koch, and Wilhelm Roentgen respectively, along with their famous statements.

In September 1939, these would be the final postage stamps of Freistadt Danzig, as the sovereign city state was incorporated into the German Reich and after this date the postage stamps of the Third Reich were used in Danzig and its surrounding areas.

This postcard is quite unique in that not only are these the very stamps affixed to it, the cancellation postmark contains the propaganda message "Greetings from Adolf Hitler, Leader and Liberator," which is fitting when one considers a photo of Hitler is shown on the front of the card. It is dated 19 September 1939, 17 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 2 September.

Freistadt Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and nearly 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 after the end of World War I.

The Free City of Danzig existed less than two decades, i.e. from November 1920 to November 1939. Meanwhile, the state issued postage stamps which have their own story. The first indigenous stamps were printed on 31st January 1921. Approximately 18 years later, the nation issued its last postage stamps.

After WWII, those Germans who had fled Danzig were forcefully expelled and repopulated with Polish citizens. That said, the city state of Gdansk (as it later became known in Poland) remained underpopulated well into the 1950s.

Disclaimer: In displaying these stamps and postcard I must stress I DO NOT advocate, NOR wish to glorify the regime of Nazi Germany or any present day fascist organization/state. My sole intent is to illustrate the philatelic history of the period, one which I personally believe to have been evil and as such a plight in the history of Germany and their satellite allies at the time.

La Poste France 20th Anniversary of Armistice and Liberation of Paris 1944

TWO DIFFERENT EVENTS are depicted in this rather unique postcard: 1) American General Omar Bradley and troops are seen parading through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris  on 29 August 1944; 2) the 1938 La Poste France postage stamp commemorates the 20th Anniversary of the Cessation of WWI, yet the cancellation postmark states Musée Carnavalet (the oldest museum in Paris) and the date appears to be 11 November 1944 -- 26th Anniversary of the Armistice. Nevertheless, LIBERATION!!!

 

Nippon Post Jimmy Carter at Tokyo Seven Nation Economic Summit

NIPPON POST on 15 January 1975 issued to two stamps celebrating the American tour of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako. The two stamps depicted the national flags of Japan and the United States, trimmed with cherry blossoms.

The same stamps were used in 1979 when U.S. President Jimmy Carter met Japan Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira. The visit corresponded with the Tokyo Seven Nation Economic Summit, which was held on 24 June 1979. The special cachet and postmark cancellations highlighted the event.

Deutsche Post 100th Memorial Anniversary of Friedrich Nietzsche

DEUTSCHE POST on 25 August 2000 issued a 100th memorial anniversary stamp of Friedrich Nietzsche. This 110 Pfennig was designed by Elisabeth von Janota-Bzowski. The cancellation postmark for this first day cover originated from Bonn, Germany.

Friedrich Nietzsche, born on 15 October 1844 in Röcken near Lützen, was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. He died on 25 August 1900 in Weimar, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.

Nietzsche is considered to be one of the great thinkers of the 19th century who was far ahead of his time. His ambiguous work met with equally exuberant veneration as well as vehement rejection. The confrontation with the life and work of the great philosopher continues unabated more than 100 years after his demise. Nietzsche found little recognition during his lifetime, but he became the world's most widely read philosophical author after his death.  

 

Source: Deutsche Post and Wikipedia

Oesterreich Post 100th Memorial Anniversary of Peter Rosegger

OESTERREICH POST  on 26 June 2018 issued a 100th Memorial Anniversary stamp of Austrian poet/writer Peter Rosegger. He has been honoured many times in both Austrian and German postage stamps.

Peter Rosegger (original Roßegger) (1843 – 1918) was an Austrian writer and poet from Krieglach in the province of Styria. He was a son of a mountain farmer and grew up in the woodlands and mountains of Alpl. Rosegger went on to become a most prolific poet and author as well as an insightful teacher and visionary.

In his later years, he was honoured by officials from various Austrian universities and the city of Graz (the capital of Styria). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. He was nearly awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913 and is (at least among the people of Styria) something like a national treasure to this day.  

Source: Wikipedia

Deutsches Reich Plowman - 1921

 

DEUTSCHES REICH issued in 1921 a 20 Mark  stamp of a horse and ploughman.

As hyperinflation began to affect the economy of the Weimar Republic, postage stamps like this came into use. The highest hyperinflation stamp was numerical design valued at 100, 000 Marks. Imagine paying 100,000 DM for a single stamp!

Deutsches Reichpost "Danzig ist Deutsch" - 1939

DEUTSCHES REICHPOST on 18 September 1939 the Third Reich issued two stamps proclaiming "Danzig ist Deutsch".  

At the beginning of September 1939, the Danzig Nazi Party leader, Albert Forster, entered the League of Nations High Commissioner's residence and ordered him to leave the city. The Freistadt Danzig ceased to exist as an independent political entity.  The former Free City was formally incorporated into the German Third Reich as part of the newly-formed Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia.