Gallery

JOSEF GOLDBERGER

The 1934 advertisement shown below appeared in the exploded Danzig booklets printed in Report No. 11. Later on, in Report No. 13, we questioned the whereabouts of the originator of the advertisement, Josef Goldberger. We have received a reply from Heinz Pauli and are pleased that these details of Mr. Goldberger’s life are available to us:

In Report No. 13, Mr. Josef Goldberger is mentioned, and you weren’t sure whether he’s alive or not. Here’s the answer: Mr. Goldberger died on the 27th of September 1966, in Melbourne, Australia, after a short illness. He was born in Austria and served in the Austrian army, where he was promoted to a K & K Lieutenant. After World War I, he came to Danzig where he opened a stamp dealer store in Langfuhr. The issues of the catalog for the “International Philatelische Austellung” in Danzig in 1929 was mostly his work. He was a member of the Committee of Honor for WIPA 1933, OSTROPA 1935, and PEXIP 1937. In the year 1937, he had to flee to France, leaving all his (1517) stamp material in Danzig. After trials lasting for years, he got back a small part of his Danzig collection. In 1946, Mr Goldberger came via Port Said, Djibouti to Saigon, and in 1947 via Singapore, Sumatra and Sidney finally to Melbourne, where he opened again a stamp dealer store, although a very small one. After a few years, he became the only distributor for the Zumstein, Michel, Yvert & Tellier issues and the magazine “The Holy Land Philatelist’ in Australia. A few days before his death, he said to his wife, “The stamps are keeping me alive”. Mr. Goldberger is dead, but he is still living in our collections of air mail, Zeppelin covers and booklets. As you know, he sent the Zeppelin covers to the foreign German consulates. Because of that, he received an advise by the “Auswärtiges Amt” of Germany, also for the book of Danzig Postal History and the essays of the 1929 exhibition catalog.

 

Danzig Report  Nr. 19 – 2nd Quarter 1978, Page 3.