Gallery

 

Abschnitten
There are two organizations in this German Philatelic World that deserve our support:
one is, of course, the reason for this study groupTs existence — the G.P.S. There is also another that deserves your participation. That is the Germany & Colonies Philatelic Society, who parallel and augment our studies in England. Send an addressed envelope to Dr. Jason Manchester, P.O.Box 3128, Columbus, OH 43210 in the U.S. for more details

The line spot illustrations in this Report are from a small book acquired in a book store in Gdansk (not as easy as you think — 5 stores netted one book describing the city. What a disappointment for us and loss of revenue for them!). The book was illustrated by an Anna Biernat and is called “Sladami Gdanskich Zabytkow”. The descriptions of all of the major buildings is by Hanna Domanska and is in Polish. Here’s where we utilize the services of our good friend Wojciech Kruczkowski.

Another new—found friend of Danzig, met in Newcastle, is David Kerr, who reminded us of a question asked many moons ago: Who has seen any covers from U.S. naval ships in the Danzig harbor during the 1920’s? David sent us this copy of a cover posted from the U.S.S.Pittsburgh, a cruiser, dated 28 August 1923, with DANZIG/FREE CITY as part of the postmark! Can you imagine the consternation of the sailors’ attempting to buy something to take home with the inflation price for goods in the billions? The only mark on the back of the cover is a pencilled notation “Pittsburgh 18a”, which Dave assumes to be a catalog reference to naval postmarks. Any suggestions for other 1920’s covers?

In the November 1988 issue of the German Postal Specialist, editor Austin Dulin said “I want to tell you something of my philosophy. Our hobby has a tremendous amount of literature - probably more than any other avocation. If you are content to follow whereothers lead, there are many “lifetimes” of collecting information available. But, if you want to break new ground, or critique what others have written, it isn’t enough. You need to read histories, geographies, social commentaries and even novels to develop taste and feel for the times. Then you can look at a cover or document that nobody has ever written about and be able to speculate as to why and how - to understand its significance. You can find clues that set you looking for material that others have ignored. You can multiply your enjoyment of this wonderful hobby of ours...my idea of what is philatelic is rather broad.” Amen, Austin!

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 61 - October - November - December - 1988, Page 22.