Valuable Third Reich Literature

[ramon]

For those English only reading collectors who may be new to the field of German stamp collecting may I suggest the following 2 publications.

The Will Payne English Companion to the Michel "Deutschland-Spezial "
Katalog there are 2 sections: 1. Germany : The Third Reich 1933- 1945 This translates the domestic German stamp issues while booklet
2. Germany: World War II Occupations, 1939-1945 covers those areas Germany occupied and established postal adminstrations..

As a person becomes more interested in these collecting areas, Scott catalogues leave much to be desired and should be supplanted by the Bible of the field, Michel's Deutschland Spezial Katalog.

Will Payne, a well known dealer in the UK, obtained permission from the Michel folks to translate and offer the English reading collector the above sections in English. While my copies are several years old, I assume they are still available. These are basic items and do much to assist the non German reading collector.

For those who can either read or are not intimidated by a lack of German reading proficiency, I would suggest the following items.

The series of Neues Handbuch der Briefmarken Kunde The following issues are very nice and provide super info for the Third Reich Stamp collector.

Handbuch B3 Deutsches Reich 1933-1935
B4 Deutsches Reich 1935-1945 Markenheftchen 1935-45

These 2 titles relied heavily upon the official Postal documents of the time and are a source for much background info in the individual issues. The illustrations are excellent. Alf Harper used much of this information in his early work The Stamps of Germany Third Reich co authored by W. Schenk and published in 1966. This booklet was to form the basis for his later work, Philately of the Third Reich published by Album Publishing out of Raleigh, NC.

The next titles are from the same Neues Handbuch series:

Issue 13 Pleskau-Ljady-Luga by Dr. H. Rommerskirchen originally published in 1963.

Issue 38 Serbien (1941/43) Kroatien by Vladimir Fleck 1968

Issue 41 Deutsche Besetzung in Frankreich 1940-45 published in 1971. Covers the German issues in Dunkirchen Lorent St. Nazaire by the longtime BPP experts Wolfgang Tust and the sadly, now deceased, Werner Pickenpack

Issue 47 Kroatien 1941- 1945 by Dr. med. Helmut Rommerskirchen and Prof. Dr. Paul-August Koch 1977 This is a super source of info on this field.

Issue 48 Inselpost by Wolf Rungas and Erich Sauer published in 1978. This is the ne plus ultra title for this field. Inselpost covers those overprinted issues given to German troops isolated on the Greek Islands early 1945.
The illustrations alone are worth the price of the book.

Issue 49 The Tunispäckchenmarke und die Palmenstempel by Franz E. Graf Kesselstatt, published 1978 Super booklet on the so called Afrika Korps stamp Also covered are the unofficial Palm handstamps. Michel's has struggled with the Palmenstempel as, strictly speaking they were not sanctioned by the German Postal authorities. Collectors love them and the prices realized by items which surface at auction are up there.

Issue 50 Kanal Deutsche Besetzung 1940/45 by Heinz Möhle and Michael Wieneke published 1979 is super for the Channel Islands postal historian.

I obtained my copies of these by writing to the Verlag für den Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e. V. Postfach 430, 4770 Soest Germany

I cannot recommend these titles highly enough for the collector of these issues. Absolutely super for writing up ones collection.

Of course there are other titles and, if asked for, I'll be happy to offer more for your consideration.


Ramon

[Jason Pipes]

Thanks for the excellent resource overview!! This is VERY helpful to me in my quest for materials regarding my new area of interest.

I for one would be very interested to know of any other resources you can recommend. I already have a Michel catalog, and I have on order Philately of the Third Reich.

Are you aware of a journal published soley on the topic of Third Reich related stamps? I'd be interested in seeking out back issues of such a publication if they exist.

Thanks again for your most excellent posting!

[ramon]

Jason,

Thanks for the kind words. While not dedicated entirely to the 3rd Reich, I would suggest you join this Society. You can visit their website. The have study groups amongst which is the 3rd Reich Study Group which publishes their own bulletin.

Can you read German?

[Jason Pipes]

I can indeed read German, although I have largely taught myself and much of my understanding is limited to technical or military writings. I'm not as good with conversational or free-flowing German.

So, is the bulletin they publish what I was likely thinking of?

What about APS (?), I noticed that Rene Chavez is listed as having published a lot in that publication. I'd be interested in getting back issues of that.

[ramon]

I don't want to short change the APS

However, for Germany, I suggest starting with the GPS first. You'll need to join and then hook up with the Third Reich Study Group. I suspect you'll have no worries obtaining back issues.

I know there are Study Groups for the various areas of interest in 3rd Reich philately. Many of these can be found on Google. Try pursuing these. Much like a trail, you start on a path and it will lead you to unexpected destinations!

TTFN