9th February 1933 News in Brief - Gersfeld Screenshot 2024-02-18 at 10.15.49.png Screenshot 2024-02-18 at 10.15.49.png 1/1 ← Previous Next → 'Terror in Gersfeld' Article from the C.V.-Zeitung , 9th February 1933, p.41. Based in Berlin and with a circulation of 40,000 - 60,000 copies (c.1935), it was the most popular political weekly amongst German Jews. The paper reported on Jewish life in German society and addressed the topic of antisemitism. 'Over the course of the last week the windows of various Jewish families in Gersfeld were smashed. Moreover, a Jewish businessman who gave chase when the windows were shattered was stabbed with a knife and seriously injured. The perpetrators fled but left behind a cap and gloves, so that one can expect them to be identified. Larger riots broke out on the evening of Saturday 4 February. The leader of the NSDAP, the carpenter Heun [William Heun (b.1894); joined the NSDAP in 1930], called on his followers at the marketplace to fetch the Jewish inhabitants from their houses. The fanaticised multitude hereupon marched to the house of the respected businessman Bachrach from the Liebstadter company. [Correctly: Sally Bacharach (b.1881); lived from 1909 in Gersfeld and moved to Fulda in March 1934 with his wife, Ida]. Three National Socialists forced entry into the house and injured the unsuspecting businessman Bachrach, who was sitting with his family, with punches and kicks that were so severe that he collapsed and required medical attention. The barbarous attack is all the more incomprehensible since businessman Bachrach has never been active politically and enjoyed widespread popularity both personally and in business.' Gruner, 2019, p.85 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

29th November 1937 Heinrich Köhler 29th November 1937 Heinrich Köhler 29.11.1937 Heinrich Kohler reverse.jpeg 29.11.1937 Heinrich Kohler reverse.jpeg 1/1 Return addressed cover sent by a book dealer in Munich to the philatelic auction house of Heinrich Kohler. Postage stamps featured include W123 from MHB 61. Ref: 29.11.1937 Heinrich Köhler Source : heinrich-koehler.de It was Wednesday 23 April 1913, at 2-30 pm: the festive hall of the House of Artists on the Bellevuestrasse in Berlin fills with people. Both the participants and the curious want to see the sensation of the day - the first general stamp auction in Germany. This first auction was an extraordinary success for Heinrich Koehler and the auction house that he founded. An important centre of world philately had come into being - and the company flourished in the years that followed. The most famous collectors of the time, Philippe la Renotière von Ferrary, Baron Rothschild and Fabergé, the celebrated court jeweller of the Russian Tsars, visit the firm in Berlin. Many other important collectors become Koehler's close personal friends: Gaston Nehrlich, Lichtenstein, Weinberger and Oberländer. King George V, and King Carol II of Romania are illustrious guests and customers of the Heinrich Koehler auction house. And not without reason - most of the large collections of the day were auctioned by Heinrich Koehler. Heinrich Koehler achieved worldwide recognition and was a member of important international organisations, also the Expert Committee of the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL). He was also invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in England - being the second German, after Munk, to achieve this honour. The seizure of power by National Socialism meant an enormous drop in the activities of Heinrich Koehler - from now on the international public largely stayed away. Nevertheless, he was able to hold important auctions before the outbreak of war and also in the early years of the world war - but it was no longer his time. His death on 22nd August 1945 was a huge loss for German and international philately. When he died, he and the philatelic world could look back on 116 auctions containing countless superb items. With the death of Heinrich Koehler an era of philately and philatelic auctions came to an end - though one would hardly like to mention this against the background of world events which overshadowed the evening of his life. Heinrich Koehler's widow Anna, supported a little later by her daughter Henriette Grosse-Heinrich Koehler, nevertheless took over the tasks - in some respects difficult tasks - associated with their inheritance and decided to continue the Heinrich Koehler auction house. Berlin was destroyed. In 1948 the principal building at Friedrichstrasse 166 was requisitioned. Anna Koehler moved the company's headquarters to Wiesbaden, where there were family connections. Eventually, on 19th May 1949 they were finally able to hold the 124th Heinrich Koehler auction, the first at the Nassauer Hof in Wiesbaden. In doing so they began a new era for the auction house, continuing of a tradition whereby Germany stood for values very different from those which the country had embodied from 1933 to 1945. Commercial cover sent from Heinrich Köhler. Featuring a block of 5 & 12 Pf stamps (Mi.468 and Mi.487) taken from booklet sheet MHB 30. The booklet sheet was produced for the Hindenburg 1933 booklet and the block shown on cover may well have been part of H-Pane 77. Ref: 23.04.1934 - 15/93 Further reference: As the son of the opera singer Bernhard Köhler and his wife Ida, he grew up first in Darmstadt and later in Leipzig from 1883 to 1892. He attended school in Leipzig and was a member of the Thomanerchor. He later attended a high school in Cologne until around 1896. In 1897 he began an apprenticeship with the Cologne stamp dealer August Wilhelm Drahn. After completing his apprenticeship, Köhler went on a trip to Nicaragua with his cousin Josef Rener. After returning in April 1901, he worked as a stamp dealer in Cologne for three years. With Gérard Gilbert he founded the company Gilbert & Köhler in Paris at the end of 1903. On 7th October 1904, Köhler married Anna Rener. They had two children together: daughter Renée, born on 26th November 1907, and another daughter named Henriette, born on 17th October 1909, both in Paris. In the 1920s, Köhler had a relationship with his secretary Lina Bereiter. This also resulted in a daughter. Gilbert & Köhler began auctions in 1908. They held 40 auctions until the beginning of 1913, then they separated. Heinrich Köhler started anew in Berlin and held his first auction there on 13th April 1913 and founded the Heinrich Köhler stamp auction house. By the end of the Second World War there would be a total of 116. Famous collectors of their time, such as Philipp von Ferrary , Baron Rothschild and House of Fabergé Agathon Fabergé, the court jeweler of the Russian Tsar, visited him in Berlin. Other well-known collectors became his friends, such as Gaston Nehrlich, Alfred Lichtenstein, Consul Weinberger and Oberländer. King George V, Carol II of Romania , and Simon Wiesenthal, were guests and customers of the Heinrich Köhler auction house. Köhler dealt intensively with counterfeits and counterfeiters. In 1925 he opened an official testing center after years of issuing reports on stamps purchased from his company. In 1925/1926 he managed to convict Rudolf Siegel, a well-known Berlin auctioneer, of distributing and producing counterfeits. In 1926 he developed a 'test stamp system'. In the 1930s he was a member of the associations' supervisory board. Köhler's company was the official auctioneer of IPOSTA Berlin in 1930. He had also worked as a sworn expert for the Berlin Courts (Regional Courts I, II and III) and as a publicly appointed expert for the IHK Berlin. Köhler owned a large collection of forgeries, in which the forgeries of Goegg-Mercier, Hirschburger, Fournier's predecessor and successor, and many 'Ferrarities', but also Fouré forgeries, were documented. The well-known inspector Fritz Starauschek, who later became head of the senior inspection office in the GDR, was among his employees. Heinrich Köhler had been a juror since the 1920s, adjudicating in Paris, Monaco 1928, Berlin – IPOSTA 1930, WIPA 1933, OSTROPA 1935). During the Third Reich he tried to stay out of politics. His daughter Renée had married a Jewish-Russian emigrant. The last time he saw her was at PEXIP in Paris. Köhler's business at Friedrichstrasse 166, which was badly damaged before the end of the war, was run by his wife Anna after his death, together with their younger daughter Henriette and their son-in-law Hans Schmidt, from 1948 onwards. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

6th May 1937 6th May 1937 1/0 6th May 1937 Leutstetten to 27 Queen Square, Bath Dear Madeleine! You are a perfect sweet to have sent us the Coronation programme. We are all very excited about it, as everyone is, to be sure. It would be most beautiful to see it. Perhaps we shall at some cinema. But we are sure to listen in. We did so at the funeral of King George V. And at the wedding of Marina. Many thanks also for your nice long letter. Am I not hateful not to have written for so long? But I was very busy sewing. Maybe I shall become clever in sewing. Until now I am not. The most exciting was to sew a tennis dress for Baby with a cape and all sorts of complications. It is not finished yet, but it will be very nice. Next I shall make a white organdie frock, a perfect sweet. I am quite in love with it, although I did not even start it. I was at a wedding of a friend, and it was great fun. I danced a lot. In ten days I shall assist at another. I wish everybody to marry because weddings are such immense fun. But not to be married myself. I was at Lindau for a week with Muck and Deidi. I tried to go by car, did you ever? It is very exciting and rather difficult. We have cars of our own but Pappi would never let us go by our self. He is afraid we could crash. So at Lindau we went in the car of a cousin. The most difficult is going backwards. Here we can’t play tennis, in Sarvar we have a court. But this weekend we are going to see the German champions von Cramm and Henkel playing the Austrians Count Bawarovski and Metaxa. It is about the Davis Cup. It will be awfully exciting. I love to watch tennis, bit I don’t like to play it myself. I saw some very good films “San Francisco” with Clarke Gable and Jeanette Macdonald. And “Romana” a coloured film, very nice but sentimental. And “Janeschikc” or “Love, Liberty and Treason”, a Polish film, talking German, very exciting with beautiful pictures. About a Polish highway-man and having adventures as much as the Scarlet Pimpernel. But the end is sad, he is hanged. We did not make up our minds about the holidays. I wish we would go to Belgium again. But that depends on grandma. Why don’t you go for your holidays to the Plattensee in Hungary. It is a very big lake and very warm water, always sun and good weather. It is quite near to Sarvar. I wish we would go there again very soon. But maybe we remain here till August. In Sarvar we can ride and do everything. And we have an immense garden and heaps of flowers and fruits. Here we have a dozen of apple trees which are empty before the apples are ripe. Yesterday we saw the opera Golderdammering by Wagner. It lasted 5 1⁄2 hours that is much too long. I am dreadfully untidy. The sisters send much love to all of you. I am very fond of you. Loll Right: Gottfried von Cramm. A German amateur tennis champion who won the French Open twice. He was ranked number 2 in the world in both 1934 and 1936, and number 1 in the world in 1937. He died in a car crash, Egypt 1976. He did, however, survive his fellow players of that day; Henkel played his last tournament at Bad Pyrmont in the summer of 1942, he had already received his draft notice. In the Battle of Stalingrad, Henkel was shot into the upper leg. He died of this injury on 13th January 1943. Bawarovski joined the German Wehrmacht. On December 21st 1942, when the Luftwaffe evacuated his troops from Stalingrad he ceded his place on the last flight to a heavily injured soldier and decided to stay in the trenches with his subordinates. He was hit by the Soviets and died in agony without receiving any medical help. Metaxa was drafted into the German Wehrmacht and was killed in action by American artillery fire at the town of Arnoldsweiler near Düren on 12th December 1944. Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

14th May 1946 14th May 1946 1/0 Large 'nachnahme' cover sent from Leipzig to an address in Chemnitz. Featuring 6 Pf Großrächen (Mi.43A), 12 Pf Großrächen (Mi.44C), 12 + 8 Pf Plauen (Mi.5y), and 20 Pf Sachsen (Mi.81X). Ref: 14.05.1946 - 11/18

21st December 1940 JB: Iglau (B&M) 1/1 Decorative cover and cancel for the Christmas period in 1940. Franked but not postally used (collectors cover) from Iglau - Jihlava in Bohemia and Moravia. The cover depicts the nativity scene below which is the verse , 'Hell leuchten Die kerzen am Igelstrand,/ heisz glühen die herzen in Igelland,/ Die Flammen lodern zum himmel hinauf,/ Dir deutsche heimat: Glück auf! Glück auf!' (The candles glow brightly on the hedgehog shore, the hearts in hedgehog country glow hot, the flames blaze up to the sky, to my German homeland: Good luck! Good luck!). Ref: 21.12.1940 - 17/9 The origin of the city's name (Iglau in German) is unclear. Most common theory has it derived from the German word Igel, meaning 'hedgehog', usually in reference to the city's coat of arms. However, the name was in use since before the symbol of a hedgehog was. It is more likely the city is named for the river that flows through it, the name of which is also unclear in its origin, either being derived from the German word Igel as the first theory suggests, or from Slavic word jehla (i.e. 'needle'), referring to sharp stones in the Jihlava river bed. (Source: Wikipedia) IGLAU (JIHLAVA) cancellations Iglau 1 - Jihava 1 - '2 Weihnachten in befreiten Iglau'. Hand-stamp dated 21st December (with subsequent franking of definitive stamps on 31st December). Ref: 21.12.1940 - 17/9 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

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12th July 1940 Mi.P290 1/0 See 13.09.1940 - 30/66 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

Souvenir Sheets General Purpose (C) Souvenir Sheets General Purpose (C) Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png 1/1 SOUVENIR SHEETS Without a printed date, for general purpose use (C) C12 - 'Deutsche/ Sondermarken/ im Kriege' (between two Iron Crosses) B&M Mi.85-88 (1942) C14 - 'Deutsche/ Sondermarken/ im Kriege' (between an Eagle and Iron Cross) Mi.812 C16 - 'Deutsche/ Sondermarken/ im Kriege' (between two Iron Crosses) Mi.850-853 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

17th July 1937 MHB 41 17th July 1937 MHB 41 17.07.1937 KZ24 reverse.jpeg 17.07.1937 KZ24 reverse.jpeg 1/1 Commercial cover sent from Gebrüder Schneider in Bad Kreuznach to a correspondent in Berlin. Featuring KZ24 from MHB 41. Ref: 17.07.1937 - 10/5 Stamp sequences from booklet sheet MHB 41 KZ24 (Mi.512+Z+Z+Mi.517) from MHB 41. Ref: 17.07.1937 - 10/5 KZ24 (Mi.517+Z+Z+Mi.512) from MHB 41. Ref: 27.11.1936 - 3/127 S138 (Mi.517+Mi.512+Mi.517) from MHB 41. Ref: 30.05.1937 - 15/52 W65 (A8.1+8+1) from MHB 41. A8.1, 'Support N.S. charity'. Ref: 17.02.1937 - 15/67 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

5th May 1937 SCW - Mallorca 5th May 1937 SCW - Mallorca 05.05.1937 verso.jpeg 05.05.1937 verso.jpeg 1/1 Commemorative cover featuring the image of General Franco. Sent air mail from Palma de Mallorca (local issue postage stamp for Mallorca 'Allepuz 97') to an address in Germany ('Adolf Hitlerstrasse'). Also featuring postage stamps Mi.776 (3 cts) and Mi.773 (30 cts). Ref: 05.05.1937 MALLORCA Spanish Civil War - Nationalist Local Issues 10 cms (issued 1937) - 'Cruzada Contra el Paro' (Allepuz 97, Edifil El-mal 97). Ref: 14.06.1937 Note: This stamp was issued by the authorities of the Island of Mallorca for the 'Crusade against Unemployment'. Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

14th July 1937 14th July 1937 1/0 14th July 1937 Leutstetten to 27 Queen Square, Bath Dear Madeleine, Thank you so much for your good wishes for my engagement. I am very happy, I have found the best man one can imagine and we are awaiting with impatience for the day of our marriage. We fixed it to be the 19th August. It will be at Nymphenburg, a beautiful castle at the end of Munich, where I was born and where we always lived until after the Great War. Later I will live at the south of France near Cannes. We want to pass our honeymoon in Italy. I was very glad that you are coming to Germany for the summer. If you come to Bavaria we hope to see you too one day. You could visit us in August when you are in Munich. If you come in the beginning of August I could still see you and you would also see my fiancée, only don’t come in the last days before my wedding because we would have no time then. In Bavaria there are many beautiful towns to see, Wurzburg, Nurnberg, Rothenburg, Dinkelsbuhl, that is a little town just so now as it was hundred’s of years ago, Regensburg, Landshut, Hugsburg, Lindau and Munich and you would also go in the mountains. They are grand you will see. Muck is very pleased with the book you sent her, Loll will send you some photos, it is one she took on the sailing boat of me and my fiancée. Now I am a little lonely here because he had to go back to France to get some papers for our wedding. I hope soon to hear from you again and of your plans for the summer. With my love, Deidi Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

31st July 1940 Winifred Wagner Head and shoulders portrait of Winifred Wagner. Reverse. Head and shoulders portrait of Winifred Wagner. Reverse. 1/1 Postcard photograph of Winifred Wagner, featuring her original autograph signature to the lower edge. Unused yet franked with a special cancellation for the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, 1940 (over Mi.650). Ref: Fleurs & Papillons Winifred Wagner (1897-1980) Winifred Marjorie Wagner, the English-born wife of Siegfried Wagner , the son of Richard Wagner , and ran the Bayreuth Festival after her husband's death in 1930 until the end of World War II in 1945. She was a friend and supporter of Adolf Hitler , himself a Wagner enthusiast , and she and Hitler maintained a regular correspondence. In 1923, Winifred Wagner met Adolf Hitler, who greatly admired Richard Wagner's music. When Hitler was jailed for his part in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, Wagner sent him food parcels and stationery on which Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf may have been written. Although Wagner remained personally faithful to Hitler, she denied that she ever supported the Nazi party. Her relationship with Hitler grew so close that by 1933 there were rumours of impending marriage (there were similar rumours about her love for English novelist Hugh Walpole). Haus Wahnfried , the Wagner home in Bayreuth, became Hitler's favourite retreat. Hitler gave the festival government assistance and tax-exempt status, and treated Wagner's children solicitously. According to biographer Brigitte Hamann, Wagner was reported to be 'disgusted' by Hitler's persecution of the Jews. In one notable incident, in the late 1930s, a letter from her to Hitler prevented Hedwig and Alfred Pringsheim (whose daughter Katia was married to Thomas Mann) from being arrested by the Gestapo. Alfred Pringsheim was a fan of Richard Wagner, who he corresponded with and supported financially. He was also a patron of the Bayreuth Festival. According to Gottfried Wagner, Winifred Wagner's grandson, she never admitted any error to her ways. After the war, her posthumous devotion to Hitler, whom she referred to as 'USA' – for Unser Seliger Adolf (our blessed Adolf) – remained undimmed. She corresponded with Hitler for nearly two decades. Scholars have not been allowed to see the letters, which have been kept locked away by Amélie Lafferentz, one of Winifred Wagner's grandchildren, who has insisted that they not be released until the whole family agrees to do so. Like Hitler, Wagner believed profoundly in the rite of a secular cult of German nationalism, of Nordic self-realisation, and völkisch aspiration. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, a denazification court banned her from the Bayreuth Festival, which she passed to her sons Wieland and Wolfgang. In the 1950s, she again became a political hostess. Her grandson Gottfried Wagner later recalled that, 'My aunt Friedelind was outraged when my grandmother again slowly blossomed as the first lady of right-wing groups and received political friends such as Emmy Göring , Ilse Hess , the former NPD Adolf von Thadden , Gerdy Troost , the wife of the Nazi architect and friend of Hitler Paul Ludwig Troost , the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley , the German NS-movie director Karl Ritter and the racist author and former Senator of the Reich Hans Severus Ziegler . ' She died in Überlingen , one of the best preserved medieval sites, on the shore of Lake Constance on 5th March 1980 at the age of 82 and was interred at Bayreuth. Source: Wikipedia (2024) Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page