Germany On Stamps: Third Reich - New Theme Pages

After the First Reich (or Holy Roman Empire), from 962 to 1806, and the Second Reich, from 1871 to 1918, and mainly because the humiliation which led to the fall of Emperor Wilhelm II at the end of World War I and all the impositions that the German nation had to accept unconditionally, Adolf Hitler nurtured the dream of a Third Reich, which ends up imposing in 1933, after the rise to power of his National Socialist Party, which won the electoral supremacy during the political disorder that followed the economic crisis of 1929-1930, which creates instability and favour the emergence of extremism.

Founded in 1919, in the aftermath of the humiliating Treaty of Versailles of that year - by which Germany is obliged to pay war damages to the Allies, to reduce its military and abandon the colonies -, the Nazi Party of Hitler, after the failed uprising 1923, decides to gain power through legal means. However, the relative prosperity and stability that Germany knows between 1924 and 1929 gives poor results for the Nazis elections.Are Hitler's promises to overcome the severe economic crisis of the Great Depression, the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles ("a stab in the back of Germany," he said) and the defence of German rearmament gradually to appeal to the electorate. In 1932, there was already the most representative party formation with a seat in the Reichstag (parliament), gained force with the appointment, the following year, Hitler as a chancellor, by Marshal Hindenburg.

Immediately, Hitler prepares to impose the dictatorship, abolishing the constitution of the Weimar Republic (1919-33) and all political parties except his own, passing to control the justice, media, security forces and education. Also leaves the League of Nations and the disarmament conference, reactivating the compulsory military service.

In Germany, opponents were murdered, declared or suspected; "purge" even the Nazi party, imprisoning them in concentration camps that were not settled; witnessing the flight of many Germans. The military corps of the party (SA, Sturmabteilung, and SS, Schutzstaffel) and its police (Gestapo) imposed a climate of torture and terror. With the death of Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler declares itself as der Führer (the leader), joining the presidency and the foreign ministry in his person. Political resistance disappears; many follow him, animated by its program of economic reconstruction (roads, war industry and similar to, self-sufficiency ...).

The objectives of Hitler were related to the imposition of German superiority affirmed the principle that other peoples were inferior, especially Jews (in fact, held the German economic structure, coveted by the Nazis to ensure economic reconstruction), the Slavs, Gypsies and other non-Germanic peoples. Within this framework of action, advocated the creation of a "living space" (Lebensraum) for German people, found the formula to justify the expansionism of the Reich, including in the East.

Anti-Semitism was another facet of this policy, by which Germany intended to "cleanse" the country. Thus, Hitler, in 1933, orders the expulsion of Jews from government positions. The persecution that moves them unreal outlines affects from 1935, with the abolition of citizenship rights and the flight of nearly 500 000 Jews from the country (where circulating properly identified by a yellow Star of David).

On November 9, 1938, groups will burn down the synagogues and destroy the business of the Jews, a night that has become known as the 'Night of Broken Glass' (Kristallnacht), or 'broken glass'.

At the same time, Hitler and Nazi Germany were preparing for war. Clearly violating the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, occupy the Rhineland in 1936, signing a pact with Mussolini's fascist Italy and an anti-communist agreement with the Japanese, forming, with these three nations, the Axis Rome-Berlin-Tokyo.

In March 1938, the Germans occupied Austria, attaching it to the Reich (Anschluss). That same year, they were able to occupy the Czech region, most of Germany, the Sudetenland, with the consent of England and France (Munich Agreements). What remained of Czechoslovakia is dismembered in the next year, with the German protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia tax.

In August 1939, the Reich gets more of its diplomatic hoaxes, with the agreement with USSR to its neutrality if one of the countries involved in war, and also agrees, but secretly, with the division of Poland and much of Eastern Europe between them.

On the first day of next month, however, the Germans forced the Polish border and march on Danzig, whose "corridor" wanted to join the conquering East Prussia, which triggers the Second World War (whose history is inseparable from the Hitler regime). The Third Reich was defeated and completely destroyed in the conflict, despite dominating scathingly until 1941 (Blitzkrieg).

Declaring war on several European powers, in turn, and then to USA, suffer tremendous setbacks on the Russian front: Nazi Germany is losing military strength (particularly with the Allied bombings of the country from 1943), being harassed for their borders and ending to surrender unconditionally in 1945, but after losing former territories and redefining its borders (Yalta and Potsdam agreements).

During this period of 1939-1945, the anti-Semitism is raised beyond the imaginable, are perpetrating acts of perfect insanity from about six million Jewish victims of Nazi concentration camps (Holocaust), along with more than five million Germans killed, not counting the wounded and missing, and all the brutal destruction of the country and much of Europe and the world.

By now only pages from 1933 to 1935.

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Stamps of France: Composer Jules Massenet

JULES MASSENET

(12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912)

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was born in Montaud, Loire, France, and died in Paris, France. He was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era.

Massenet worked continuously throughout his life, completing a great deal of music in addition to his 25 published operas. His approximately 250 songs often reflect the same melodic ingenuity and expressiveness that define his operatic works.

Massenet composed several song cycles, including "Poème d'Avril "(April Poem). Among the most famous are "Ouvre tes yeux bleus" (Open your blue eyes) and "Si tu veux, Mignonne" (If you wish it, sweetheart).

The composer's First Orchestral Suite premiered in 1867. This was the first of seven suites by Massenet, with programmatic subjects ranging from Alsace "Scenes Alsaciennes" (Alsatian Scenes), 1882, to Hungary "Scenes Hongroises" (Hungarian Scenes 1871), and from Shakespeare "Scenes Dramatiques" (Dramatic Scenes), 1875, to Fairyland "Scenes de Féerie" (Fairy Tale Scenes), 1881.

The most famous of his orchestral suites, "Scenes pittoresques" (Picturesque Scenes) was first performed in Paris during March of 1874. Massenet also composed several ballets, including "La Cigale", "Espada" and "Les Rosati". In addition to "Marie-Magdeleine", his oratorios include "Eve" (1875) and "La Terre Promise" (The Promised Land), 1900. He wrote a considerable amount of incidental music for plays, including "Sardou's Le Crocodile" (1886) and "Racine's Phedre" (1900). His only piano concerto was first performed in 1903.

Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas fell into almost total oblivion. Apart from "Manon" and "Werther", his works were rarely performed. However, since the mid-1970s, many operas of his such as "Thaïs" and "Esclarmonde" have undergone periodic revivals.

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Germany On Stamps: German East Africa 5Ct Postcards

Ruanda-Urundi Territory

In the First World War, Ruanda-Urundi (part of German East Africa) was conquered by forces from the Belgian Congo in 1916.

The former German colony was a Belgian suzerainty from 1916 to 1924, a League of Nations Class B Mandate from 1924 to 1945 and then a United Nations trust territory until 1962, when it became the independent states of Rwanda and Burundi.

Brief History

The independent Kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi were annexed by Germany along with the other states of the Great Lakes region in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Attached to German East Africa, the region only had a minimal German presence.

In the First World War, the area was conquered by forces from the Belgian Congo in 1916. The Treaty of Versailles divided German East Africa with the vast majority known as Tanganyika going to Great Britain. The westernmost portion, which was formally referred to as the Belgian Occupied East African Territories went to Belgium. In 1924, as the League of Nations issued a formal mandate that granted Belgium full control over the area. The territory officially became Ruanda-Urundi.

To implement their vision, the Belgians used the indigenous power structure. This consisted of a largely Tutsi ruling class controlling a mostly Hutu population. The Belgian administrators believed in the racial theories of the time and convinced themselves that the Tutsi were racially superior.

While before colonization the Hutu had played an extensive role in governance. The Belgians simplified matters by stratifying the society on racial lines. The anger at the oppression and misrule among the population was largely focused on the Tutsi elite rather than the distant colonial power. These divisions would play an important role in the decades after independence.

After the League of Nations was dissolved, the region became a United Nations trust territory in 1946. This included the promise that the Belgians would prepare the areas for independence, but the Belgians felt the area would take many decades to ready for self rule.

Independence came largely as a result of actions elsewhere. In the 1950s an independence movement arose in the Belgian Congo, and the Belgians became convinced they could no longer control the territory. In 1960, Ruanda-Urundi's larger neighbour gained its independence.

After two more years of hurried preparations the former colony became independent on July 1, 1962, broken up along traditional lines as the independent nations of Rwanda and Burundi. It took two more years before the government of the two became wholly separate.

Ruanda-Urundi 5Ct Postcards Pages // Páginas dos Postais de 5Ct do Ruanda-Urundi

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Stamps of France: Admiral Jean de Vienne

JEAN DE VIENNE

(1341–1396)

Jean de Vienne was a French knight, general and Admiral of France during the Hundred Years' War. He was born at Dole, in what is now Franche-Comté.

As a nobleman, he started his military career at the age of 19, and was made a knight at 21. By the age of 24, de Vienne was made Captain-General for the Franche-Comté. In 1373, Charles V made him "Amiral de France". Working with determination, de Vienne reorganised the navy, started an important programme of construction, created an effective coast guard, navigation police, organised watches along the coasts, and attributed licences for building and selling of ships.

Jean de Vienne was one of the first to understand that only by naval operations could serious harm be done to England. To this end he petitioned for strong support from the French monarchy and conducted several expeditions to Wight and the southern ports of England.

Between 1381 and 1385, de Vienne fought against the Flemish, notably during the Battle of Roosebeke. In pursuit of his dream of threatening the English at home, in 1385 he used a 180 ship fleet to land an army in Scotland with the intent of invading England, but the force had to withdraw.

After Charles VI succeeded his father Charles V to the Throne of France, the navy was allowed to decay, since Charles VI did not share his father's concern for naval affairs. Disappointed, de Vienne participated in the Siege of Mahdia and joined in the crusade of King Sigismund of Hungary against the Turks. He was killed during the battle of Nicopolis, in Bulgaria.

Several ships of the French Navy were named after Jean de Vienne, most notable of which include the cruiser Jean de Vienne, completed 1937, scuttled at Toulon in November 1942, and the F70 type frigate Jean de Vienne (D643), completed 1984 and currently in service.

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Stamps of France: Jean de Galaup, Count of the La Pérouse

JEAN FRANÇOIS DE GALAUP, COUNT OF THE LA PÉROUSE

(23 August 1741 – 1788 (?))

Jean François de Galaup was born at Albi, in France, and was a French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania and conducted wide-ranging explorations in the Pacific Ocean.

Commanding the ship La Boussole, which was accompanied by the Astrolabe, La Pérouse sailed from France on Aug. 1, 1785. After rounding Cape Horn, he made a stop in the South Pacific at Easter Island, in April 9, 1786.

Investigating tropical Pacific waters, he visited the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii and, with the object of locating the Northwest Passage from the Pacific, he made his way to North America. La Pérouse reached the southern shore of Alaska, near Mount Saint Elias, in June 1786 and explored the coast southward beyond San Francisco to Monterey. Then he crossed the Pacific and reached the South China coast at Macau on Jan. 3, 1787.

On April 9 he began to explore the Asian coast. He sailed through the Sea of Japan up to the Tatar Strait, which separates the mainland from the island of Sakhalin, and also visited the strait, named for him, that separates Sakhalin from Hokkaido, Japan.

At Petropavlovsk on the Siberian peninsula of Kamchatka, he dispatched his expedition journal and maps overland to France. The ships then arrive to the Navigators' (now Samoa) Islands, where the commander of the Astrolabe and 11 of his men were murdered. La Pérouse went to the Friendly (now Tonga) and Norfolk islands on his way to Botany Bay in eastern Australia, from which he departed on March 10, 1788.

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Stamps of France: Vichy France Pages

Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic. It officially called itself the French State (État Français), in contrast with the previous designation, the French Republic.

Now the Collection pages between 1940 and 1942.

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França de Vichy, Regime de Vichy, ou Governo de Vichy, são termos comuns usados para descrever o governo Francês que colaborou com as potências do Eixo, entre Julho de 1940 e Agosto de 1944. Este governo sucedeu a Terceira República e precedeu o Governo Provisório da República Francesa. Oficialmente chamado de Estado francês (État Français), contrastando a designação anterior, a República Francesa.

Agora as Páginas da Colecção entre 1940 e 1942.

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Stamps of France: Engineer André Blondel

André Blondel

(28 August 1863 – 15 November 1938)

André-Eugène Blondel was a French engineer and physicist. He is the inventor of the electromechanical oscillograph and the system of photometric units of measurement.

Blondel was born in Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France. He was employed as an engineer by the Lighthouses and Beacons Service until he retired in 1927 as its general first class inspector. He became a professor of electro technology at the School of Bridges and Highways and the School of Mines in Paris. Very early in his career he suffered immobility due to a paralysis of his legs, which confined him to his room for 27 years, but he never stopped working.

In 1899, he published Empirical Theory of Synchronous Generators which contained the basic theory of the two armature reactions (direct and transverse).

Blondel invented the bifilar and soft iron oscillographs. These instruments won the grand prize at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. He built a theory of rectification with asymmetrical electrodes. In 1892, he published a study on the coupling of synchronous generators.

In 1894 he proposed the lumen and other new measurement units for use in photometry, based on the metre and the Violle candle. He coined the names of the phot and the stilb around 1920.

Blondel was made a life member of the French Academy of Sciences in 1913. He was appointed commander of the Légion d'honneur in 1927, and was awarded the Faraday Medal in 1937. He also received the medal of the Franklin Institute, the Montefiore award and Lord Kelvin award.

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Stamps of France: Belfry of Arras

BELFRY OF ARRAS

The Belfry of Arras is a belfry built on Heroes' Square in Arras, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. From its 77 meters, it dominates the city.

The Belfry of Arras was built in the 15th and 16th centuries in Gothic style, the site of the old hall to textiles. He epitomized the flamboyant style in the belfries. The building consists of a square base, above which are organized tiered octagonal arranged in staggered rows, to give impetus to the building.

During World War I, the Belfry and an important part of the city were destroyed. The town hall burns October 7, 1915. The Belfry was destroyed on 21 (and the Cathedral on July 6th of that month). When it was rebuilding the reconstruction was made with a reinforced concrete structure by the chief architect of historical monuments Pierre Paquet along with the town hall of Arras.

The golden lion that dominates, installed under Louis XIV, with two meters high, is a replica of the original (in the Museum of Fine Arts of Arras), which has suffered bombardment during WWI. In the early 1930s, the painter Charles Joseph Constantine Hoffbauer installed on the walls of the hall of honor a large fresco (painted on canvas by 50 metres long, completed in 1932, featuring scenes from the lives of at Arras sixteenth century in a style inspired by old paintings including those by Brueghel).

The Belfry is classified in the 1840's list of Historical Monuments. After 2005, the belfry of Arras is a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the category belfries of Belgium and France.

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Stamps of France: Composer Emmanuel Chabrier

EMMANUEL CHABRIER

(January 18, 1841 – September 13, 1894)


Emmanuel Chabrier was born in Ambert (Puy-de-Dôme), a town in the Auvergne region of central France and died in Paris at the age of 53. He was a French Romantic composer and pianist.

Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, "España" (1883) and "Joyeuse marche" (1888), he left an important corpus of operas – including the increasingly popular "L'étoile"(1877) – songs, and piano music as well. These works, though small in number, are of very high quality, and he was admired by composers as diverse as Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Satie, Schmitt, Stravinsky, and the group of composers known as Les six.

Stravinsky alluded to "España" in his ballet "Petrushka"; Ravel wrote that the opening bars of "Le roi malgré lui" (1887) changed the course of harmony in France; Poulenc wrote a biography of the composer and Richard Strauss conducted the first staged performance of Chabrier's incomplete opera "Briséïs" (1897).

Chabrier was also associated with some of the leading writers and painters of his time. He was especially friendly with the painters Claude Monet and Édouard Manet, and collected Impressionist paintings before Impressionism became fashionable. A number of such paintings from his personal collection are now housed in some of the world's leading art museums.

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Germany on Stamps: Marienwerder (New pages)

MARIENWERDER - KWIDZYN HISTORY

Kwidzyn, formerly Marienwerder, is a town in northern Poland on the Liwa River. It extends over an area of 22 square kilometres, with 39 930 inhabitants, according to the 2007 census. It has been a part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999. It is the capital of Kwidzyn County.

History

The Teutonic Knights founded an Ordensburg (fortress built by crusading German military orders) castle in 1232 and a town the following year. This new settlement of Marienwerder became the seat of the Bishops of Pomesania within Prussia.

The town was populated with Masurian settlers from the Duchy of Masovia. Werner von Orseln (the 17th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order), who died in Marienburg (Malbork) in 1330, was buried in the cathedral of Marienwerder. St. Dorothea of Montau lived in Marienwerder from 1391 until her death in 1394. The rebellious Prussian Confederation was founded in Marienwerder on March 14, 1440.

In 1466, the town became a Polish fief together with the remainder of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights after their defeat in the Thirteen Years' War.

Marienwerder became part of the Duchy of Prussia, a fief of Poland, upon its creation in 1525. The duchy was inherited by the House of Hohenzollern in 1618 and was elevated to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. The town became the capital of the District of Marienwerder. After the First Partition of Poland, Marienwerder became an administrative seat of the new Prussian Province of West Prussia. The town and district were included within the government region of Marienwerder after the Napoleonic Wars.

After 1871, when Marienwerder was included in the newly created German Empire, the "Kulturkampf", a German anticlerical movement of the 19th century, was aimed mainly at Catholics. In 1885 Marienwerder had 8,079 mostly Lutheran inhabitants, many of whose trades were connected with the manufacturing of sugar, vinegar, and machines. Other trades were brewing, dairy farming, and fruit-growing.

After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles transferred most of West Prussia to the Polish Second Republic. The treaty permitted the East Prussian plebiscite in a few areas, to determine if Marienwerder would remain in Germany as part of East Prussia or join Poland. The inhabitants of the town voted on 11 July 1920 for East Prussia.

During the Weimar Republic, a Polish high school was founded in the town. On August 25, 1939, pupils of the school were deported to Nazi concentration camps.

In 1945 during World War II, Marienwerder was plundered by the Soviet Red Army. Red Army established war hospital in the town for 20,000 people. The town's old centre was burned by Soviet soldiers. The post-war Potsdam Conference placed it under Polish administration in 1945. Since then it remains as part of Poland. Burned parts of the town's old centre were dismantled to provide material for the rebuilding of Warsaw after its destruction in the Warsaw Uprising.

The Plebiscite

The Marienwerder plebiscite was a plebiscite for self-determination of the region, in accordance to the Treaty of Versailles. Prepared during early 1920, it took place on 11 July 1920. The majority of voters selected East Prussia over Poland, with about 92% of the votes.

In accordance with Articles 94 to 97 of the Treaty of Versailles, section entitled "East Prussia", the territory of the plebiscite was formed by Marienwerder (now Kwidzyn) district, which encompassed counties of Stuhm (Sztum), Rosenberg in Westpreußen (Susz) as well as parts of counties of Marienburg (Malbork), east off the Nogat River and Marienwerder (east of the Vistula River).

The treaty defined the area as "The western and northern boundary of Regierungsbezirk Allenstein (Allenstein district) to its junction with the boundary between the Kreis (district) of Oletzko (Olecko) and Angerburg (Węgorzewo); thence, the northern boundary of the Kreis of Oletzko to its junction with the old frontier of East Prussia."

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