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The Pleasure of Collecting.

African Ethnic Stamps and Postcards

A Ethnic view of Africa. The Richness and Beauty of African Culture and People.

Germany - History On Stamps

100 years of German History told in Stamps, Letters and Postcards.

French Stamps

The Culture and the History of France in Stamps.

The Virtual Art Museum

The Art in Stamps. Painting, Sculpture and Art Personalities in a Virtual Philatelic Museum.

Mar 24, 2013

Stamps of France: French Provisional Government Pages



New pages from "Stamps of France" collection. The "1944/46 French Provisional Government" is the new theme on-line. Visit the new pages.

Novas páginas da colecção "Stamps of France". O "Governo Provisório Francês de 1944/1946" é o novo tema agora disponibilizado neste blog. Visite as novas páginas.

Stamps of France: 1044/46 Provisional Government

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

(1944 – 1946)


 
Preamble
Charles de Gaulle (a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II) rejected the armistice concluded by Maréchal Philippe Pétain and Nazi Germany, and had escaped to Britain, exhorted the French to resist in his BBC broadcast "Appeal of 18 June" (Appel du 18 juin), which had a stirring effect on morale throughout France and its colonies, though initially relatively few French forces responded to De Gaulle's call.


The Free French Forces, individuals or military units who joined "Free France", fought Axis and Vichy troops, and served on battlefronts everywhere from the Middle East to Indochina and North Africa. They remained a small force until 1942, by which time an underground anti-Nazi Résistance movement had sprung up in France.

In his efforts to obtain the support of the Résistance, de Gaulle changed the name of his movement to "Forces Françaises Combattantes" (Fighting French Forces) and sent his emissary Jean Moulin to France to try to unify all the various Résistance groups in France under de Gaulle's leadership. Moulin came close to accomplishing this in May 1943 with his establishment of the Conseil Nationale de la Résistance (National Council of the Resistance).

In June 1943 a Comité Français de Libération Nationale (French Committee of National Liberation) was constituted in Algiers, with Giraud and de Gaulle as its joint presidents. But de Gaulle soon outmaneuvered Giraud, whose resignation in the spring of 1944 left de Gaulle in supreme control of the entire French war effort outside of Metropolitan France. More and more Résistance groups were meanwhile acknowledging de Gaulle's leadership.

In August 1944 the Free French 1st Army, under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, took part in the Allies' invasion of southern France, driving thence northeastward into Alsace before joining in the Western Allies' final thrust into Germany. The Résistance groups, now organized as Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur (French Forces of the Interior), mounted an anti-German insurrection in Paris, and the Free French 2nd Armoured Division under General Jacques-Philippe Leclerc drove into Paris to consummate the liberation. On Aug. 26, 1944, de Gaulle entered Paris in triumph.
The Provisional Government
The Provisional Government of the French Republic (Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Française or GPRF) was an interim government which governed France from 1944 to 1946, following the fall of Vichy France and prior to the Fourth French Republic.

Following the Battle of France in 1940, the state of Vichy France was established under the rule of Philippe Pétain. However, after Operation Overlord (code name for the Battle of Normandy), the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Falaise pocket (the siege of the Allied forces to Nazi Germany in Normandy, in 12-21 August 1944), the Vichy regime dissolved. Then, as the Allied front lines moved through France, jurisdiction was seized by the provisional government under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle, from 1944 to 1946.

With most of the political class discredited and containing many members who had more or less collaborated with the enemy, Gaullism and Communism became the most popular political forces in France.

The GPRF was dominated by the "tripartisme" alliance, between the French Communist Party (PCF), the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party) and the Christian democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP), led by Georges Bidault.

This alliance between the three political parties lasted until the May 1947 crisis during which Maurice Thorez, vice-premier, and four other Communist ministers were expelled from the government, both in France and in Italy. Along with the acceptance of the Marshall Plan, refused by countries that had fallen under the influence of the USSR, this marked the official beginning of the Cold War in these countries.


The provisional government considered that the Vichy government had been unconstitutional and that all its actions had thus been illegal. All statutes, laws, regulations and decisions by the Vichy government were thus made null and void. However, since mass cancellation of all decisions taken by Vichy, including many that could have been taken as well by republican governments, was impractical, it was decided that any repeal was to be expressly acknowledged by the government. A number of laws and acts were however explicitly repealed, including all constitutional acts, all laws discriminating against Jews, all acts against "secret societies" (e.g. Freemasons), and all acts creating special tribunals.

Collaborationist paramilitary and political organizations, such as the Milice and the Service d'ordre légionnaire, were also disbanded.

The provisional government also took steps to replace local governments, including governments that had been suppressed by the Vichy regime, through new elections or by extending the terms of those who had been elected no later than 1939.

Meanwhile, negotiations took place over the proposed new constitution, which was to be put to a referendum. De Gaulle advocated a presidential system of government, and criticized the reinstatement of what he pejoratively called "the parties system".


De Gaulle resigned in January 1946 and was replaced by Félix Gouin (SFIO). Ultimately only the French Communist Party (PCF) and the socialist SFIO supported the draft constitution, which envisaged a form of government based on unicameralism, but this was rejected in the referendum of 5 May 1946.

A new draft of the Constitution was written, which this time proposed the establishment of a bicameral form of government. Léon Blum (SFIO) headed the GPRF from 1946 to 1947.

After a new legislative election in June 1946, the Christian democrat Georges Bidault assumed leadership of the Cabinet.

Despite de Gaulle's so-called discourse of Bayeux of 16 June 1946 in which he denounced the new institutions, the new draft was approved by the French people, with 53% of voters voting in favor (with an abstention rate of 31%) in the referendum held on 13 October 1946.

This culminated in the establishment in the following year of the French Fourth Republic.

Mar 17, 2013

Germany On Stamps: Third Reich - 1938 Pages


New stamps, letters and postcards from Third Reich. The 1938 pages are now on-line.

Novos selos, cartas e postais do Terceiro Reich. As páginas de 1938 estão agora disponíveis.


Mar 9, 2013

Stamps of France: Louis XIV

LOUIS XIV

(5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715)

 

Louis XIV, known as Louis the Great or "le Roi-Solei" (the Sun King), was born in the Chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, about 19 km of Paris, and died in Versailles, France. He was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. He holds the distinction of being the longest-reigning king in European history, reigning for 72 years and 110 days.

Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661 after the death of his chief minister, the Italian Cardinal Mazarin. Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling the noble elite to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during Louis' minority. By these means he consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French Revolution.

During Louis's reign, France was the leading European power and fought three major wars: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession—and two minor conflicts—the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions.

Few rulers in world history have commemorated themselves as Louis. He used the arts and court ritual to demonstrate, augment and maintain his control over France. Louis encouraged and benefited from the work of prominent political, military and cultural figures such as Mazarin, Colbert, Turenne and Vauban, as well as Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles and Claude Perrault, and Le Nôtre.

It was his great Palace of Versailles, with its gardens, architecture, interior design and works of art that Louis sought to visually represent the absolute power of the monarchy. Under the King's close supervision, Le Brun finalised the decoration of the Hall of Mirrors, which retraced the important accomplishments of Louis's reign.

With his support, Colbert established from the beginning of Louis's personal reign a centralised and institutionalised system for creating and perpetuating the royal image. The King was thus portrayed largely in majesty or at war, notably against Spain. This portrayal of the monarch was to be found in numerous media of artistic expression, such as painting, sculpture, theatre, dance, music, and the almanacs which diffused royal propaganda to the population at large.

Stamps of France: Louis II

 LOUIS II, PRINCE OF CONDÉ

(8 September 1621 – 11 December 1686)

 



Louis II of Bourbon-Condé, Prince of Condé, was born in Paris and died in Fontainebleau, France. He was a French general and the most famous representative of the Condé branch of the House of Bourbon. Prior to his father's death in 1646, he was styled the Duke of Enghien. For his military prowess he was renowned as le Grand Condé.


The Grand Condé carries the titles of Prince de Condé, Duke de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, Duke of Montmorency, Duke of Chateauroux, Duke of Bellegarde, Duke of Fronsac, Governor of Berry, Count of Sancerre (1646-1686), Count of Charolais (from 1684), Peer of France, and the first blood prince.

It is on his military character that the Grand Condé's fame rests. Condé was equally brilliant in his first battle and in his last. 

In 1643 his success at the Battle of Rocroi, in which he led the French army to an unexpected and decisive victory over the Spanish, established him as a great general and popular hero in France. Together with the Marshal de Turenne he led the French to victory in the Thirty Years' War.

After the defeat of the Fronde (Franco-Spanish civil war) he entered Spanish service and led their armies against France. He returned to France only after the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, but soon received military commands again.

Condé conquered the Franche-Comté during the War of Devolution and led the French armies in the Franco-Dutch War together with Turenne. His last campaign was in 1675, taking command after Turenne had been killed, repelling an invasion of an imperial army.

He is regarded as one of the premier generals in world history, whose masterpiece, the Battle of Rocroi, is still studied by students of military strategy.

Mar 8, 2013

Stamps of France: Jules Hardouin-Mansart

JULES HARDOUIN-MANSART

(16 April 1646 – 11 May 1708)

 

Jules Hardouin-Mansart was born in Paris and died at Marly-le Roi, in France. He was a French architect whose work is generally considered to be the apex of French Baroque architecture, representing the power and grandeur of Louis XIV. Hardouin-Mansart was one of the most important European architects of the 17th century.


Hardouin-Mansart became the "surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi" (Superintendent of royal works). He designed all the extensions and rebuildings at Versailles for the King, including the north and south wings, the Royal Chapel (with Robert de Cotte, 1710), and the celebrated Hall of Mirrors decorated by Charles Le Brun, his collaborator.

Outside the château proper, he built the Grand Trianon and the Orangerie, as well as subsidiary royal dwellings not far away, such as the Château de Marly (begun in 1679).

Among his other best-known works, in Paris, are the Pont-Royal, the Église Saint-Roch, the Invalides great domed royal chapel Église du Dôme des Invalides dedicated to Saint Louis (designed in 1680), the Place des Victoires (1684–86) followed by the Place Vendôme (1690).

His most prominent position in France put him in place to create many of the significant monuments of the period, and to set the tone for the restrained French Late Baroque architectural style.

Stamps of France: Languedoc


LANGUEDOC

 


Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. The province of Languedoc covered an area of approximately 42,700 km² (16,490 sq. miles) in the central part of southern France, roughly the region between the Rhone River (border with Provence) and the Garonne River (border with Gascony), extending northwards to the Cévennes and the Massif Central (border with Auvergne).

Languedoc corresponds to the origin countries of Languedoc annexed to the royal domain in the thirteenth century. Its extent was then reduced to the former province of Languedoc (a region where people speak Occitan).

Today, the territory of the former province of Languedoc corresponds mainly to the French regions of Midi-Pyrenees and Languedoc-Roussillon, which correspond respectively to the former Upper and Lower Languedoc, and also in the Rhone-Alpes, with the Ardèche and Auvergne region with part of the Haute-Loire. The Languedoc is part of the Occitania.
Coat-of-Arms
The Occitan cross — also cross of Occitania, cross of Languedoc, cross of Forcalquier and Toulouse cross — is the symbol of Occitania. It was first used as such, probably, in the coat-of-arms of the counts of Forcalquier in Provence, and then by the counts of Toulouse in the traditional territory of Languedoc and later spread to the other provinces of the country, namely Provence, Guyenne, Gascony, Dauphiné, Auvergne and Limousin.

A yellow Occitan cross on a blood-red background with the seven-armed golden star of the Felibritge makes up the flag of modern-day Occitania. It can also be found in the emblems of Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc-Roussillon and Hautes-Alpes, among many others, as well as in cemeteries and at country crossroads.

The Occitan cross is technically described as "mouthed and hollowed out, with keys (or paws) and golden spheres". It's still the object of a dispute among experts as to whether its first appearance in Occitania was in Provence or Languedoc.

Mar 7, 2013

Stamps of France: Orléanais

ORLÉANAIS

 


Orléanais is one of the old French provinces and is situating around the cities of Orleans, Chartres and Blois. It comprised not only the territory of the original count ship and the later duchy of Orléans but also a number of adjacent lands. In terms of modern départements it includes most of Loiret, Loir-et-Cher, and Eure-et-Loir, with parts of Essonne, Seine-et-Marne, and Sarthe.

The name Orléanais comes from Orléans, its main city and traditional capital. The province was one of those into which France was divided before the French Revolution of 1789.

It lay on both banks of the River Loire, and for ecclesiastical purposes formed the diocese of Orléans. It was in the possession of the Capet family before the advent of Hugh Capet to the throne of France in 987, and in 1344 Philip VI gave it with the title of duke to Philip of Valois, one of his younger sons. In a geographical sense the region around Orléans is sometimes known as the Orléanais, but this is somewhat smaller than the former province.

Orléanais was also a dialect of the French language spoken in the province of Orléanais until the beginning of the 19th century.
Coat-of-Arms
Coat-of-Arms of the Duchy of Orléans: of blue with three flowers of golden lilies and a silver label. It belongs to the second, third and fourth houses of Orléans.
House of Orléans
Orléans is the name used by several branches of the Royal House of France, all descended in the legitimate male line from the dynasty's founder, Hugh Capet. The fourth and last remaining house of Orléans now descends from Philip of France, Duke of Orléans.

Stamps of France - Lyonnais

LYONNAIS


 


The Lyonnais is a historical province of France which owes its name to the city of Lyon. It's located in the southeast of the present department of the Rhone.

The geographical area known as the Lyonnais became part of the Kingdom of Burgundy after the division of the Carolingian Empire. The disintegration of Imperial control, especially after the fall of the Hohenstaufens in 1254, led to French encroachment and eventual acquisition by King Philip IV of France in 1313. Lyonnais now often simply refers to the area around the city of Lyon.

Lyonnais was itself subdivided into three provinces:
  • The "Plat pays de Lyonnais", which corresponds to the "Monts du Lyonnais";

  • The city of Lyon;

  • Franc-Lyonnais, situated in north of Lyon, along the River Saone.

Two other provinces formed the Lyon with the Government of Lyonnais: Forez and Beaujolais.
Coat-of-Arms
"Gules, an argent lion, chief Azure, charged with three gold lilies flowers".

The arms are those of the city of Lyon.

Mar 2, 2013

Germany On Stamps: New Marienwerder Stamps


New Stamps from Marienwerder with Overprint "Comission Interalliée Marienwerder".

Novos Selos de Marienwerder com Impressão Sobreposta "Comission Interalliée Marienwerder".  


Germany On Stamps: Marienwerder History

MARIENWERDER

(KWIDZYN)





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."