France: Paris with EU Stamp

On 22nd January I got four postcards: one from France, one from Germany and two from Austria.

The card from France shows multiple views of Paris.

I already got many cards from Paris, but the backside makes this one special. First let's look at the postmark. It wishes good luck for the new year 2022, shows a portrait of Napoleon and is from the Île-d'Aix. On this small isle in the Atlantic Napoleon spent his last days in France before he was sent to exile on Saint Helena. The nice stamp, that is still one of my favourites of 2022, honours the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. I like to collect the stamps about these presidencies, but the only ones that I got on time were Austria 2018 and Germany 2020, although I also got a few more sent after the presidencies had already ended. This stamp was issued on 11th January, so this stamp was actually cancelled ten days before its issue date.

Thank You very much William!

Austria: Viennese and Ludwig Wittgenstein

On 22nd January I got four postcards: two from Austria, one from France and one from Germany.

One of the cards from Austria shows some German words and their Viennese translations.

The stamp shows Ludwig Wittgenstein (issued 19-01-2022). Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century and worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language. During his life his only published book was the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, but more was released pothumously and his estate is nowadays part of the Memory of the World Programme of the UNESCO. The Tractatus was by the way originally published in 1921, but in 1922 the first English translation was published, so this stamp actually commemorates a jubilee.

Thank You very much Anita!

Austria: Carriages

On 22nd January I got four postcards: two from Austria, one from France and one from Germany.

One of the cards from Austria shows two funeral carriages. 

A friendlier type of carriage is shown on the superb souvenir sheet, a historic mail carriage. It was issued on 19th January 2022.

Thank You very much Anita!

Germany: Church of the Holy Spirit in Wolfsburg

On 22nd January I got four postcards: one from Germany, two from Austria and one from France.

The card from Germany shows the Church of the Holy Spirit in Wolfsburg. This church was designed by the famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and is part of the Alvar Aalto Route of the Council of Europe.

I had bought this card in Wolfsburg and got this special postmark.

Italy: Crespi d'Adda

On 20th January I got two postcards: one from Italy and one from China.

The card from Italy shows a view of Crespi d'Adda. Crespi d'Adda is an outstanding example of the 19th and early 20th-century company towns built in Europa and North America by enlightened industrialists to meet the workers' needs. It is since 1995 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Like many other countries Italy usually issues religious and secular Christmas stamps. Both stamps of 2021, issued on 1st December, were used on this card.

Thank You very much Marco!

China: Giant Panda

On 20th January I got two postcards: one from China and one from Italy.

The card from China shows a Giant Panda. I love those animals, is there anything more to say?

Two stamps about Chinese New Year were used here. Those are however not the ones popular with collectors, but the greetings stamps.

Thank You very much Mo!

German Stamps of January 2022 on Covers

On 19th January I got four covers from Germany on which I had used the first German stamps of 2022 issued on 3rd January, what now already feels like it was ages ago.

The first stamp shows Otto Braun for his 150th birthday. Braun was a German Social Democratic politician who served as Prime Minister of Prussia in the 1920s and until 1932. He turned Prussia into a stronghold of democracy in the Weimar Republic and due to that was forced until exile when the Nazis took power. I really like the design of this stamp using the image from an old election poster.

The next stamp shows David Bowie on the occasion of his 75th birthday. A good reason for a stamp, right? I do not really know much about Bowie's oeuvre, but in January I watched the 1986 film Labyrinth and liked it very much. 

Another birthday is honoured on this stamp, the 200th birthday of Heinrich Schliemann, the man best known for discovering Troy.

After three men also a woman's birthday was honoured with a stamp, the 225th birthday of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. She was a famous German authoress.

The cover looks a bit damaged, because it was used to ship this little book: a Reclam version of Droste-Hülshoff's Die Judenbuche with stamp and postmark affixed on the front side. A unique item maybe.

On the same day arrived also these two prepaid covers issued on the same day as the stamps. They are about two 20th anniversaries, the death anniversary of Astrid Lindgren and the introduction of the Euro.