About us

We achieved 87 points (3rd place out of 13 in the "Websites" category) and 86 points (7th place out of 26 in the "Newsletters, Magazines" category) and thus two gold medals in the 5th BDPh ArGe Literature Competition 2024 with the ArGe Baltikum.

We were also successful with third place in the "Websites" category of the Rauhut Prize for Literature 2024.

The MARE BALTICUM 2024, organized by ArGe member Oliver Hanschmidt, was a great success in many respects and a fantastic experience (s. reports)!

There were Large Vermeil medals for the BALTIKUM and the web, other ArGe members were awarded 1 x Gold, 6 x Large Vermeil, 6 x Vermeil, 1 x Large Silver and 1 x Silver.

The second edition of Martin Bechstedt's book 'Dated Postmarks of the Independent Estonia since 1991 – Overwiev and Standardization' was expanded by about 50 pages, revised and structured according to the 11 types that have since been defined. Current developments such as the opening and closing of post offices or KANDEKESKUS distribution centres have been included.

It was completed in time for the author to take part in the MARE BALTICUM 2024 literary competition.

At the German-Brazilian competition exhibition DEBRA 2024, the BALTIKUM and the ArGe's web were awarded gold medals at a national exhibition (in rank 1) for the first time.

Of 59 print literature exhibits, 13 had more than our 86 points for BALTIKUM, and of 8 digital literature exhibits, none had more than our 87 points for the web. Apart from ours, no other exhibits on the Baltic States were represented.

Daumantas Kyulkis's book about the collections of the Lithuanian Maritime Museum, published in 2023, appeared with two different title pages, but the same content.

It presents the museum's most beautiful and interesting philatelic objects: stamps, postal items, as well as important events, incidents, personalities and ships.

In 2023, Oliver Hanschmidt published a handbook of Estonian railway postmarks from 1918–1944.

It included all known railway postal lines and illustrations of the feather cancellation and postmarks, as far as they were known to the author.

At the international FIP competition in connection with the philatelic world exhibition IBRA 2023 in Essen, Germany, the ArGe Baltikum achieved Large–Silver for the magazine BALTIKUM and Large–Vermeil for the web of the ArGe.

In total, 2 x Gold, 9 x Large–Vermeil, 4 x Vermeil and 2 x Large–Silver were awarded for exhibits of the Baltic States, of which 9 awards were for members of the ArGe.

The ArGe Baltikum website is one of the 5 finalists for the "Francis Kiddle Medal for the most innovative website 2023" of the FEPA (Federation of European Philatelic Associations, the umbrella organisation of the European national philatelic associations).

Visitors to the FEPA website suggested nominations for the medal, from which the FEPA board ultimately selected the medal winner and four runners-up, including ArGe Baltikum.

Two great Lithuanian philatelists from our working group were honoured by the Bund Deutscher Philatelisten (BDPh) at the 2023 general meeting in Hennef for "services to research and literature":

Bernhard 'Tony' Fels (Vermeil pin because it was his third honour) and Martin Bechstedt (Bronze pin for the first honour).

At the 4th Literature Exhibition of the BDPh 2022, the ArGe achieved the following results with 4 exhibits:

1 x Gold

2 x Large Vermeil

1 x Vermeil

The cooperation started in 2018 and 2019 with HBG, Rossica and ArGe Deutsche Ostgebiete, including journal exchange, was continued from 2022 with the Lithuanian Philatelic Society (LPS) in Chicago/USA with members active worldwide.

BALTIKUM Zeitschrift für Philatelie und Postgeschichte (Journal for Philately and Postal History), the newsletter of the Baltic Working Group, was also published in English from issue 13 / 2022 (as PDF file, not printed). The previously published issues appeared in the months that followed.

The English edition did not contain any illustrations, but the texts, image captions and bibliographical references of the original articles, so that together with the German-language edition they were an (almost) full substitute for a complete publication in English.

At the General Meeting 2022, elections to the Executive Board of the Baltic Working Community were held in rotation.

After Thomas Löbbering and Michael Wieneke did not stand for re-election for private reasons, Torsten Berndt was elected as the new 1st Chairman and Martin Bechstedt as his Deputy; Michael Haslau (Treasurer) and Friedhelm Doell (Webmaster) were re-elected.

A companion book to the online database of 'Daily Postmarks of the Independent Republic of Lithuania since 1990', which has been online for a year, with explanations of the postmarks, devices and impressions by Martin Bechstedt and Bernhard ‘Tony’ Fels, is being published in print.

The digital online database provides a complete overview of the known postmarks, including images and validity periods.

See also the publications page on this web.

The daily postmarks of the independent Republic of Lithuania since 1990 is the subject of a database application by Martin Bechstedt and Bernhard 'Tony' Fels that contains several thousand postmark entries and is freely accessible to everyone on the Internet.

See also the publications page on this web.

On May 1, 2021, the ArGe Baltikum met for its first Digital Regulars' Table. The meetings will be held as Zoom meetings at monthly intervals .

The web of the Arge with a wide range of information about the Baltic States, the philatelic treasures of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and about the ArGe itself is now also available worldwide in English.

Das Web der Arge mit vielfältigen Informationen über das Baltikum, die philatelistischen Schätze Estlands, Lettlands und Litauens und über die ArGe selbst ist ab sofort weltweit auch auf Englisch verfügbar.

A compilation was published by ArGe Baltikum as auxiliary guide No.3 Cancels continued to use from 1944/45 in the Baltics compiled by Martin Bechstedt, Thomas Löbbering and Ruud van Wijnen with a total of 372 cancels from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

See also page publications in this web.

In 2020, the year of the corona pandemic, the Baltic Working Group took part in the first International Competition Exhibition ESTONIA 2020 in Tartu / Estonia and achieved excellent results in the literature class:

BALTIKUM: Vermeil (83 points)
arge-baltikum.de: Large Vermeil (87 points)

See also the Palmares of the organizing association REFS Estonia.

Our Arbeitsgemeinschaft Baltikum e.V. im BDPh e.V. faced the competition for the 7th Christoph Gärtner International Philatelic Promotion Award in the three categories print, digital and youth and achieved the following ranking in the top third of all participants worldwide:

Print: 13th place out of 39 participants (78.667 out of 100 points)
Digital: 9th place out of 44 participants (25.333 of 30 points)
Youth: 27th place out of 44 participants (12.667 out of 20 points)

See also cg-award.com/2019_en.php

The ArGe Baltikum is expanding its cooperation with other philatelic associations. Now there is also a digital exchange of circulars with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Deutschen Ostgebiete e.V., a study group of the "Postmark Guild" in the BDPh e.V.

A reprint of the Verzeichnis der Post-, Telegraphen-, Telefon- und Funkeinrichtungen Estlands (List of Postal, Telegraph, Telephone and Radio Equipment of Estonia) of 1926 and 1929 with an introduction to the contents and the translation into German of all Estonian terms used was published as auxiliary guide No. 2 of the ArGe Baltikum.

See also the page working aids on this web

At the general meeting on 2019, the regular elections for the executive board of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Baltikum took place.

Michael Haslau was elected as the new treasurer (Tobias Huylmans resigned from the board). Friedhelm Doell (webmaster), Michael Wieneke (managing secretary) and Thomas Löbbering (chairman and editor) were re-elected.

An elaboration on the topic The Administrative Reform in Estonia 2017 by the author Friedhelm Doell appears as auxiliary guide No.1 of the ArGe Baltikum.

See also the page publications on this web

At the 2nd (1st grade = national) ArGe Literature Exhibition Sindelfingen 2018, we faced the national competition within the Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e.V. as a working group with the website www.arge-baltikum.de and the BALTIKUM magazine

Among 34 working groups with 87 exhibits, both our website with 80 out of 100 points and our magazine with 83 out of 100 points achieved Large Vermeil.

ArGe member Gerhard Dreher publishes the postmark handbook Postgebiet Oberbefehlshaber Ost as volume 8 of the publication series of the Bund Philatelistischer Prüfer e.V.

See also the archive pages of 2018 on this web.

At the general meeting 2018 of the ArGe Baltikum, the rules of procedure of the ArGe were adopted, which formally supplements the statutes already adopted in 2017.

All formalities in connection with the foundation of the ArGe Baltikum have now been completed.

In 2018, ArGe Baltic member Martin Bechstedt publishes the first manual on the date stamps of independent Estonia since 1991.

See also the literature references on this web.

The ArGe Baltikum agrees on a cooperation with the Dutch Filatelistengroep 'Het Baltische Gebied' and the US-American collectors' association 'Rossica': with immediate effect the latest editions of the HBG and ROSSICA will be offered to the members of the ArGe Baltikum free of charge as PDF files; in return the members of the two other associations will receive the latest editions of the BALTIKUM as PDF files.

The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Baltikum e.V. took an excellent 5th place in the international competition for the Christoph Gärtner Award 2017.

In four categories - Print Media, Digital Media, Youth, Promotion of Young People and Public Relations and Innovative Ideas - the ArGe scored a total of 83.67 points and thus also won prize money of €600 for the association's treasury at the awards ceremony at the Monacophil 2017.

See also www.cg-award.com/2017_en.php

On September 12, 2017, the Siegburg District Court entered the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Baltikum as a registered association (e.V.) in the local register of associations. Thus the legal merger process of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Estland e.V. with the Forschungsgemeinschaft Litauen e.V. and the integration of the Forschungsgemeinschaft Lettland,member of BDPh was successfully completed.

The decision of the Higher Regional Court of Celle of January 15, 2017, according to which the merger of registered associations must be accompanied by a notary public at the general meeting and not in the office, resulted in the working group signing the merger documents of October 31, 2015 with the same content again at the general meeting on May 20, 2017 by a local notary public.

At the same time the statutes of the ArGe were finally adopted.

ArGe Baltic member Wilhelm van Loo, former BPP examiner for Kurland, publishes his decades of knowledge in 2016 in the handbook Postverkehr Kurland (1944–1945).

See also the literature references on this web.

On May 10, 2016, the website of the ArGe Baltikum was opened to the public.

Only a few days later, on May 15, Baltikum No. 1/2016 went to press.

It was even reported in a Japanese stamp newspaper in early September.

ArGe Baltic member Tobias Huylmans, BPP examiner for Lithuania and Memel, publishes a new stamp manual of the Memel area 1920–1925 in 2015, which he has provided with additional information on the localities and with ratings.

See also the literature references on this web.

The ArGe Baltikum members Martin Bechstedt and Vytautas Fugalevicius (Witold Fugalewitsch) complete the series of the Lithuania Stamp Manuals by a volume 4 with the standard stamps and provisional cancellations 1918–1940/41.

See also the literature references on this web.

Notarial certification of the merger of the ArGe Estland with the ForGe Litauen to the ArGe Baltikum by the board members authorised to represent the company.

Clockwise: Thomas Löbbering (Chairman of ArGe Estonia), Martin Bechstedt (Chairman ForGe Lithuania), Bernhard 'Tony' Fels (Managing Director ForGe Lithuania), Lothar Blank (Treasurer of the Estonian Working Group), Michael Wieneke (Managing Director of the Estonian Working Group).