About us

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 2015 with the same content again at the general meeting 2017 by a local notary public.

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

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).

Unanimous decision to merge the ArGe Estonia and the ForGe Lithuania.

Unanimous decision to merge ForGe Lithuania and ArGe Estonia.

Philatelic Baltic tour, organized by ForGe Lithuania, with over 60 destinations in the Baltic States in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

See reports in the Eesti Post No. 59 p. 42–44, by Erika Feustel on p. 64–68 in the same issue and the illustrated travel report on this web.

Commissioning of the Executive Board to prepare the merger of ForGe Lithuania and ArGe Estonia.

After 10 years at the helm of the ArGe, Dr Peter Feustel stepped down; the General Assembly elected Thomas Löbbering as the new 1st Chair.

The other actual board members were all re-elected.

From left to right
Dr. Peter Feustel (old Chairman), Lothar Blank (Treasurer), Nils Ehrich (Newsletter Editor), Thomas Löbbering (new Chairman) and Michael Wieneke (Managing Director)

The "4th Symposium on Latvian Postal History" in Dünaburg / Daugavapils, organised by ForGe Latvia, was integrated into another round trip from Riga through the eastern part of Latvia.

The presentations of this symposium have also been published as a book, see the bibliography in this web.

Philatelic Baltic tour, organized by ForGe Lithuania, with the destinations Vilnius, Trakai Castle, Druskininkai, Kaunas, Curonian Spit and Memel

See reports in the Lituania No. 31 p. 47–52 and the illustrated travel report on this web.

This time a philatelic round trip through Estonia was organized by the ArGe Estland. Destinations were Tallinn, the manor houses Palmse and Sagadi, Rakvere Castle, the waterfalls in Keila-Joa, Matsalu National Park, Pärnu with national stamp exhibition and especially the islands of Muhu, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa.

See 2 reports in the Eesti Post No. 45 p. 9–26 and the illustrated synoptic travel reports on this web.

The fourth trip of ForGe Latvia went to Livonia (Vidzeme) with a side trip to Pärnu / Estonia. It was again enriched with a specialist event, the "3rd Symposium on Latvian Postal History", which this time took place in Wenden / Cēsis.

In 'Philatelia Baltica' 122/2006 Marianne Baars reported on the round trip and Rolf-Dieter Jaretzky on the symposium.

The presentations of the symposium are published as a book, see the bibliography in this web.

Words of the till then acting Chairman Gerhard Hahne (Lituania 24/2015):

"The generational change that had been prepared for a long time was completed. Thanks were expressed to all those who have contributed to the development of the research community since its foundation over 10 years ago and who have helped it grow to its present size and fulfil its mission. Comprehensive newsletters and individual publications have been published – a convincing achievement!"

Gerhard Hahne and Witold Fugalewitsch relinquished their routine work and immediately promised not to retreat to retirement, but to continue working on the project free from the pressure of deadlines.

From left to right: Martin Bechstedt (Chairman), Bernhard 'Tony' Fels (Managing Director and Editor) as well as Michael Haslau (Treasurer)

In the Estonian Working Community there was a necessary change in the board in 2003, as the health of the founding board member Artur Menzen was deteriorating (he passed away a few months later).

Dr. Peter Feustel (Chairman), Thomas Bratke (2nd Chairman and Managing Director) and Carsten Witzke-Irrgang (Treasurer) were newly appointed to the Board; the Secretary Karl Lukas remained in office.

From left to right:

Max Kromm (old 2nd Chairman),
Artur Menzen (old 1st Chairman)
Dr. Peter Feustel (new 1st Chairman)

The third trip of ForGe Latvia was again complemented by a specialist event, the "2nd Symposium on Latvian Postal History" at Durbe Castle in Tukums.

Renate Rothe-Feustel wrote a detailed report on the trip through Latvia and Lithuania in 'Philatelia Baltica' 116/2003.

The presentations of the symposium are published as a book, see the bibliography in this web.

The first philatelic journey of ForGe Lithuania led through the country, but in such a way that as many motifs as possible on Lithuania's stamps (castles, churches, monuments...) were visited.

The report in the Lituania Nr. 16 p. 1053–1063 lists at least 53 such targets.

The very first documented philatelic journey from Germany to Lithuania was undertaken by Martin Bechstedt alone.

His report in the Lituania Nr. 16 p. 1049–1052 and the coloured illustrations in his travel report in this web report "only" from Kaunas, but since this was and is a diverse city, it seems as if one has visited much more than just one place.

Only 3 months after the foundation of the Lithuanian Research Community the first issue of the newsletter 'Lituania' was published.

The complete edition is available – as well as all other numbers – on our media page as PDF for download.

From the first article of 'Lituania' No. 1/1994:

"Research alone is not enough. Its results must be published, otherwise the accumulated knowledge will be lost. This is the reason for the existence of our merger. That is also the reason, why the cash of the Research Foundation is only used for the newsletter."

Gerhard Hahne (Uetze) was elected chairman, Witolf Fugalewitsch (Schlesen) took over the Office of the editor and Bernhard Fels (Soest) became managing director.

Wolfgang
Watzke

Oswald
Wolf

Harry
v. Hofmann

After Harry v. Hoffmann had resigned from the leadership of the Research Foundation in 1988 due to internal differences and activities were then severely restricted, 'a few stalwarts' (Watzke in Philatelia Baltica No. 93) met in Hennef/Sieg in mid 1991 and early 1992 to resume work in the Research Foundation.

Only 2 months after the foundation of the Estonian Consortium the first issue of the newsletter 'Eesti Post' was published.

The complete edition is available – as well as all other numbers – on our media page as PDF for download.

On the occasion of the Rank 3 exhibition BALTICA '85 in Soest, which this weekend was "the Mecca of philatelists of the Baltic collecting area" (Menzen in: Eesti Post No. 1) the ArGe Estland was founded. Arthur Menzen was elected chairman.

The standard of the exhibition was relatively high: there were 11 x gold, 11 x vermeil, 10 x silver and 2 x silver bronze; Estonian exhibits were disproportionately represented.

Only a few months after the formal foundation of the Filatelistengroep, Wim Muller and Ruud van Wijnen were able to send out the first issue of the newsletter with the same name, 'Het Baltische Gebied', which was now published every six months.

The issues of HBG are available for download as PDF on our media page.

As early as 1981, after worldwide invitation by Arthur Menzen, a first meeting of 23 Estonia philatelists was held in Dortmund. Further meetings followed in Ratzeburg, Würzburg and Karlsruhe.

Rolf
Jacobsen

Rolf Jacobsen had already taken over the leadership of the working group from the increasingly blind Dr Schroeder in 1954. Jacobsen was able to establish connections with Latvian philatelists in the then Soviet Union and thus make valuable knowledge public in the West as well. Jacobsen died unexpectedly in 1963.

In October 1963, the publication work was continued by Harry v. Hofmann (who also took over the leadership of the working group) with the newsletter No. 35, in order to support the research and dissemination of knowledge about the postal history of Latvia.

Six years after the end of World War II, well-known philatelists at the time such as Dr. Victor Meyer-Brehm (a philatelic publicist and author of the column "Letter from Latvia"), Dr. Arthur Schroeder (known for his book "Check the Forgeries") and Eng. Ernst Becker (author of the Becker Stamp Tables) initiated the foundation of the Latvia Working Group.

At that time, one assumed a "closed collection area"; of course, nobody foresaw a later regaining of independence of Baltic countries.

The first newsletters, sent from 1952, were laboriously typed out by hand, later duplications via wax matrices were added.

Dr. Arthur
Schroeder