Nicht kategorisiert Archives | BPP - Bund Philatelistischer Prüfer

Prof. Dr. Faycal El Majdoub

Expertizing area:

German occupation issues 1939/45

Albania (Michel nos. 1 – 21, I, postal stationary K 1, P1 – 6, all proofs)
Dunkirk (Michel no. 1 – 211, postal stationary U 1 – 3)
Lorient fortress (Michel no. 1 – 23, postal stationary P 1)
Saint Nazaire (Michel nos. 1 – 2, all proofs and special sheets)
Kotor (Michel nos. 1 – 10, I – IX, postal stationary P 1 – 2, all proofs and special sheets)
Macedonia (Michel nos. 1 – 8, all proofs)
Montenegro (Michel nos. 1 – 35, I – IX, postal stationary P 1)
Zante (Michel nos. 1 – 3, I)

Donation vignettes/private issues

Flemish Legion (Michel nos. I – XXIV, all proofs and special sheets)
Walloon Legion (Michel nos. I – IV, all proofs and special sheets)
Island of Brač (Michel no. I – V)
Denmark (Michel no. I – V)
France (LVF) (Michel nos. I – X, all proofs and special sheets)
Saint Nazaire (Michel nos. I – III)
National India (Michel nos. I – X, all proofs and special sheets)

Dr. Johannes Hoffner

Expertizing area:

Switzerland from 1907 (from Michel No. 95, airmail covers on request)

Dr. Klaus Kalb

Expertizing area:

SBZ – district handstamp overprints district 36 (Michel No. 166 – 181 VII)

Andreas Rolle

Expertizing area:

Federal Republic of Germany with stamp booklets and se-tenants

(bpp-gg) It was a real sensation that board member Josef Bauer announced to the eighty or so association examiners and invited guests present at the examiners’ meeting in Nuremberg on April 27, 2024: A few days earlier, the Berlin “Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation”, better known as the “Postmuseum”, and the BPP had signed a contract he had negotiated for the purchase of all postmark cancellations and postmark documents by the expertizers’ association. In the period from 1875 to the present day, an estimated 400,000 different postmark cancellations from almost all German collecting areas have been collected in Berlin and several branch offices, which are now to be digitized by the BPP and processed in a central database and will then be available to members of the BPP and the Museum Foundation for research and information purposes.

View into the hall of the general meeting (Photo: Wilhelm van Loo)

View into the hall of the general meeting (Photo: Rolf Tworek)

BPP President Christian Geigle praised the outcome of the negotiations as a milestone in the history of the association, which now has the largest existing stamp archive in addition to an extensive archive of auction catalogs from the last 75 years. “It will still take a lot of work and financial commitment before we can complete this project, but the stamp collection is invaluable for philately and especially for expertizing,” said Geigle in a statement on the fringes of the expertizers’ meeting.

First, however, the meeting welcomed two new members as expertizers for Russia (Maxime J. Citerne) and Czechoslovakia (Christian Neumann), who had convincingly passed their entrance examination the day before in front of the three-member expertizing commissions and now received the unanimous vote of the members.

The new members Maxime Citerne and Christian Neumann (Photo: Wilhelm van Loo)

In his activity report for the past financial year, President Geigle also took a critical look at recurring grounds for complaint: Excessively long audit times and the lack of communication with clients that often occurs in this context would no longer be accepted in future, but rather it would be made clear to the (few) colleagues concerned that such behavior was not only damaging to the individual, but to the entire auditors’ association. The regulations also provide for sanctions to be imposed by the Executive Board.

A further three special inspection regulations for certain areas were revised and unanimously approved, and a membership fee statute was also adopted. Finally, there were four extensions to the examination areas of BPP members, which were also unanimously approved following the positive vote of the examination commissions (see box).

Andreas Rolle (left, black shirt) in front of the examination committee (Carsten Brekenfeld, Andreas Schlegel, Peter Sem) and the representatives of the associations (Konrad Krämer/BDPh, Harald Rauhut/BDB, Wolfgang Lang/APHV) (Photo: Rolf Tworek)

A “special guest” had been announced in advance of the meeting. The secret was revealed at around midday when Dieter Mertens, a well-known thoroughbred philatelist and committed anti-counterfeiter from the relevant philately forums, took to the lectern. Under the heading “Defending the registered and protected BPP trademark”, he told the attentive audience how he has been taking action against trademark infringements on the Internet on behalf of and in cooperation with the BPP for over a year and a half. The focus is on the well-known sales platforms (expressly without “Philasearch” of the APHV member of the same name!) with their great abundance of dubious, sometimes criminal offers. Wherever “certified BPP” is advertised, but it is actually a forgery of a certification mark or a non-BPP certification mark, this is a trademark infringement which, in the case of commercial sellers who have often attracted negative attention, leads to a warning letter with an associated declaration to cease and desist with a penalty clause. Due to the high level of recognition of the BPP trademark and the associated high brand value, even the first legal letter costs of over 2,500.00 euros are due. In the event of a repeat offense, severe contractual penalties are added, so that warning costs of over 10,000.00 euros are quickly incurred. Mr. Mertens’ “regular customers” during this time were “Colonnaden-Fischer” from Hamburg and Arnold Kemmerer from Johannesberg, who recently passed away.

Dieter Mertens’ conclusion after an hour of highly interesting descriptions: Trademark law is a sharp sword in the fight against counterfeiters and fraudsters and catches them exactly where it hurts them: in the wallet. The audience was delighted to hear this, as in the past they all too often felt powerless in the fight against counterfeiting. Now, however, a good way seems to have been found, especially as the APHV is doing something similar on the basis of competition law. Its president, Wolfgang Lang, described the cooperation between the APHV and BPP as “exemplary”.

There was a surprise for Treasurer and Managing Director Gunnar Gruber when Lars Böttger presented him with the Silver Medal of Merit of the LV Südwest.

Gunnar Gruber (r.), awarded the Silver Medal of Merit of the LV Südwest by Lars Boettger (Photo: Wilhelm van Loo)

As harmoniously as the examiners’ meeting had begun, it also ended at 5 pm. Two hours later, the festive evening awaited the participants with an excellent Italian buffet. At night, they met in the hotel bar for a cozy chat, and on Sunday morning it was time to say goodbye.

Vice President Dr. Peter Provinsky was delighted with the exclusively positive, sometimes enthusiastic approval of the BPP members for the acquisition of the stamp collection. “I had a slightly queasy feeling about spending a large amount of money by our standards without informing our members in advance. I think the one hundred percent approval of this project is great, as it shows that we have done everything right,” said Dr. Provinsky, “for me this was the absolute highlight of this year’s meeting!”