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As of 31 December 2024, the following BPP association auditors have duly ended their auditing activities:

Hans Enger, expertising area: Norway

Peter Harlos, expertising areas: Württemberg – “Wohnungsbau”-stamps; Germany – “Notopfer”-stamps

Wolfgang Windel, expertising area: Haiti

We would like to thank all three colleagues for decades of successful expertising in the BPP, wish them all the best for the future and are pleased that all three will continue to be senior members of the BPP. Andreas Rolle and Andreas Wehner are available for the ‘Württemberg – “Wohnungsbau”-stamps’ expertising area, and Andreas Rolle for the ‘Germany – “Notopfer”-stamps’ expertising area. The ‘Norway’ and ‘Haiti’ expertising areas will remain vacant for the time being.

Ulrike ‘Uli’ Berger, the wife of our honorary member Florian Berger, passed away unexpectedly for all of us on 14 December 2024. The Berger couple not only ran their examination office for various Old German areas very successfully for decades, but also supported the BPP for many years in the training and examination of young examiners. The term ‘Limburg’ was coined for the obligatory preliminary examinations of new applicants because these examinations were held every year for a whole weekend at the Berger family’s premises near Limburg. Uli Berger was a great hostess who made it easier for the often excited candidates to face the exam with coffee, tea and cake. Everyone involved will have fond memories of the delicious home-cooked lunch.

We are very grateful to Uli Berger for her support of the BPP. Florian Berger has always emphasised that he could not have achieved his life’s work without the help of his wife. We wish him all the very best and will always remember his wonderful wife fondly.

The address of examiner Wenyi Zhang (People’s Republic of China Mi. 1-265) has changed as follows:

Bayerische Str. 10, 10707 Berlin

On October 12, 2024, our long-time member Wolfgang Jakubek passed away at the age of 94. Since 1973, he had examined the old German states of Bergedorf, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the famous “Vineta Provisional” of the German Empire and the United States of America in the BPP. After thirty years, he ended his active examination activities, but remained closely associated with the association for many years.

The “fireside evenings” in the foyer of the conference hotel at the annual examiners’ conference are unforgettable. Wolfgang Jakubek and his closest expertizer friend Hans-Georg Schlegel sat in front of a large and enthusiastic audience, who listened to Jakubek’s witty remarks from his eventful life as a professional philatelist. Schlegel Senior acted as the keynote speaker – the whole thing could go on well into the night without getting boring for even a second. Wolfgang Jakubek was a gifted entertainer, and the description of him as the “Harald Juhnke of philately” was very apt.

In recent years, things had become quieter around “Mister Mauritius”. He had earned this title by selling some of the famous blue and red Mauritius stamps, which he wrote about in detail and in his unmistakable style in his perhaps best book “Menschen, Marken und Marotten”. His eyesight was failing, but not his sharp mind. He was able to rant vigorously on the phone against the BPP and its current protagonists. Three days later, a handwritten apology arrived. You just couldn’t be angry with him.

Wolfgang Jakubek was a great figure in German and international philately. He is the last representative of a generation that started their careers in the turmoil of the Second World War. We will miss his stories. We will not forget him!