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The BPP mourns the loss of its Honorary President Dr. Hans-Karl Penning, who has passed away at the age of 83. He had joined the BPP in 1981 and examined numerous areas of German local issues and Saxonian blackenings until 2021. Dr. Penning was elected Treasurer as early as 1990 and succeeded Günter Bechtold as President in 1999. For a total of twelve years, Dr. Penning led the expertizers’ association in his own calm and considered manner, which earned him great trust and the highest esteem throughout German philately. He brought order and clarity to the association’s regulations, which were initially incomplete and not always perfectly formulated, reformed the philatelic definitions, introduced new attestation guidelines and worked with great dedication on the two-stage admission procedure for new members, through which the self-imposed quality standards for the examinations were and are kept high. In 2011, Dr. Penning handed over his office to his successor Christian Geigle. The award of the Köhler Medal and his election as Honorary President of the BPP recognized his outstanding services to the examination system.

Dr. Penning himself was also a dedicated collector with impressive knowledge, which he presented to an interested readership in numerous publications. In 2008, he wrote the book “50 Jahre Philatelistischer Prüfer” (50 Years of the German Philatelic Experts’ Association), a fascinating outline of all the ups and downs of the expertizing business in Germany.

Dr. Hans-Karl Penning has shaped the BPP like hardly any other member. We are extremely grateful to him for this. This includes his dear wife Hiltraut, who always supported him and accompanied her husband to the general meeting every year. It was there that rebellious colleagues would get to hear a few words from her.

Dr. Hans-Karl Penning passed away on 1 March 2025. Our condolences go to his wife and family, who accompanied him admirably in the last years of his life. We will always remember him fondly.

The first major stamp fair of the year was once again a successful event with many dealers, working groups and visitors thanks to the perfect organization of APHV Chairman Wolfgang Lang.

Accordingly, around 140 visitors were keen to present their stamps and collections at the BPP e.V. stand. In addition to advice on “genuine or false”, the question of the expertizers responsible for the collecting area and questions about the utilization of inherited and/or accumulated collections were central topics.

The BPP e.V. with expertizers from the various collecting areas will therefore continue to be present in the future for the benefit of collectors. This includes, for example, the stamp fair in Löhne/Westphalia and the Southwest Fair in Ulm.

(BPP) In April 2024, the BPP was able to acquire the archive of German postmarks, estimated at 500,000 to 600,000 postmarks, which had been collected over decades in the “Post & Telekommunikation” museum foundation and brought to Berlin from various storage locations throughout Germany. On January 30 and 31, 2025, twelve BPP members (and the wife of the Vice President) actively helped to lift this treasure and pack it for transportation.

A look at the ever-fuller pallets

By the end of the second working day, almost 600 boxes had been stacked on a total of twelve Euro pallets, labeled according to area and content and recorded on the computer. The project manager, board member Josef Bauer, was visibly relieved that the project went off without a hitch: “The colleagues did a great job and worked with the utmost care, there were no problems whatsoever. What’s more, everyone was delighted to gain a first insight into this unique stroke of luck for the testing industry.”

Happy faces while packing the stamp inserts

A big thank you goes to the responsible employee at the foundation, Mr. Thomas Kahlbom, who helped with advice and support at all times on both days. The head of the foundation, Dr. Veit Didczuneit, was also an interested observer of the goings-on in his depot and fortified the team with an afternoon coffee, which everyone gratefully enjoyed.

The BPP has thus taken the first step on the long journey towards the complete digitization of its stamp collection. “We will now carefully consider which sub-area we want to start digitization with. With the help of AI-based individual software, we hope to find a feasible and, above all, affordable way to scan and read the stamps and store them in a database in such a way that our examiners can easily find all the stamps they are interested in and use them for their work,” said President Christian Geigle in his closing address to the somewhat tired helpers.

The participants all agreed on one thing: these two days together were great fun. Even if the arms got longer and longer at the end…

The team (from left to right): Andreas Schlegel, Michael Haslau, Michael Ehrig, Carsten Brekenfeld, Ariane Provinsky, Christian Geigle, Dr. Peter Provinsky, Dr. Michael Jasch, Thomas Kahlbom (Foundation employee), Oliver Estelmann, Josef Bauer, Hans-Dieter Schlegel, Dr. Karsten Ruscher (Andreas Rolle is missing)

The following of our examiners will be available at the stand:

Saturday, 01.03.: Detlef Pfeiffer and Dieter Weinbuch, in the afternoon additionally Arnold Goller

Sunday, 02.03.: Detlef Pfeiffer and Maximilian Lummer

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.