Research and Study Group Ireland
The FAI - Research and Working Group Ireland eV in the Bund Deutscher Philatelisten eV is an association that deals with Irish philately . The association, based in Munich, was founded by Frank Holzmüller on July 24, 1982 with the aim of establishing a communication and research platform for everyone in the Federal Republic of Germany interested in Irish philately . In the meantime the association has internationalized. The more than 200 members (as of 2013) come from four continents and the majority are not from Germany. Heinz-Jürgen Kumpf has been 1st Chairman of the FAI since May 2007.
The FAI maintains contacts with the other Irish philatelic associations around the world and cooperates with the Irish postal administration, An Post . The members meet regularly at regional meetings and annual general meetings in all areas of Germany.
The association publishes a member magazine, DIE HARFE, three times a year. Irish philately is covered on over 200 pages per year. The first 30 years are also available in digitized form on DVD or USB stick. The magazine is particularly concerned with Irish postal history. This includes, among other things, the old postal routes, shipments by ocean steamers, postage within Germany and, above all, abroad, and the Maltese cross stamps used in Ireland. The postal history documentation of the Irish independence movement is also an important field. The FAI continues to research the use of stamp machines, military postal history, censorship and prisoner of war mail, Irish postal stationery, international reply coupons and fiscal stamps.
The association also publishes a series of publications in which 30 volumes have appeared so far. With this series, the FAI contributes to the advancement of philatelic research in the field of postal history in Ireland. Depending on the size and printing costs, the members of the FAI receive these publications free of charge or at a special price in the year of publication.
FAI subject specialists are available to provide information to members in many areas of Irish philately.
Since the mid-1990s, all publications (both the member magazine and new publications in the series) have been completely bilingual in German and English. The publications thus represent a link between German and English-speaking philatelists and are accessible to collectors and researchers in the field of Irish philately worldwide without language barriers.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Frank Holzmüller, 15 years FAI - how it all started, or: When collectors are lonely…. In: FAI (ed.), 75 Years of Irish Stamps / 75 Years of Irish Stamps, 1922–1997. without location 1997, pp. 128–135, here p. 128.
- ↑ See Joachim Schaaf, anniversary meeting at Ammersee. In: DIE HARFE No. 99, summer 2007, pp. 50–52, here p. 51.
- ↑ 30 years DIE HARFE (No. 1–116) in digitized form. In: DIE HARFE No. 118/119, spring / summer 2012, p. 105.
- ↑ FAI series (as of December 2013).
- ↑ FAI specialist speakers (as of December 2013).
- ↑ See Otto Jung, Preface / Greetings. In: FAI (ed.): 25 Years FAI / 25 Years FAI, 1982–2007. without location 2007, pp. 5–6, here p. 6.