Hans Wagner (philatelist)

Hans Wagner

Hans Wagner , differently Johannes (born September 18, 1852 in Wittenberg ; † July 21, 1940 in Frankfurt am Main ) is considered the father of the Philatelist Days.

biography

Hans Wagner, actually Johannes Wagner, was born as the son of a district judge in Wittenberg on September 18, 1852. In his hometown, he attended the Wittenberg high school from 1864 to 1871. In 1873 he became a lieutenant in a Hessian regiment in Mainz. Due to illness, he resigned from the army as a captain in 1893.

As a high school student in Wittenberg at the age of 11, he was "infected" by a friend of collecting stamps. He made an album for himself, friends and acquaintances gave him postage stamps, and so in the end he had almost all of the old German states in his collection. If you had 1200 pieces together at that time, you were already considered a great collector. Counterfeits have not yet started. For example, he bought the “Basler Däubchen” for 5 good groschen , other stamps that are unaffordable today were still dirt cheap back then.

As an officer, Wagner was able to pursue his hobby while traveling through the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, France and Italy, but his greatest experience was a trip around the world, on which he came to China, among other places. He later reported on the postal conditions there.

Hans Wagner Medal

At the age of 11, he already considered studying research reports and reading a specialist journal to be essential. As a subscriber, he bought and read the “Magazine for Postage Stamp Collectors” just released in Leipzig. Wagner himself became a prolific writer on postage stamps. From 1887 to the nineties he published articles from his research activities in the “Illustrated Briefmarken-Journal” of the Senf brothers in Leipzig , for example about his trip through China , about private postage stamps , about Luxembourg stamps , about a Bulgarian field postcard, etc. The articles are still up-to-date today about the collecting of stamps by the youth, about the desire to collect as the foreground and not the question of money, about stamp collecting and local history and the like. In addition to his collecting activities and research, his talent as a club manager and as the "father" of the Association of German-speaking Stamp Collectors Associations is to be valued. From Mainz he visited, directed and spoke on various philatelic days. In order to honor these special merits of Wagner, the Association for Postage Stamping in Mainz donated the Hans Wagner Medal in silver, which is still recognized today as official recognition . Club directors and researchers have received this medal for outstanding philatelic activities since 1909. It is awarded every three years and is the most representative award in the philatelic field to date.

As an honorary member of German, Austrian and other collectors' associations, Hans Wagner died at the age of 88 on July 21, 1940 in Frankfurt am Main .

literature

• "Famous personalities and their connection to Wittenberg" by Heinrich Kühne and Heinz Motel was published by Druckhaus Göttinger Tageblatt GmbH & Co in 1990, ISBN 3-924781-17-6 .
• "The Hans Wagner Medal" by Fritz Fasse appeared in "75 Years of the Association for Postage Stamping" in 1885, Mainz.
• “Hans Wagner and the Hans Wagner Medal” by Heinrich Kühne was published in 1979 in the Melanchthonhaus Museum Lutherstadt Wittenberg.
• Horst Hille: Philately pioneers. Verlag Phil Creativ, Schwalmtal 1995, ISBN 3-928277-17-0 , pages 142 to 146.