Hugo Michel

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Georg Hugo Paul Michel (born April 4, 1866 in Knau , † June 9, 1944 in Weimar ) was a Thuringian collector, stamp dealer and publisher of the MICHEL stamp catalog (today: Munich Schwaneberger Verlag).

Life

Michel came to Apolda when he was six . His father Heinrich Michel was a beer shredder in the Apolda brewery . He collected his first postage stamps when he was nine. He attended elementary school, later the W. & L. Zimmermann secondary school, and began a commercial apprenticeship in 1886 at the woolen goods factory Louis Roh (father of Franz Roh ). As early as 1900 he toured England, France, Spain and Portugal.

In England he received initial suggestions for buying stamps from the later well-known philatelist Paul Kohl. B. in the famous stamp house Stanley Gibbons . Encouraged by small successes, he founded his own company in 1892 and had it entered in the commercial register.

His brother Max was already listed as an authorized signatory in 1898. Brother Richard was still active as a master weaver. In 1906 he opened his own stamp shop, which was run from 1908 by Max and Richard Michel under the name "Gebrüder Michel". The first stamp packages for the creation of collections were offered. a. even American brands that were reprinted in Germany may not be a serious approach from today's point of view, since they were imitation brands.

However, Michel became known for his reputation as an excellent philatelic expert , especially for the publication of price lists and catalogs. The catalog published at the turn of the century already had a high quality standard. Michel had been involved in setting the prices for the "mustard catalog" since 1898.

In 1909 Michel moved to Weimar and continued the stamp trade from there. In 1910 a complete Europe catalog was published for the first time. The catalog for used brands was continued by his brothers. While it was still inferior to the "Mustard Catalog" in the edition before the First World War, it secured its position from 1914 to 1919 because the "Mustard Catalog" no longer appeared. As the manager of a bullet cage factory, however, he was compulsory and could only work on his catalog at night.

In 1919 he sold the rights to Schwaneberger-Verlag (then still Leipzig), but was still active as an author until 1928.

With the “auction house for classic postage stamps” Michel opened up another trading area - in February 1927 the first auction took place in the “Fürstenhof” hotel in Weimar.

Michel later published the Michel net price lists (Mineto) for Germany, which were discontinued in 1943 due to a lack of paper.

Schwaneberger-Verlag has also transferred the system developed by Michel to other products under license, e.g. B. MICHEL Germany catalog, MICHEL stamp manual, MICHEL private postcard catalog and MICHEL telephone card catalog.

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Honors

After 1990 the city council of Apolda dedicated the "Straße der Einheit" to "Hugo-Michel-Straße" in his honor.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hugo Michel in the catalog of the German National Library

literature

• Hugo Gerlach: Hugo Michel - a trailblazer in philately. In: Apoldaer Heimat. 10, 1992, ISSN  0232-8992 , pp. 20-22.
• Norbert Röhm: Born 125 years ago: Hugo Michel, the father of the Michel catalog . In: Philately No. 197 / Philately and Postal History No. 118, May 1991, pp. 35–44
• Wolfgang Maassen: From first albums and catalogs to world-class publishers , publisher: Phil Creativ, Schwalmtal 2010, ISBN 978-3-932198-87-8 , p. 469 ff
• Wolfgang Maassen (Ed.): Who is who in philately? A lexicon of well-known philatelists of the 19th and 20th centuries Century. Phil * Creativ GmbH, Schwalmtal 1999, ISBN 3-932198-32-8 , p. 138

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Maassen: Hugo Michel's birthplace Knau . In: Phila Historica 2018 no. 1 . P. 66/7. Accessed May 31, 2020.