The MEDAL for service and/or support to Philately was given because:
Michael Adler, philatelist since his boyhood, has chaired philatelic organisations at local, regional and national level for five decades, including the presidency of the BDPh and the current chairmanship of the Philatelic Academy of Bavaria. He served at international level first as vice president and then as president of FEPA and as Director of FIP; in both positions he coordinated a number of very successful international exhibitions. Furthermore he helped to strengthen philatelic cooperation in Germany and abroad after the political changes in 1989. Michael Adler led the Organizing Committee of IBRA 99 and initiated the construction of the “German House of Philately” in Bonn, inaugurated in 1998.