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Another fine article on a philatelic library by Abhishek Bhuwalka. The article was first published as “A Visit to the Frankfurt Philatelic Library”, Philatelic Literature Review, whole no. 281 (Fourth Quarter 2023). It has been lightly edited with additional information for publication online.

The Frankfurt Philatelic Library (FPL) is the library of the Verein für Briefmarkenkunde 1878 e.V. Frankfurt am Main (Association/Club/Society for Philately 1878 e.V. Frankfurt am Main).
Containing about 25,000 media items, i.e. handbooks, catalogs, periodicals, exhibition catalogs, auction catalogs, DVDs, etc., FPL is, along with the philatelic libraries in Munich (over 65,000 items) and Hamburg (over 40,000), one of the larger philatelic libraries in Germany.

The Verein für Briefmarkenkunde 1878 e.V. Frankfurt am Main (VfB) was formed on 6 June 1878 with just 15 members. While not the first, it is one of the oldest surviving societies in Germany. The great Alfred Moschkau was reportedly present at an extraordinary general meeting of the society on 29 July 1878. In the 1st August 1878 issue of Illustrirtes Briefmarken-Journal, which he edited, Moschkau greeted the formation of the society and hoped that it would bloom and prosper and be a real nursery of philately.

A modest collection of literature was begun that year though the library is first formally referred to in a document pertaining to the Society’s annual general meeting in 1882. In 1885, the library bought its second bookcase for a price of 20 gold marks as the old one was no longer big enough and was sold for five marks!

Read the complete article here: https://thephilatelist.substack.com/p/a-visit-to-the-frankfurt-philatelic

[photo credit: Abhishek Bhuwalka]

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