Imprint

Dear readers,
The magazine "POSTGESCHICHTE" is created for you as a discussion forum on European postal history. With the sample number in front of you I would like to open the discussion. The content of the new quarterly journal will depend not least on your contribution.
The new journal intends to complement the existing philatelic journals in the following way:
The "POSTGESCHICHTE" will, of course, deal with postal history itself and everything that documents it in the narrow sense. The emphasis will be on the stamps, viewed according to their actual postal purpose, which can only be investigated on the basis of whole postal covers. The emphasis is therefore not on the loose or "blank" stamps which, however, in themselves (insofar as their issue was necessary or meaningful from a postal point of view) also document a piece of postal history. This often fascinating approach to such a postal cover must include all relevant elements such as franking, postmarks, postal endorsements and the like. - Special areas, which have found their expression in this sense, naturally also belong in this framework; as examples are mentioned: air mail, ship mail, censorship mail, Red Cross, and others.

The journal aims to cover the entire period of postal transport, i.e. from its beginnings to the present. However, our main focus is on postal history and postal documents of the stamp era from 1840 to the present. Locally, the focus will be on Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Italy and France. As you can see, the scope of the new magazine is wide. In the area mentioned it is intended to provide you all with information and food for thought and thus contribute to the deepening of stamp collecting. If you would like to contribute an article to "POSTGESCHICHTE" on a topic of postal history interest, I would be delighted. The editorial deadline for issue l is 15 February 1980. - I am also always grateful for suggestions and hints. If they are of general interest, I will be happy to deal with them in one of the following issues.

I hope that you will enjoy "POSTGESCHICHTE" and that I may soon count you among our subscribers. The subscription price for 1980 in Switzerland is 10 Swiss francs. Please use the enclosed payment slip for the transfer. In the meantime I remain with kind regards
Yours, Hans R. Schwarzenbach