Category Archives: News

Announcement: Auction House Ads to Appear on Webpage and in E-Mail Blasts

by Ken Gilbert, President, Germany Philatelic Society

The Board of Directors of the Germany Philatelic Society has decided to allow appropriate paid ads on our webpage and to allow the use of email blasts for significant auctions of interest to German collectors. We also are allowing some advertisers to use our printer/mailer to send out appropriate auction ads. These ads are and will be similar to the ads run in our journal to support the Society’s financial needs, as the Specialist runs at a considerable deficit, and to promote German collecting.

This will be done in a manner to completely protect the privacy of our members. NO mailing list will be given to any outside person or company. NO email addresses will be given out. This will be run through our printer and webmaster, just as the distribution of the Specialist is currently done. We will never sell your personal data. The first such ad will be for the collections of long tome member and part president of the Society, Bud Hennig, and will follow immediately upon posting of this President’s Note.

Ken

Zeppelin & Airship Catalog

The American Airmail Society and a team of zeppelin post experts will debut a new, free, illustrated, online Zeppelin & Airship Catalog during Boston 2026 World Expo. The new catalog will launch on September 1, 2026, on the AAMS website, www.americanairmailsociety.org, and will also be directly accessible at www.zeppelincatalog.org. The catalog will feature six categories: Pioneer Zeppelins, WWI Zeppelins & Airships, Reparation Zeppelins, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, LZ 129 Hindenburg, and LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin. The 3:00 p.m. May 29th debut at then convention center will demonstrate the catalog’s organization, high resolution imaging, comprehensive search features, and incorporation of key historical information. Jim Hill is leading the expert zeppelin team, which includes Cheryl Ganz, Sam Melamed, and Fred Reynolds. Charlie Giorgetti at AAMS is the lead on web design, whose objective is an easy-to-use, accessible catalog that allows users to expand their knowledge in this popular collecting area.

Contact: Cheryl Ganz cherylganz@yahoo.com.

Germany Philatelic Society Annual Meeting 2027: Cleveland, OH

The Board of Directors of the German Philatelic Society has decided to hold the 2027 General Meeting of the Germany Philatelic Society at the Garfield-Perry stamp show in suburban Cleveland. It will also host our 2027 exhibiting competition. This location is close to the airport and is in a hotel that will allow us to host a hospitality room. We’ll also be pretty close to a very nice German restaurant. Details to follow after the Boston show. We will still have a presence at GASS in Albuquerque for our members in the Southwest, but not a General Meeting.

President’s Message March/April 2026

Welcome to Boston 2026 and the 14th German American Salon! I have been really looking forward to this show, as this will be my first international show in the US since Interphil 76 in my home town of Philadelphia. For the second time running, the German-American Salon will take place at a full international show, the last being at IBRA 23. The first German-American Salon took place in Friedrichshafen, Germany, in 1990, and has been repeated every 2-4 years, alternating between the US and Germany. The last one in the US was in St. Louis in 2019.

This year, the Salon will take place from Tuesday, May 26th, through Friday, May 29th. A tentative schedule appears elsewhere in this journal. We’ll start with a reception Tuesday evening, at Alma Gaucha Prime Brazilian Steakhouse, across from the Convention Center. Registration is required for this event.

Wednesday morning, May 27, as is traditional for the Salon, we’ll have an excursion, a bus tour of Boston. Cost is $40, and registration is required.

There will be number of interesting talks and seminars. Some of the topics include KgU Propaganda Forgeries of the DDR by Oliver Wyrtki, The Complete Story of the 1934-1939 Deutsche Lufthansa Route between Germany and South America by Gary Loew, Allied Occupation of German East Africa 1914-1920 by Regis Hoffman, and Soccer Made in Germany: Germany and the World Cup by Ken Gilbert. There will be a General Meeting of the Society (on Thursday, May 28th), and the Third Reich Study Group and German Colonies Collectors Group will also hold meetings. One of the highlights will be a talk by Jan Berg, noted Samoa expert.

Exhibiting has always been a part of the Salon. In the past few years, we’ve settled on an interesting format: “Klein aber Fein” (“small but quality”), where smaller exhibits (mostly one or two frames) were shown. They haven’t been solely German exhibits. In fact, we’ve also had some topical and display exhibits as well as a number of US and Canadian ones. While the exhibits are non-competitive, exhibitors will be given show medals, one per exhibitor. We’ll have a tour of the exhibits on Friday morning, May 29, with an awards celebration afterward (registration required), to conclude the Salon.

The dealer bourse also promises some excellent opportunities to obtain that missing piece for your collection, and a number of postal agencies will also be making an appearance. The Germany Philatelic Society will also have a table at the show, shared with the Third Reich Study Group and German Colonies Collectors Group. Please stop by and say hello. We look forward to seeing as many members as possible.

Please keep your eyes on our webpage, www.germanyphilatelicsocietyusa.org, where we will post any updates and schedule changes after this issue is printed and mailed. The current tentative schedule as well as the salon registration form has been posted to our Conventions page on our website.

Thanks are given to Günther Korn, who has helped organize previous Salons, for his book Die IBRA 2023: Ein Rückblick (IBRA 2023: A Look Back) from which some of the history of the Salon was obtained.

Salon Updates: April 2026

This post is an update for the Salon. First, there is a Reservation Form for the Salon events. You must fill this out and send it in, so that we can get a good count. There are four events that require registration:

Tuesday May 26, 2026, 5:00 pm. Welcome Reception for the 14th German American Salon. Alma Gaucha Prime Brazilian Steakhouse. Food provided (across from Convention Center)

Wednesday, May 27, 2026, 9 am. City Tour of Boston
Planned departure from Convention Center (registration required) $40.

Friday, May 29, 2026, 10 am. Joint viewing of the exhibits in the 14th GermanAmerican Salon and tour of the exhibition. At the frames—Europe Pavilion.

Friday, May 29, 2026, 11 am. Salon Award Reception (with medals and certificates). Europe Pavilion Stage (registration required—refreshments provided).

The tentative Salon schedule may be found here.

Note that this registration does NOT register you for the main show. Just the salon. ALL other events and registrations must be done on the main Boston site.

President’s Message January/February 2026

Welcome to the “New” German Postal Specialist. You may notice a few changes for 2026. The journal is slightly larger, a return to the size used many years ago. We’ve also added a higher quality cover. [Note: if you still have the old binders, the new size will still fit.] The Specialist will be a bimonthly publication going forward. The main reason, as noted in my President’s message last month, is that it cost almost twice as much to publish and mail the journal last year as the money we received from dues. Costs continue to rise, and we do not wish to raise dues.

The journal now has a Managing Editor. Jason Youngblood, our current production editor, has agreed to add management duties to his role. This is a slightly different model than we have used in the past. This role will replace that of the Editor in Chief. 

We also need more articles from our readership to fill those pages as there have been fewer and fewer articles submitted in recent years. We want to publish your work. Short articles about a favorite stamp or cover or area of interest are welcome. This is YOUR journal. If we get an increase in articles submitted, we hope to be able to print more pages in an issue in the future. Our Board of Editors will be happy to help new authors learn the ropes.

Articles (and letters to the editor) should be submitted to Jason at jyoungblood@gmail.com.

The other important news involves our efforts for the 14th German-American Salon as well as our Annual General Meeting of the Germany Philatelic Society at Boston 2026. In this issue, you will find a page from the Boston 2026 Show Committee with basic show information. Second, you will find a tentative schedule of events at Boston 2026. We have broken out the Salon events from the main show schedule as well as all of the events surrounding the Annual General Meeting of the Germany Philatelic Society, including a number of talks and seminars that should be of interest to German area collectors. Third, there is a form to register for the three Salon events that require a count of attendees. These are the Opening Reception for the Salon on Tuesday evening, a City Tour of Boston on Wednesday morning, and the Salon Award Reception on Friday. Registration for these three events is required, and space may be limited. No registration is needed for any of our other events.

We will have a  table at the show, together with the German Colonies Collector’s Group and the Third Reich Study Group, in the European Pavilion. Our Salon logo was created by former APS President and GPS member Cheryl Ganz. It shows the Concord, the ship that brought the first German immigrants to the United States in 1683, and the logos of the Bund Deutscher Philatelisten, the Boston 2026 World Expo, and the Germany Philatelic Society. There will be a limited amount of cacheted envelopes available for sale at the GPS table.

This is going to be an amazing show. We hope as many members as possible will come. International shows like this are rare and exciting. There will be much opportunity for philatelic fellowship. You will see exceptional stamps and exhibits, all under one roof, and there will be one of the largest bourses in the United States in recent years, including international dealers. See you in Boston!

Note that a tentative schedule for Boston 2026 and the Salon may be found on our Conventions page as well as a registration form for the events that require registration.

Ken Gilbert, President, Germany Philatelic Society