25th Anniv. of the fall of the Berlin Wall

 

Date of Issue: August 28, 2014​

Here is beautiful miniature sheet featuring Rainbow issued by Post of Vatican City to commemorate  25th Anniv. of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

25th Anniv. of the fall of the Berlin Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall during the night of the 9th and 10th of November 1989 marked a very joyous and unimaginable surprise for the inhabitants of East and West Berlin. For 28 years this border strip was strictly patrolled by technical and military means, dividing the city and conditioning the lives of its inhabitants. The Wall suddenly became passable even for the people of East Berlin as a result of the “Peaceful Revolution”. Beginning in 1975, the white wall of reinforced concrete visible from the west and the complex system of border fortifications became the defining image of the divided city, a symbol of the Cold War. The irreversible process of the city’s reunification began in the days following November 9th when the border troops of the German Democratic Republic, accompanied by jubilant Berliners, started to remove individual segments of the Wall to create more crossing points. Beginning in March 1990, before the German Democratic Republic began to remove the 45 thousand wall segments, Berliners themselves started the demolition process. Even the night the Wall was opened, they brought out their own hammers and chisels to start removing the first small fragments. In the autumn of 1990, the last sections of the Wall were saved to be kept as a monument. Today it is difficult to notice the past division of the city. Only a small section of the border strip and segments of the wall are kept as a historical monument inside the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer street.

Manfred Wichmann, Berlin Wall Foundation

The Philatelic Office  commemorated the event with a postage stamp showing a beautiful photo of those historic days taken by photographer Michael-Reiner Ernst in memory of all those who helped bring down the wall. A miniature sheet was also issued featuring the names of the 138 persons who died attempting to cross the border, according to research conducted by the Berlin Wall Foundation.

News Courtesy – Kasinath R. - Tanjore

Club News

 

Inauguration of Philately Training Hall at Postal Training Centre, Vadodara - 4th September 2014.

The Postal Training Centre, Vadodara is a premier Training Centre of Department of Posts that runs high quality training programmes for postal personnel. The Centre was established in 1962 to impart training to Postal Employees in order to enhance the efficiency of the department by training the officials in various fields. The training centre is imparting training to the employees of various postal circles like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh etc. As a part of various training programs, Postal Training Center is also conducting lectures on various aspects of philately and philatelic workshops, mock philatelic exhibitions for postal employees with the help of members of Baroda Philatelic Society.

Brig. Sanjeev Thapar, Chief Postmaster General, Gujarat Circle inaugurated new Philately Training Hall at Postal Training Centre, Vadodara on 4th September 2014 in presence of Shri B. B. Dave, Postmaster General, Vadodara Region, Shri Ganesh Savaleshwarkar, Director, Postal Training Centre, Vadodara, Smt. Sucheta Joshi, Director, Postal Services, Vadodara, Shri Prashant Pandya, President, Baroda Philatelic Society, Shri Timir R. Shah, Hon. Secretary, Baroda Philatelic Society and other dignitaries and staff members of India Post, Postal Training Centre and members of Baroda Philatelic Society.

New Philately Training Hall has been decorated with blowups of commemorative stamps and equipped with Audio Visual equipments. 10 Specially designed attractive philatelic frames have been permanently installed on the walls of the hall. Each frame can house 8 exhibit sheets (1/2 frame). In total 5 Frame exhibits can be exhibited in these frames. Permanent display of exhibits will be arranged in these frames for the benefits of postal trainees. Permanent display of exhibits in regular philatelic frame is also planned in near future.

Courtesy –  Prashant Pandya

 

Flags - Short Hand of History - An exhibition on the Indian National Flag

 

Rabindranath Tagore Centre - Kolkata, the cultural flagship of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs presented (from August 14 to August 24, 2014) in its Horizon Series a unique exhibition on the Indian National Flag in commemoration of the 68th anniversary of its adoption, curated by Sekhar Chakrabarti. The exhibition was inaugurated by Sri Jayanta Sengupta, Curator, Victoria Memorial Hall, Prof. Bharati Roy, Member of the Governing Council, ICCR was the Guest of Honour. There were many visitors thronged the gallery almost all day long. On popular demand the closing date of the exhibition was extended up to 24th August. Local news papers and TV channels also covered the events. Many visitors mentioned that this type of exhibition should be taken to all other cities of India so that general people may get the opportunity to know the history of the National Flag more intimately. It was a grand success.

The exhibition, which was the first of its kind by the ICCR, featured a rich collection of the Indian National Flag symbol on myriad objects sourced from a plethora of articles, such as postage stamps, coins, currency notes, medals, old news paper articles and advertisements, book covers and various other artifacts like, matchbox labels, 78 RPM gramophone records, propaganda leaflets, etc. that were pieced together to reconstruct the history and evolution of the Indian National Flag. The exhibits explored and celebrated the rich history of our Flag and the process by which it was born on 22nd July 1946.