Content of Deutschland 2020/2021 catalog

Old Germany, Northern German Confederation and German Reich, foreign post offices, colonies, foreign maritime mail, occupation issues, plebiscite areas, Belgian military mail in Rhineland, Eupen, Malmédy, Gdansk, Memel, Bohemia and Moravia, general government, Sudetenland, field post issues, local issues, Allied Occupation, GDR, Berlin (West), Saarland with OPD issues, Federal Republic of Germany

• 110 years of MICHEL: This new Germany edition provides the latest information about German philately, including a new perforation key and watermark folding sheet for the same price as last year’s edition!
• Comprehensively revised new edition with numerous novel discoveries, editorial supplements and price adaptations
• High-priced new discoveries: MICHEL Number 9 Y of the German maritime mail with reversed watermark and MICHEL Numbers 833 X and 834 X from the GDR
• New findings concerning the vending machine test stamp German Federation MiNo. 10
• Vivid price fluctuations regarding Old Germany, Northern German Confederation, occupation in World Wars One and Two, field post, local issues, Sudetenland, the French occupation zone and the stamp booklets issued by the German Reich
• More than 11,600 colour pictures and approx. 64,000 price appraisals
• Features novelties up to MICHEL Rundschau 6/2020

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2020 is the year we celebrate the 110^th Anniversary of the first MICHEL Catalogue. In 1910 all European issues, including German ones, still fit into one thin volume. The Germany catalogue alone has grown to a size of 1184 pages in its 107th Edition. This is mainly due to the numerous novel issues, yet newly discovered special issues and variations of the MICHEL main numbers also contribute to more content and a larger size of the catalogue each year.

Collectors of GDR issues, for instance, should most definitely whip out their watermark testing device and, by consulting this latest edition, take a close look at MICHEL Numbers 833 and 834, which appear rather unspectacular at first glance: If you find the inscription “DDR“ in a correct position between the cruciferae, what you have is watermark 3 X and then your stamps are not 1-to-3-Euro pieces but rather rarities that boast a value of € 150 and € 2,000 if in mint condition.

Press Release

Since the last edition of MICHEL Germany was published, the German postal system (Deutsche Post AG) has issued 84 new postage stamps that are listed under Numbers 3468-3549, Block 84 and Block 85 in this latest MICHEL edition.

The range of themes is wide and versatile; however, you will find a specific focus on the topics of nature and environmental protection, totaling 33 issues, literature and press featuring 9 issues, religion and religious celebrations as well as politics and government, represented by 6 issues each. The remaining stamps are dedicated to the themes of architecture, astronomy, traditions, films, the fine arts, music, athletics and mental exercises, traffic, economy and, last but not least, the postal system and philately.

Thus in 2019 and 2020 the German postage stamps again present themselves as ambassadors of our time, illustrating what is of importance to us, what we want to learn and preserve. The issues of the classic stamp era also mirror the zeitgeist of their epoch, such as the numerous graphically impressive drawings of significant digits when the idea of issuing postage stamps was still fresh and their respective postage value still dominated the design. Or the drawings of a coat of arms that provided an identity in an era in which the sovereign rulers and free cities of Germany united to form the German Federation.

The objective of this 2020/2021 MICHEL Germany is to make the versatility of German stamps issued between 1849 and 2020 tangible in images and text and to provide collectors with a guideline they may use to link any stamp to its cultural, historical as well as production-technological and economic environment.

For that purpose this new edition was fully revised and complemented. Therefore the reader will find valuable new discoveries, such as MICHEL No. 9 Y of German maritime mail, which shows a reversed watermark, or the rare issues MiNo. 833 X and MiNo. 834 X from the German Democratic Republic. A colourful bouquet of new postage stamps as well as the latest findings concerning the vending machine test stamp MiNo. 10 of the German Postal System await all collectors of German Federation issues in the one-and-two-digit price range.

Lively price fluctuations can be found particularly in the collection areas of Old Germany, Northern German Confederation, Occupation in World Wars I and II, field post, local issues, Sudetenland and French Occupation Zone. Yet the collection area of stamp booklets issued by the German Reich, which has been revised based on the new MICHEL handbook on this subject, shows the largest number of fluctuations in value.

The 2020/2021 MICHEL Germany lists all postage stamps issued up to and including June of 2020. Any subsequent catalogued issues will be presented in the philatelic magazine MICHEL Rundschau on a monthly basis. For there are plenty of important messages the German postage stamps want to convey to us.

Schwaneberger Publishing House
The Editorial Team

Target Group:

Stamp collectors specialized in stamps of Germany, experts, dealers, thematic collectors, study groups, teachers

Title: Deutschland 2020/2021
Edition: 107th
Pages: 1184
Format: 155 mm x 230 mm, Hardcover

First Day of Sale: 3 July 2020

MICHEL provides top-quality information for collectors

Thanks to decades of experience and constant revision, the MICHEL catalogs are unmatched in terms of lay-out, comprehensiveness, accuracy and production. MICHEL catalogues provide all key information on stamps, postal stationary and coins. The systematic collection of data on collectable items, a well-organised system and detailed illustrations ensure easy use and a quick way to find required information. Each new edition of a MICHEL catalog is completely revised, updated and expanded so that it always reflects the latest situation on the market.

Users of the MICHEL catalogs value the comprehensive and detailed listings of collectable items. The MICHEL catalogs are among the best in the world when it comes to details, comprehensiveness and illustration. MICHEL products have been awarded well over 600 medals (including 31 gold), diplomas and honorary prizes in the course of the company’s history. The expertise of the Schwaneberger publishing house’s staff is outstandingly represented in the MICHEL catalogs.

The colourful, varied range of products includes standard and special-edition catalogues for Germany, Europe and overseas. There is also philatelic literature, the MICHEL-Exklusiv album, the MICHEL Colour Guide, the MICHEL-Lux examination lamp and the MICHEL-Rundschau monthly magazine. More than 85 different products in total.

MICHEL also enjoys a good reputation in electronic publishing thanks to various software programs, websites and e-catalogs. It is no wonder that the MICHEL catalogs have been known for years as the “philatelists’ bible”. However, bearing this accolade brings with it the responsibility of always remaining at the top with regard to quality.

The 669,000th MICHEL catalog number was issued recently. A look at the most important of the 85 different MICHEL catalogs reveals that the catalogues for Europe and overseas alone make up some 25,000 catalog pages. They contain 314,000 pictures and 1,800,000 price quotations. Most of this information is stored in powerful picture and text databases and is consulted, revised and corrected for each new edition of a MICHEL catalog. And of course that also applies to each individual page, irrespective of which MICHEL catalog it comes from. MICHEL goes to great lengths on its customers’ behalf. MICHEL’s editorial team spends an average of 45 minutes on research for each new set of stamps. Around 18,000 new stamps appear each year, which are then catalogued and published in the MICHEL-Rundschau, as well as in the relevant MICHEL catalog and online catalogue.

100 years of the MICHEL catalogue

It is more than 100 years since the stamp dealer Hugo MICHEL from Apolda in Thüringen published the first MICHEL stamp catalogue in 1909. He thereby created a product that would be continually be improved, but never surpassed. In the same year, publisher and philatelic editor Hugo Schwaneberger founded a publishing company that bore his name. The philatelist, who was well known in his field, created the Schwaneberger Album, the first album to adopt a scientific approach.
Owing to the great demand for MICHEL catalog, Hugo MICHEL was no longer able to dedicate himself to his career as a stamp dealer. He therefore sold the rights to the publisher Schwaneberger. The catalogue, which had only covered Europe until that point, was expanded by the new publishing house to include overseas countries.

Hugo MICHEL continued to edit the catalogue supplement, which is today known as the MICHEL-Rundschau. The company was then bought by the publisher Eugen Berlin. He moved it to Munich in 1950 where he came across a company, the Carl Geber printing works (now the Gerber Satz und Gerber publishing house) that was able to draw up the complicated catalogue typesetting. The publishing rights went to the Hohenester/Gerber families who assigned them to the publishing house, now trading as the “Schwaneberger Verlag”.

At the turn of the century other stamp catalogues had already appeared, but the remarkable success of the MICHEL catalog was attributed to its sophisticated and comprehensive cataloguing system. The stamps were numbered successively from the first number for each country, yet at the same time organised according to various sub-categories and genres, and described as fully as possible. This system was refined over the years and adapted where necessary - but never had to be changed! In fact, the MICHEL numbering system has become standard in Germany. This is underscored by the numerous licence contracts that the Schwaneberger Verlag has concluded with other publishers. All stock lists of German dealers are organised according to the MICHEL numbering system. Collectors exchange, buy and sell using MICHEL numbers.

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