Perhaps one of the most oft-heard concerns voiced amongst philatelists is that the hobby of stamp collecting is at risk of dying out.  No longer does every kid have a stamp collection, as they did decades ago.  Many are also turned off by the proliferation of new issues from post offices worldwide, including those so blatantly targeted to collectors that one will in all likelihood never see them used on an envelope.

While both of the comments above may indeed be true, to conclude therefore that they mark the downfall of philately is quite another matter.  In fact, the opposite is true – stamp collecting is enjoying a Renaissance.

I will leave some of the reasons for this for a future post, but will share this column, from the UK’s Independent.  From singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor, to French President Nicholas Sarkozy, to thousands and thousands of 30-and-40-something professionals looking for a respite from a hectic work life, stamp collecting continues on as “the King of Hobbies, and the Hobby of Kings.”

A familiar face to many collectors is that of Heinrich von Stephan.  He graces several beautiful stamps of Germany, turns up on postal stationery and maximum cards, and appears on issues from countries as diverse as Moldova, Estonia, Egypt, Gabon, Venezuela and Namibia.

While his profile may be recognizable, his achievements may be less commonly understood.

Heinrich von Stephan was born on January 7, 1831, in Stolp, then the Kingdom of Prussia.  His career in the postal service began at the age of eighteen, though his talents were quickly recognized and in 1866 he was tasked with centralizing the postal system that had traditionally been the purview of the House of Thurn & Taxis.  In tackling this challenge, von Stephan emphasized the noble family’s contribution to German unity:

“The House of Taxis should ever be praised because for a long time it formed a unity in the midst of a mosaic-like state complex; and it understood how to maintain old Germany in the course of frequently trying situations and even when there was great chaos.”

This message of the unifying power of the posts was a recurring one throughout von Stephan’s career, one which would see him lead the charge for the founding meeting of what would become the Universal Postal Union.

Following the failure of delegates to the 1863 Paris Conference to reach an agreement, von Stephan’s preparation of a viable plan for an international postal union provided the impetus for the Swiss Government to host the

International Postal Conference in Bern in 1874.   His plan, familiar to us today as it was based on specific postal rates determined by weight increments, won widespread acclaim.  On October 21, delegates from 21 countries signed the Treaty of the General Postal Union, and the UPU was born.  It remains today the third oldest international organization in the world, behind the Rhine Commission and the International Telecommunication Union

His success in both these endeavours being evident, von Stephan was shortly thereafter appointed as the Reichpost’s first Postmaster General, crowning his career with his appointment as Minister of the Posts in 1895, two years before his death.

With men like Rowland Hill, he is deservedly recognized as one of the leading forces behind our modern day postal system.