The odyssey of the Heligoland printing plates: Goldner's reprints

Show notes

The Man Behind the Empire: Julius Goldner, a powerful stamp wholesaler from Hamburg, emerges in the 1860s, cornering the market on collectible stamps. He was known for his ambitious and sometimes unscrupulous business practices, including backdating postmarks to increase the value of stamps.

The Helgoland Reprints: When Helgoland's currency changed in 1875, Goldner bought the entire remaining stock of their stamps, which were no longer valid for postage. He then began a large-scale reprinting operation using the original plates, which he legally purchased in 1879.

The Stamp Shop Carousel: After a new governor shut down his access to the official Berlin Imperial Printing Office in 1888, Goldner moved his reprinting operation to Leipzig and later Hamburg, creating a constant stream of purely private reprints.

A Defining Legal Case: The constant reprinting caused an uproar in the philatelic world, culminating in a 1894 court case against Goldner. The trial forced the legal and philatelic communities to define terms like "Neudruck" (a reprint from an original plate) and "Fälschung" (a counterfeit created from a new tool).

Nazi Seizure: Following Goldner's death, his son, John Goldner, took over the family business. Due to their Jewish heritage, the family's assets were systematically targeted and seized by the Nazis in 1938 and 1939. The Helgoland printing plates were confiscated and handed over to the Hamburg State Police.

Hidden in Plain Sight: A collector, Captain Walter Sass, intervened and convinced authorities of the plates' historical value. They were transferred to the Reichspost Museum in Berlin in 1939 but their identity as looted Jewish property was lost in the post-war chaos.

Restitution: Decades later, a research project by the Museum for Communication in Berlin identified the plates and other seized assets. The findings led to the restitution of the printing plates to John Goldner's descendants in Mexico and the U.S..