Gezahnte Geschichte

Dealing with stamps, collecting, studying and discussing them is still one of the standard examples of what is called a hobby in everyday language; a somewhat old-fashioned, outdated hobby for older men. In contrast to numismatics or heraldry, philately has never achieved the status of a recognized ancillary science of historical science. And although several turns of the scientific landscape would have had to capture them, such as the iconic turn, the material turn or the slowly developing visual history, philately and especially stamps and their value for historical studies have remained almost ignored to this day. This volume attempts to change this and presents exemplary analyses of what these means of communication testify to.