The Bookseller of Frankfurt am Main:

An Interview with Burkhard Schneider of philabooks.com

I

n Frankfurt am Main, Germany’s
international hub and one of the most
important of all European cities, sits the
small shop (in his own words) of Burkhard
Schneider who exclusively deals in philatelic
literature of the world with a special
emphasis on European titles. European
literature especially in German, French, and
Italian is very rich and English-speaking
philatelists will be surprised at the breadth
and depth of publications in these languages
by visiting through Burkhard’s website:
philabooks.com. It is no exaggeration to say
that he is the most ‘international’ of all
philatelic literature dealers; he is also
perhaps the biggest dealer in the world in
terms of the number of titles that he has on
sale at any one point in time. I eagerly await
his Friday listings of new material in the hope
that I can snare something on my want list
before anyone else!

In June 2015 I happened to be in Zurich. I was
on a holiday with my family and, with due
respect to the Swiss, I was getting bored! A Figure 1: Burkhard Schneider on an Carinthia ‘Alm’
(alpine pasture) in Austria. Photo taken by an Austrian
few days earlier when I was in Paris I had friend.
hoped for some philatelic tourism;
unfortunately when I visited them none of the four or five different stamp shops in that
charming city’s passages were open. Deprived of philately for more than 10 days and in
a city which was as different from the lovely countryside that we had been too as chalk
is to cheese, I wanted some philatelic action. I visited the venerable Swiss auction house
– Corinphila – to pick up some lots that I won a few weeks earlier. I asked the lady who
attended on me if I could find a philatelic book shop in the city. She quickly went inside
to check with her colleagues and came back with the reply that there were none around;
the nearest was Burkhard Schneider, some 400 kilometres (around 250 miles) away!

Last year when I purchased a couple of Burkhard’s old philatelic literature price lists, I
because curious about the history of his business. He said that he will revel all when I
did his interview! I had a feeling that he had a lot of stories to share and I readily agreed.
I sent him a questionnaire and in return received, after many months, the first part of
his biography.1 Exactly opposite to an interview, I had to arrange some of the questions
to suit the answers. Later we communicated over WhatsApp and Burkhard answered
many of my remaining questions over voice chats.

Page 1 of 18

The reader will notice that the most interesting parts of the interview are firstly
Burkhard’s own personal reminiscences and secondly his stories about his important
library purchases from some of the greatest European philatelists. His memories are
fascinating and never-ending; unfortunately I had to put a stop somewhere so that the
interview that is to be published in a journal did not take the shape of a book!

~~~~~~~~~~

Burkhard, please tell me about yourself.

I was born in 1957 in Freiburg in South Baden. It is not far from there to France and
Switzerland. It is a beautiful district, popular with tourists. My parents had a large
carpentry workshop, which took on factory dimensions during the boom of the 1960s
and also due to the early automation that my father introduced.

I have two daughters, Hanna who is 19 and Elisabeth who is 15. Hanna is at the
University and Elisabeth is finishing high school. They both help me from time to time at
the office. Hanna is interested in history and is very good in English; she also speaks a
bit of French, Italian and Swedish. At my shop she can do almost everything I can apart
from describing the books. Elisabeth helps me with packing and is an expert in all forms
of modern communications!

Were you interested in stamps and stamp collecting before you started dealing?

I began to collect stamps when I was about
seven years old; my two older siblings had
small collections which they gradually gave to
me. My siblings soon began to study in other
cities and my parents rented rooms in our big
house to two Norwegian students who soon
became the best suppliers for my stamp
collection. Letters were the only way to keep
in touch with home in the mid-1960s and so
several letters came from Norway every week.
The stamps were soaked off cleanly in the
bathroom and dried on towels. Oddly enough,
30 years later, the two former students still
collected stamps when I visited them in
Norway, then for a charitable organisation; but
they also gave me a bag, in the old tradition!

The postman was also a close ally; he came
twice a day on his moped and was eagerly
awaited. My aunt in Switzerland, married to a
well-known lawyer and notary who received a
large amount of mail, supported me with big
Figure 2: Burkhard's first stamp catalogue. Courtesy:
‘letter packets’ for Christmas and my birthday
Muenchner Philatelistische Bibliothek. with wonderful stamps from Switzerland and

Page 2 of 18
Liechtenstein. When I was ten years old my mother drove once a week into the city (we
lived with our business on the outskirts of the city) and I received packets of stamps of
all countries. I had five albums, neatly separated into continents. At the age of 10, I had
bought my own first stamps. At the age of 11 or 12 I knew all the countries of the world
by heart.

We visited my grandmother in Basel in Switzerland regularly every four weeks until she
died when I was 14; at that time, I often went to the Spalenberg where several stamp
shops and art galleries were situated. There was an old-style shop with a very friendly,
older lady, Frau Watzlawick, who did not send a 10-year old lad out right away. There I
bought my first second-hand, three-year old Zumstein catalogue of Switzerland, the
1964 edition, for CHF 4. I was there again on my next visit to Basel, but then the shop
was no longer there; the lady's husband had perhaps passed away. Around the corner
there was also a big, impressive shop, but I didn't dare to go in there. It must have been
the shop of Ernst Müller or Charlotte Hassel, two very famous Swiss stamp dealers. But
in the meantime, I had already discovered two stamp shops in Freiburg. I became a
regular customer of Frey’s shop in the Bursegang. I also had some exchange partners
and even in my father's company, on Fridays after work, stamp exchanges took place
from time to time. This is how I acquired my first British colonial stamp. At the age of
about 13 I stopped collecting stamps; and started collecting science fiction books
together with two of my best friends.

So how did you get back into stamps?

While in Frankfurt am Main to study economics, I got back into collecting stamps
through a fellow student. She had taken out her old collection at Christmas and it was a
big "spark", not only with the stamps. During the college holidays I had a lot of time and
I spent a total of five months in Southern Africa on two longer trips. My brother was in
the automobile industry and worked there for a long time. In Johannesburg I got to
know Lutz Heffermann, an Austrian who at that time published his South African Stamp
Colour Catalogue, the first colour catalogue for the South African countries. I sent him
many, many stamps once I was back in Germany and the stamp business began at the
age of 21.

You once told me that you
used to visit many
philatelic shows when you
were younger. Many of the
contacts you made were
made at such shows.

The very first exhibition
that I visited was Naposta
1978 in Frankfurt. The
enthusiasm grew and the
exhibition at Earls Court in
London followed in 1980. I
was able to make contacts
on longer journeys through Figure 3: Booth card for the IBRA 99 world stamp exhibition

Page 3 of 18
the USA and Canada from East to West, later also to East Asia and Australia; among
others I visited the Ausipex 1984 exhibition. In New York I was at the impressive ASDA
show at Madison Square Garden in 1993. At IBRA in 1999 I got to know Manfred
Amrhein2 from Costa Rica and also John Taylor of the USA, an American specialist in
German philately, who took over the distribution of my books in the USA for a while, but
who sadly died suddenly. I made many interesting contacts thanks to my friend and
colleague Fred Muche of Frankfurt am Main, a highly regarded visitor to American fairs
until his death in 2006 shortly after he returned from the exhibition in Washington.
Through him I was also able to access the circle of leading international postal
historians such as James Van der Linden, Leo de Clercq, Dick (Richard) Winter, Paolo
Vollmeier, and many others. I was a regular in stamp shows till about 10-15 years back.

Then via the Internet I made countless interesting contacts worldwide in the years that
followed. Among them were two Englishmen – Philip Robinson who kindly helped me to
translate the text into English and John Jackson who is of great help by letting me know
the interesting books published in the UK.

Tell us more about your stamp dealing business.

The early 1980s were the boom years in the stamp trade and at the age of 26 I opened a
large stamp shop in downtown
Frankfurt. There were then still
about 35 stamp shops, some of
them in the best locations. At that
time, I probably had about 400
stock books and hundreds of new
issue subscribers. Apart from
material of the British colonies, a
lot of People’s Republic of China
passed through my hands; as far as
I know, in the early 1980s, hardly
anybody but me seriously acquired
them in Germany. Through a
customer who bought all Saudi
Arabia from me, I expanded my
material on offer to the entire
Middle East and I also had visitors
from this region. It brought me
local fame when one day a taxi with
four sheikhs in their national
costumes drove up to buy stamps.
Further, many thematic collectors
were interested in my large
overseas stock.

But the boom didn't last much

Figure 3: Price list of ‘world-wide stamps’ from 1986. Note longer and I sold everything in
Burkhard’s affiliations of various stamp organisation like APHV, 1987 at good prices and went back
ASDA, PTS, etc.

Page 4 of 18
 to the university to study education
and history for another four years.

I read somewhere that you used
to work with dyslexic children.

After graduating in 1991 I worked
for two years at the J.W. von Goethe
University in Frankfurt and among
the tasks was compiling the
literature for certain lectures. After
further training, I worked for about
15 years in the afternoons as a
learning therapist with a focus on
Figure 4: Up - Luisenplatz
21 and right – Burkhard’s
shop
dyslexia.

This left me with a lot
of free time and I
started buying some
larger collections
again in 1993 and my
first library in 1996.
Various office
locations followed
until I settled in 2004
in the Luisenplatz, where I still am today.

How did you move to dealing in philatelic literature?

I was collecting British Commonwealth and the United States and I needed specialized
literature for myself. At that time, I was already dealing in stamps and I was getting
books and catalogues. Then I realized that other collectors had the same difficulty in
getting books pertaining to their interests; this was in the 1980s when one needed to
write to publishers or authors by letters which used to take a lot of time, then pay by
bank transfer which was very expensive, and finally shipping was very difficult as well.

I published my first offering of literature in the 1980s - literature from Vera Trinder in
my special field of interest, the British colonies. In 1995 my first real literature list was
published. This was followed by a total of 25 printed catalogues and numerous
supplementary lists up to May 2003. In the beginning I was also regularly present with
my stock of literature, stamps and covers at Sindelfingen, Berlin, Paris (together with
Ted Proud), London, Verona, Brussels (Erik Paaskesen's two major fairs), Basel (Basler
Taube 1995), and others.

Page 5 of 18
When did you start dealing on the internet? What was your experience in the initial
days? How did you come across the domain name philabooks.com since you used to
deal under your own name earlier?

I was thinking of getting my website in 1997 but it was very difficult to get people to
develop sites at that time. So I started making a database of information so that I could
have all the special sections on my website that I have now. Since about 15 years I have
a computer engineer named Michael Lenke doing the programming. He is a philatelist
specializing in Poland’s 1919 Crakau Overprint Issues and has recently published a
book on that subject. He understands philately which many technicians do not.

I always wanted an English name for my web domain since I wanted it to sound
‘international’; I wanted to deal with people from across the world. The name
philabooks.com was available at that time and I took it. My website went online in 1998.

Your website says that you have almost 15,000 titles in stock. Is all of your stock on
the internet? If not, what percentage do you think is not? What kind of titles would
these be (perhaps journals, books not in good condition, etc).

Almost my entire stock is on the internet. When I buy surplus stock I often sell them in
bulk to other dealers and get rid of them. I do not want too much lying around because I
have a nice little shop (60 square meters of floor area and 3.5 meters high) in a nice area
and space is a problem. So I always focus on what is important and what is not. Of
course, when I make large purchases I rent extra space.

Further, from my experience in stamp dealing, I list everything that I think may be
important or useful to a collector; not just items which are top sellers or which have
sold quickly in the past. Sometimes I have sold books after 10 or 20 years of listing!
There are still some books which have not seen any demand as yet but I think they may
in the future.

What would be the language breakup of your stock? What percentage in German,
English, other European languages etc).

Quite a bit of my stock of books is German. Then I have a lot of books in English and then
some other European languages. I have customers from all over the world; perhaps 90
countries!

Do you fulfil want lists when you do not have certain titles in stock?

Yes, I accept want lists from my regular customers. I put in the names in my database so
that the books they want are on my buying list.

What is your typical day like? Do you have any employees in your business? Many a
time when I have written to you, you have mentioned that you have “immer viel zu
tun!” (always much to do).

On a typical day I start between eight and nine in the morning. I check my emails for
orders. There is always too much work and hence I need to split it with my helpers

Page 6 of 18
 Figure 5: Inside the shop which measures 60 sq. mts. (around 650 sq. ft.) with books arranged neatly

Either my helpers3 (earlier I used to have three or four but now I have two; due to
Covid-19 I am working alone presently) or I get the ordered books out and write the
invoices. Meanwhile I may be attending telephone calls or sorting of books. My helpers
are not here every day; I describe the new books added to my stock so that they can
photograph and scan them and upload them on my website.

I work until four or five in the afternoon; not too late. Then I like to do some biking or
sports. Sometimes at home I get on the internet and check my emails and work for an
hour or two. Some 15-20 years ago I used to work on Saturdays too listing books on
eBay but do not do that anyone; I mostly stopped selling on eBay in 2002 or thereabouts
though I did list occasionally items that I bought in bulk for a few more years.

Page 7 of 18

You not only stock second-hand out-of-print books but also some of the latest titles
from across the world. Why do you do this when most of your contemporaries do
not? Possibly since margins are not that great. The only other dealer I can think of
is Leonard Hartmann.

I believe that the most important person to me is my customer and his collecting
interests and what he needs for his collection. Hence I buy all important new books that
I think may be useful to him. I think of it as a service and they my customers surely
appreciate it a lot. The margins are, of course, most of the time not so large. Further, I
personally like books and am interested in seeing them; if I find them good, I order
more. I am also interested in philately and I like to read about the latest research that is
taking place currently.

You also stock titles from other European countries. How do you manage to describe
them? How many languages do you know?

Apart from my native German, I speak English and I have knowledge of French and
Italian. I see the contents of a book and its printing before stocking them. My database of
35,000 titles also helps. One needs to have a good knowledge of stamps of the world,
which I do due to my being a collector as well as my earlier dealing in stamps and postal
history.

I see that most literature dealers do not stock long runs of journals. Do you? Why or
why not?

Buying journals is a problem since space is limited in Europe and it becomes costly to
stock them. Further they are time-consuming to sort through. When I started, there
were collectors who wanted to buy long runs of certain journals. Such a collector does
not exist anymore. From a supply perspective, there are not many libraries which have
long runs in them. The one library that I purchased that had many journals was the
“Taunus” library in 2000-01. Just last week I sold 18 volumes of the German magazine
Der Philatelist which came from here; it was unsold for almost 20 years and I had to
offer the lot at a reduced price of €300 just to get rid and make some space!

So you would prefer not to buy journals?

I would buy specialized journals as well as journals pre-1950 or so. I prefer bound runs
since they not only look nicer but, since binding is expensive, I can sell them for good
rates. I would buy unbound journals only if they are complete runs or if they are
interesting enough. However I would avoid the many general journals which are not of
much interest to most.

You must have a list of your own favourite philatelic literature titles? Which are
those?

My favourite titles include many of the limited bibliophile hardbound works. I like the
Crawford catalogue as it is the key for philatelic literature. Another is Katalog der
Bücherei des Reichs-Postamt, Band 1: Bücher published in Berlin in 1899. The German

Page 8 of 18
post office did much research on world-wide postal matters and had an immense
library; this book helps me with early postal history items.

Your website has a page giving details of the philatelic libraries you have
purchased. You seem to have been buying a few libraries every year! Do the sellers
come to you or do you know them well enough to ask them if they would be willing
to sell?

Till March 2020 I have purchased 87 notable libraries! Many of the important philatelic
literature collectors are my customers and I am in close contact with them. They give
my name to their family or friends and when they are no more, I get called to pick up
their libraries. I also work in close co-operation with several auction houses in Europe
and UK. From the philatelist’s estate, they buy the stamps and I get the books; or they
buy everything and sell the books to me. Sometimes I buy the entire estate and while I
do not retail the stamps, I sell them to collectors and dealers I know.

The important thing is that I am in the middle of Europe and distances are not far. I can
drive to Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Netherland, Belgium, France,
Lichtenstein, or Luxemburg to collect the libraries. Of course, if they are far away, they
will have to ship them to me; the airport is only 25 minutes from my place.

Tell me about some of your important and memorable library purchases.

In 1995 I made my first price list for second hand philatelic literature.

In 1996 I bought the library of Michael Hillebrecht who is still an active collector. It was
mainly German language literature on Germany and German states.

At that time I used attend most major shows and I used to visit London regularly as well.
In 1997, through another dealer, I was able to buy books in the library of Robson Lowe
Ltd.

Once again through my contacts I
got access to the Garratt-Adams
library.4 I went to Wales to his castle
in the spring of 1997. The castle was
in a very nice area and quite
impressive. I met the young owner
of the castle, the grandson of
Adams.5 They still had a lot of books
there.6 Some were stored in the
garden house and some in places
which were not so good for the
books; hence books had rusty
staples or stitching – that’s typical
for many of the books in Adams’
library. I purchased handbooks and
auction catalogues that I was
interested in. For the balance stock Figure 6: Enclosures laid in ex-libris books purchased by customers

Page 9 of 18
 including early journals and price
lists, I recommended Schwanke &
Sohn, the German auctioneers.

In 1998 I also got the chance to
buy part of the Robert Danzig
stock. Danzig was the describer of
the Garratt-Adams library and he
was then moving from London to
the Isle of Wight.

In 1999 I bought a big lot of
European auction catalogues from
a South German businessman. His
Figure 7: The 'Taunus' library father was collecting as well since
1932 onwards and they had long
runs of catalogues till 1995 or so. They had a separate villa where the stamp rooms
were. In the same year I bought the journals of the Berliner Philatelisten-Club, earlier
one of the most famous philatelic societies in Germany.

In 2000 I bought the Wolfgang Diesner library. Diesner is almost forgotten today but
played an important role in organising the postal history symposium at Internationale
Briefmarkenbörse in Sindelfingen. He did a lot of postal history research especially on
transit mail. Unfortunately he died at an early age of around 60. Diesner was one of the
most international of all German philatelists at that time. Hence he had a lot of English
literature from all over the world.

In the same year I was involved with the sale of a big Latin America estate and I could
get the library – the “La Plata” library. This library was of a Swiss collector who had
made around 40 trips to all countries and islands of Latin America to collect philatelic
material including books. There were a lot of Spanish and English books in it.

One of my most important purchases was the ‘Taunus’ library in 2000-01. The owner of
this library was Hans-Herrmann Mette. Mette was probably the most important
philatelic literature collector of his time in Germany and he had one of the largest
private libraries. He was a book binder with very good craftsmanship. He used bound all

Figure 8: Damaged propaganda mail rocket from the Alfred Klein collection

Page 10 of 18
his journals personally; it was like a hobby for him. Not only that, he did the binding
work of many other philatelists and hence was well-known in the community. I got in
contact with him when I started dealing in philatelic literature and we became friends
quickly. He used to sell his surplus books to me and in turn buy what he did not have. He
died suddenly when he was about 60. I bought his library which is my the largest
purchase till date. It occupied three vans and there were about 10,000 different titles as
well as duplicates and long runs of journals. It also had rare postal publications as well
as auction catalogues; for example those of Gilbert & Köhler sales in Paris including the
G. Koch German States auction catalogues in three parts which sold in 1908; I have
handled that catalogue only once!

In 2002 came the purchase of literature from a Swiss postal library. They were
duplicate philatelic journals from 1875 onwards. During World War II, Switzerland was
neutral and hence they had received almost all journals from abroad which are very
difficult to find otherwise. Especially interesting was the Asia Stamp Journal published
in 1939/40. This journal was brought out by refugees from Vienna, Austria after the
Anschluss7 in 1938 who settled in Shanghai. At that time, there were only three cities
open to Jewish refugees without passport and one of them was Shanghai.

In 2006, I bought the “Raketen” (rocket) library of Alfred Klein. Apart from books, the
collection contained two rockets! One was part of one of the six rockets made by Dr.
Gerald Zucker who experimented with sending mails by that medium. The other rocket
was one for sending propaganda leaflets from East to West Germany.

Another interesting purchase in 2007 was the Prof. Dr. Juergen Settgast library. Settgast
was a well-known Egyptian expert and his library contained many rare auction
catalogues from about 1930 onwards. I think he took his catalogues with him to his
archaeological excavations. To prevent insect infestation in his books, he used to put
moth powder on them, which brought about an unpleasant odour. However it was too
interesting material to throw away. One of my customers with knowledge of chemicals
said that I should put it in the oven at 50 degrees Celsius but I did not do that in fear of
getting divorced! I
eventually put them in a
room with an open window
for almost two years before
the odour left.

In 2009, I purchased most
part of the library of Paolo
Vollmeier, RDP. Vollmeier is
one of the giants in postal
history research and one of
the big names in philately. I
visited him in Lugano in
southern Switzerland, near
Italy. He had a lot of Italian
and French books and
worldwide postal history
Figure 9: Banana cartons containing the “Ried” library
books. He was an

Page 11 of 18
international philatelic judge and had a lot of exhibition catalogues as well. He was
interested in forgeries and was the editor of the first six issues of Fakes Forgeries
Experts, the annual journal on forgeries. He used to do a lot of research in archives on
the postal history of mainly Italy and Switzerland; his wife told me how once when they
were on a holiday someplace he spent the entire day in that city’s archives!

Besides the Taunus library, the other big library I purchased was the “Ried” library. In
2011 I received a call from a gentleman who had moved abroad and was liking the place
so much that he did not want to return to Germany. He had some philatelic literature
stored in an old barn about 50 kilometres from Frankfurt. Since the owners wanted the
barn space back, he requested me to go there and check the books out. When I went
there, I realised that it was an immense collection; later I counted 330 banana cartons.8
There were a lot of cheap stuff but there were some interesting items too. I sold most of
them to another collector but retained 50 cartons containing the better titles.

How do you break down libraries? Do you sell only the important titles and sell the
balance in auctions or collections?

I have some 35,000 unique titles in my database of titles I have sold in the past, of which
I have some 15,000 currently in stock. So when I have to describe them, I need to take
photographs to show condition but the other information is available in my database
and hence I can quickly list them again. Sometime I know the buyer for particular items
since I have his want list in my database. For certain books, which I have enough copies
of already or I am not interested in, I know a few people who I can sell to in bulk.

Do you maintain contacts with other literature dealers?

I have had contacts with most major philatelic literature dealers in the world. I regularly
buy books from them which they either publish or which I need for my customers;
sometimes I make them offers. Generally we are not competitors rather friends since
they are so few of us dealers in this part of the philatelic world as compared to the
others.

How do you compare philatelic literature now against say 15-20 years back?

I would say that the focus on philatelic literature is much more. You have the internet
which has dropped the price of books and some say digitalization has too. In my
opinion, digitalization does not play a big role in philately because collectors have
grown up with books and do not want to sit on the computer the whole day. They like to
have the book in front of them, study them, and then put them back on the shelf.

Yes, the internet has caused a drop in prices of books. But not so much for philatelic
books as general ones. These are under big pressure mainly because of the high printing
numbers. Further a friend of mine who is in the general book trade told me that now
details of all books are online. Collectors compare prices on the internet and hence they
just keep going down, even for books which have very limited numbers available. As far
as philatelic literature is concerned you have limited printing numbers say 150 copies
or less; maybe the English ones are more but not the German ones. Hence prices will
stay stable and even go up; just compare prices of modern stamps with literature!

Page 12 of 18
 Figure 10: On left: Dr. Manfred Amrhein comes visiting in 2007. On right: Amrhein's books shipped to Burkhard

Which titles in the recent years have been the most popular?

We have two types of collectors. One is a book collector who wants all unusual books,
good condition books, numbered ones, and limited edition ones, in his collection.
Someone who buys his books by the Crawford catalogue. The other is someone who
wants books to improve his knowledge, often an exhibitor or advanced postal history
collector. Very often they want to have all important books pertaining to their
collecting area.

Some of the books which have been most popular in recent years are British Letter Mail
to Overseas Destinations 1840-1875 by Jane and Michael Moubray (1992 with a revised
edition 2017), Understanding Transatlantic Mails by Richard Winter (in two volumes
published 2006 and 2009), Marques de Passage by James Van der Linden (1993), The
Postal History of Mongolia by Wolfgang Hellrigl (2011).

Some German titles that I have sold many copies of are Privatpostkarten-Katalog Band I,
Deutsches Reich von 1873 bis 1945 by Hanspeter Frech (3rd Edition 2003), Österreich
Handbuch und Spezialkatalog by Dr. Ulrich Ferchenbauer (7th last edition 2008),
Chronik der Post in Frankfurt am Main by Karl Heinz Kremer (2008) of which I am the
sole distributor, and Zusammenstellung der Portosätze für die Correspondenz mit dem
Ausland, Taler-Währung 1846-1875 by Werner Steven (1985) which was published by
me.9



Page 13 of 18
Which title have you wished you handled but
never managed to?

I never got to handle all of Die Postwertzeichen
der Russischen Landschaftsaemter by Carl
Schmidt. The book is about the Russian
Zemstovs and was published in eight parts. It
is very rare. I only have had some parts
passing my hands but never all of them.

How long do you wish to continue dealing
in literature?

I am 63 now and have no plans of retiring at
present. But if in the years to come someone
comes around who likes books and is prepared
to take over my business and do a good job of
it, I would be willing to sell and retire.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank
Burkhard for patiently answering my questions.
Any feedback or information can be shared on
Figure 11: First part of a rare publication in eight parts
my email id: abbh@hotmail.com or on my
twitter handle @abhuwalka.

APPENDIX

Libraries purchased by Burkhard Schneider over the last 25 years10
Year Library Details
1995 First price list for books First price list for new philatelic literature. New
titles only.
1996 “German States Library” First library purchase of German States
1997 Robson Lowe Ltd., London Parts of the Robson Lowe Ltd. library
1997 Garratt-Adams, Wales Parts of the legendary Garratt-Adams library
from his Welsh castle
1998 “Attic Find” Auction catalogues from 1914. An old-time find
previously from Eastern Germany.
1998 Robert Danzig, London Robert Danzig London stock. Finder of the
Garratt-Adams library and describer of the
library sales
1999 “Old Auction Catalogues” Enormous holding of old auction catalogues from
1932 onwards of almost all European auction
houses
1999 Berliner Philatelisten-Club Remainder stock of the Berlin Philatelisten Club
journal
2000 Wolfgang Diesner F.R.S.P.L. One of the best international philatelic libraries
in Germany
2000 “La Plata” - Library Exceptional Latin America library. Assembled in
around 40 visits to Latin America
2000 Sigurd Ringstroem, Sweden Balance of his philatelic literature estate, with
many of his own books, luxury editions, etc.

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 2000 Verein für Briefmarkenkunde Duplicates from the largest German philatelic
Library club library at Frankfurt am Main
2000-01 “Taunus-Library” Purchase of the library of Hans-Herrmann Mette.
Probably the largest German private philatelic
library at that time with about 10,000 different
items.
2002 “Postal Museum” Purchase of a large portion of Post Office
literature
2002 “Postal Museum Abroad” Find of old philatelic journals from 1875-1950,
purchased from a foreign postal museum
2002 Emil W. Mewes R.D.P. Sales of the larger part of his library with all rare
books and also books he published or edited
2003 Dr. Joachim Helbig Duplicates from a well-known German postal
history expert
2004 Theo Klewitz World-wide literature of the former Michel-
Rundschau employee, well-known philatelic
writer, and Yemen specialist
2005 Weserbergland Find Untouched estate of an early collector with old
pricelists and journals assembled between 1875
and 1910
2006 Weps Library German States
2006 "Wiegand Air Mail” Airmail Library. Co-author of the Wiegand &
Haberer catalogues.
2006 Dr. H. Jaeger R.D.P. Parts of the library of one of Germany's most
prominent philatelists
2006 “Raketen-Klein” The specialist airmail library, particularly rocket
mail, of Alfred Klein
2007 “Auction Company” Duplicates from an auction company’s library
2007 Prof. Dr. Juergen Settgast Sale of the well-known Egypt expert, with many
old auction catalogues from about 1930,
extensive
2008 Hanfried Mueller Library of the German BPP (Bund
Philatelistischer Prüfer) Feldpost WWII expert
2008 “Auction Company Abroad” Purchase of the archive of auction catalogues
from an international auction company
2008 Royal Philatelic Society, Library duplicates from one of the oldest and
London best philatelic libraries in the world
2008 John Duggan F.R.S.P.L. Library of the well-known airmail and zeppelin
expert and author including the remaining stock
of his own books
2008 Wolfgang Willkommen Library of the well-known Togo and Marshall
Island specialist
2008-09 Fred Muche A.P.S. Extensive German postal library with early and
rare postal history works; also several thousands
of old maps, prints, valuable general books, etc.
2009 Royal Philatelic Society, Library duplicates
London
2009 Senf Library Large parts of the legendary Richard Senf library,
with printing plates, old business journals etc.
from 1885
2009 “Rayon Holding”, Switzerland Old-time holding of books from Switzerland,
assembled from about 1920, with earlier works
from 1875 onwards

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 2009 Dietrich Bolte F.R.S.P.L. Library of the well-known collector of German
Saxony, Orange Free State, and Sicily
2009 Thailand Library Thailand and general philatelic library; along
with a registration of important Thai items,
forgeries, etc. in 20 binders
2009 Paolo Vollmeier R.D.P. Part I Part I of the well-known postal historian’s
international library
2009-10 Rolf Ritter-Library Another one of Germany's largest private
philatelic libraries with focus on literature of
Germany
2009 Dr. Meissner, Stuttgart Parts of the library of the well-known postal
stationery collector
2010 James van der Linden R.D.P. I Part I of the well-known international library
2011 Royal Philatelic Society, Library duplicates
London
2011 “Bayern” und “Greece” Library of a well-known German expert
2011 Dr. Federico Borromeo d'Adda Duplicates from the famous Italian philatelic
library.
2011-12 “Ried-Library” Enormous holding of philatelic literature stored
in 330 large cartons
2011-12 Gottfried North Library of the former director of the German
Postal Museum at Frankfurt am Main and long-
time Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of
Deutschen Gesellschaft für Post- und
Telekommunikationsgeschichte (DGPT)
2011-13 Christian Schumann German States library
2012 Wolfgang Reiner Library of the well-known German exhibitor from
Berlin.
2012 Dr. Joachim Helbig Part I of the library of the well-known German
postal historian and author
2012-13 Hanover Library Parts of a comprehensive private philatelic
library from Hanover
2013 James van der Linden R.D.P. Part II of the well-known postal history library
2013 Prof. Dr. Wiegand Bruns Larger (first) part of the philatelic library
2014 Robert Fuerbeth Swiss philatelic library
2014 Hohenzollern Collection of auction catalogues
2014 Schott, Strasbourg Library of the Schott company assembled since
1926
2014 Dr. Johannes Weidlich International postal history library
2014 German Russia Auction Co. Russia philatelic literature stock
2014 Han Vermeulen, Netherlands German States & Netherlands philatelic library
2014 Dieter Bettner Library of the former German ArGe Russia
president
2015 Forstreuter AG, Switzerland Latin America philatelic literature stock
2015 Foreign Postal Museum Duplicates
2015 “XX” First part of an extraordinary literature stock
2015 Dr. Meissner Library postal stationery, fiscals, Australia, ex
judge and RPSL representative
2015 Anton Voorbraak International Postal History
2016 Werner Seeba Southern Africa library, German contributor to
the Putzel postmark handbooks
2016 “NRW-Library” Germany, all periods with focus on "postal

Page 16 of 18
 history"
2016 Hajo Duesterwald “Danzig” Library of the well-known Danzig airmail
specialist and author
2016 Alfred Mechler, Frankfurt am German States library
Main
2016 Hans Beck Great Britain library from one of the oldest
customers (1980)
2017 Max Plantinga “Turkey” Turkey library of the well-known Dutch collector
2017 Cornelis Muys (The Hague) Library of the well-known Dutch postal historian
2017 “Classics” Part of the well-known classics library from
Switzerland
2017 Dr. Alexander Gundel USA postal history and postal stationery
2017 Dr. H. Schmidt German stamps and postal history library
2017 R. Glaser Germany WWII field post library
2018 Friedrich Pietz Bayern and German States library of the well-
known pre philately specialist
2018 Klaus Peter Ruehl The library "Muster ohne Wert" and general
philately
2018 Werner Hintze Archive and library German Railway mail
2018 Hutterer/ Seeba Last portion of South African books from these
well-known German collectors of South Africa
2018 Harry von Hofmann Remaining stock of Latvia and other books
2018 Wolfgang Willkommen Last portion of the German colonial library
2019 Juergen Schnellbacher Library of the North German postal history dealer
2019 “The Ticino Find” Old auction catalogues subscribed between 1926
and 1937
2019 Harry von Hofmann RDP First part of his well-known library
2019 Professor Reinhard Krueger German postal history literature estate
2019 Theo Klewitz Philatelic collections last part (started in 1980!)
2019 Harry von Hofmann RDP Second portion of the library
2020 Dr. Andreas Birken Ottoman Empire, India, South Africa

NOTES
1
Burkhard’s biography i.e. the first few pages of this article was written by him in German and translated into
English by the UK philatelist, Philip E. Robinson. A guest blog by Robinson on his love for German and
translating German texts can be found on my website philaliterature.com.
2
Dr. Manfred Amrhein is one of the world’s foremost experts on philatelic literature. Born in Munich, Germany
in 1938, he settled in Costa Rica practicing internal medicine. His magnus opus four-volume Philatelic
Literature is the best source of information on philatelic literature of all countries of the world from the earliest
times to their publication. Due to his reclusive nature, we are not sure but think that the fifth and last volume has
not yet come out; it was to cover the United States, Great Britain, and the former British Colonies including
India (Author’s email correspondence with Dr. Amrhein, February 2014).
3
Burkhard’s word for his part-time employees.
4
A detailed article by Robert Danzig on the Garratt-Adams library can be found in “The Story of the H. Garratt-
Adams Philatelic Library” published in The Philatelic Literature Review (Vol. 43 no. 3, 3rd Quarter 1994).
5
Danzig records the name of Garratt-Adams’ grandson as Caius Hawkins.
6
The Garratt-Adams library was so huge sold over three auctions by Huys-Berlingin of Liechtenstein between
1994 and 1997. Some parts were also sold by the auction house Schwanke & Sohn in 1999 and 2002.
7
The Anschluss refers to the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
8
Each of these banana cartons measured 24 x 54 x 39 centimeters (or 9.5 x 21.25 x 15.35 inches).
9
The English equivalent titles of these four German books are Private Postcard Catalog Volume I, German
Empire from 1873 to 1945, Austria Manual and Special Catalog, Chronicle of the Post in Frankfurt am Main,

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and Compilation of Postage Rates for Correspondence with Foreign Countries, Taler Currency 1846-1875
respectively.
10
While this list is on Burkhard’s website and is being updated with new purchases all the time, it is being
reproduced here (with some corrections) to ensure that it is preserved in the printed record.

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