‘I was a good customer and friend of Burkhard Schneider, who founded and built up philabooks. When Burkhard had to give up the business due to illness, I didn’t want this ‘institution’ to disappear, so I took over the stock and the business. Since then, I have been running philabooks alongside my family, job and hobbies. So please bear with me: I am passionate about what I do, but as a ‘side job’, everything takes a little longer. For example, our main warehouse is not in Frankfurt (for cost reasons). Therefore, orders are usually only shipped once a week.’
He tells visitors to his website a little about himself: ‘My name is Björn Rosenau. I was born in Uelzen (Lüneburg Heath) in 1968 and studied in Marburg and Edinburgh. I now live and work in Frankfurt (married, two children, one dog). I have been collecting stamps since I was a child. My areas of interest are:
- The Kingdom of Hanover
- Disinfected mail in Germany
- Local collections ‘Uelzen’, ‘Frankfurt-Bornheim’ and ‘Hungen-Bellersheim’
I am also involved in organised philately:
- Editor of ARGE Hannover and Braunschweig
- Board member of the Verein für Briefmarkenkunde 1878 e.V. Frankfurt am Main
- Board member of the Landesverband der Philatelisten-Vereine von Hessen, Rhein-Main-Nahe e.V.
Membership
We are members of the following associations, among others:
- DASV (German Old Letter Collectors’ Association)
- APS (American Philatelic Society)
- Arge Hannover und Braunscheig & ARGE Thurn und Taxis
- Verein für Briefmarkenkunde 1878 e.V. Frankfurt am Main (sponsor of the PHILA library)
- Philatelistische Bibliothek Hamburg e.V.
Last but not least, he also presents the ‘philosophy’ of his antiquarian bookshop, which is: ‘We give philatelic reference books a second life! This applies not only to bibliophile rarities, but also to ‘grey literature’, which is often just as important for our areas of collection. The preservation and passing on of philatelic expertise is very important to us. However, we also support authors by distributing and publishing their specialist books – please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.’
This means that Germany is now once again in the fortunate position of having three specialist philatelic antiquarian bookshops, which can only be welcomed in terms of preserving and promoting philately. ‘Welcome back, Philabook!’
Translated with DeepL (www.deepl.com)
