(Rainer von Scharpen – AIJP/pcp) Probably no other non-employee is as familiar with the auction house Heinrich Köhler as Wolfgang Maassen. For years he has been coming and going at the company headquarters in Wiesbaden, knows the history of the company inside out from intensive research in the company archives, has accompanied many an auction, conceiving special events and then occasionally giving the celebratory speeches, and is on friendly terms with those in positions of responsibility… It is hardly surprising that in 2013 he was commissioned to write a chronicle for the company’s 100th anniversary. The result was a volume of more than 500 pages.
And now another work for the company’s 111th birthday? The author humorously notes that the volume is not due to Wiesbaden’s proximity to the carnival stronghold of Mainz, but rather to the fact that the past eleven years have been particularly eventful and marked by forward-looking decisions and developments that are worth summarising. In doing so, the author repeatedly draws on earlier reports from his press service, as well as on communiqués from the Köhler company itself.
To avoid repetition, Maassen condenses the first one hundred years into a few pages, focusing on important life dates of the company’s founder Heinrich Köhler and his successors. The focus is logically on the period since the centenary.
The author skilfully breaks down the time span. First, in the form of a ‘news ticker’, limited to a maximum of two pages each, people, developments, events and trends pass by the reader. These include, for example, the transfer of the Müller Mark records to the Köhler database, the appointment of a new managing director (Tobias Huylmans) and the move out of the offices on Wilhelmstraße. The next block highlights important auctions and special catalogues (2013-2014). A review of eleven fascinating years. The 360th auction, which took place in the British capital during the EUROPHILEX 2015 as an exclusive auction of superlative rarities, deserves special mention here. It was an IT and logistical masterpiece.
A separate chapter is dedicated to Erivan Haub and the ERIVAN collection. The course for the future is set by new standards, as presented in Marketing & PR: Köhler’s strong presence at international exhibitions and events, including the World Stamp Show New York 2016, the Philatelic Summits in Stockholm 2017 and Greece 2018, STOCKHOLMIA 2019 and IBRA Essen 2023, where the promotion of philately was the key to success. The consistently continued book series Édition d’Or & Édition Spéciale present themselves as ‘preserved life’s work’, and the promotion of clubs and associations continues to be an integral part of the marketing strategy. A core concern here is also the promotion of literature, whether in the form of special literature auctions or the publication of special volumes such as Werner Schindler’s Levante book, Dr Heinz Jäger’s ‘Collecting stamps – why?’ or Andreas Hahn’s ‘Germania Myth’.
The overview would not be complete without the friendly ‘end credits’, in which Dieter Michelson and Dr Daniela Weinstock introduce the team with their very personal accents: for example, students Elisabeth Eisenbach and Leon Bernhard, head philatelist and Haub confidant Michael Hilbertz, the multitasking talent Berta Pérez Valverde or marketing manager and marathon runner André Schneider, and even the freelancers, the ‘secret weapon’ behind the auctions.
The volume is focused in its presentation, informative, close to the people, vividly written with some interesting insider knowledge, varied and lavishly illustrated – ‘a company portrait that offers much more than sober figures’. It integrates the reader into the large Köhler family, so to speak. Wolfgang Maassen has once again created a book that is as fascinating as it is appealing.
MAASSEN, Wolfgang, 111 years of the auction house Heinrich Köhler, 1913 to 2024. (Special edition no. 20 in the series ‘Chronik der deutschen Philatelie’ ). Schwalmtal: Phil*Creativ GmbH, 2024. 28 x 21 cm; 208 pages, colour illustrations, satin-finished 150 g paper. The book is also available in English (‘111 Years Auction House Heinrich Köhler’). It can be obtained free of charge from: Heinrich Köhler, Hasengartenstraße 25, 65189 Wiesbaden.
Translated with DeepL (www.deepl.com)
