New book on Pierre de Coubertin
PdC. Pierre de Coubertin and the Olympic Philately
by Rüdiger Fritz / Volker Kluge
(Book in German)
The abbreviation “PdC” stands for only one person, the founder of the Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin, to whom this splendidly arranged book, is dedicated. However, the authors Rüdiger Fritz (Halle/Saale) and Volker Kluge (Berlin) did not want to add another publication to the list of interpretations which deal with the life of the French baron. They concentrate instead on the Olympic philately to which Coubertin contributed a great deal.
We owe not only the fascinating experience of the modern Olympic Games to Coubertin, for he was also a visionary, brilliant networker and PR strategist. Between the IOC Sessions, Coubertin stayed in contact with his co-workers by writing a huge number of postcards which he usually signed with “PdC.. The book presents a selection of these expensive popular collective objects most of whose originals belong to Rüdiger Fritz.
Probably Coubertin was never himself an Olympic philatelist. But the topic is especially interesting because there is no other person worldwide, not even the British Queen, who has been shown on a postage stamp more often than he. Although the first stamps with his portrait were not issued until after Coubertin’s death (Haiti in 1939), 79 countries have issued stamps with his portrait.
The book not only shows the most beautiful and expensive Coubertin stamps, it also assembles, to some extent unpublished, philatelic products and documents which relate to famous athletes, Coubertin’s colleagues as well as his time and their protagonists. And we promise that you will find lots of details about Coubertin’s life which have never been published before.
Rüdiger Fritz / Volker Kluge, „PdC. Pierre de Coubertin und die Olympia-Philatelie“, book in German, 256 pages, 453 coloured illustrations, Alpheios Publications, Meisenweg 6 b, 06110 Halle/Saale, Germany/Deutschland, www.alpheios-publications.de(expectedby the end ofJune 2015),E-Mail:ruediger.rudolf@t-online.de, Price: 29.90 EUR (Subscription price to 30 September when ordering via Alpheios Publications), 42.00 EUR at bookshops, ISBN 978-3-00-049017-0.
