Honorary Awards 2022
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In accordance with its purpose, the Board of Trustees of the Kimmel Foundation for Postal History was able to award the following honorary prizes at its meeting on June 11, 2022 after detailed discussion:
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Kurt Baumgartner, as author and researcher for his work "Postal History Ticino"
Adriano Bergamini, as exhibitor for his exhibit "WSC postal traffic from Ticino to other countries before the UPU"
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Kurt Baumgartner, born in 1939, managed Metkon SA for more than 40 years and was President of the Circolo Filatelico del Mendrisiotto for 23 years. At the same time he collected letters, historical documents and postcards from the 19th century from the canton of Ticino. Since 2002 he has been in charge of the museums of the Baumgartner family in Mendrisio. ​
In 1993 Kurt began to publish his research results after he was able to make an inventory of 236 original stamps from the Bellinzona State Archives. This research enabled him to publish the books "Catalogo dei bolli di franchigia e sigilli delle Municipalità ticinesi" and "Cantone Ticino occupato dalle Troppe napoleoniche del Regno d'Italia 1810-1813". Although printed in an edition of 500 copies, these are already sold out. We consider both works to be successful pioneering achievements in postal history research, which were also honored with large vermeil and gold medals in the literature class at FIP ​​exhibitions. His extensive collection "Militaria Ticinensia" was also awarded a Grand Vermeil and an honorary prize as an exhibit at the 1998 FIP exhibition in Milan. ​
Our board of trustees has unanimously decided to award our honorary award 2022 to Mr. Kurt Baumgartner as a collector, researcher, author and exhibitor.
Adriano Bergamini, born in 1958, has been an honorary member of the board of trustees since our foundation was founded. Since 2006 President of the Circolo Filatelico Lugano, which organized the 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2022 FIP-WSC exhibitions. ​
Unlike most of us, he did not start by collecting stamps but by collecting the cancellations of Hungary 1850-1867. During the last 30 years he has expanded this collection and exhibited it in various exhibits, each of which has been awarded gold and large gold. At the FIP-WSC exhibition in Budapest 2022, Adriano won the GPN with his exhibit «Austrian Post in Hungary». After Adriano became FIP-WSC World Champion in 2022 with his exhibit "Ticino" and his Hungary collection is now regarded as the best in the world, he is now building postal history collections such as Croatia, Sicily and "Thurn und Taxis". He is also likely to be nominated as a FIP juror for Postal History Europe more often in the future. ​
While Adriano Bergamini was absent, our board of trustees unanimously decided to award him our honorary award 2022 as a collector and exhibitor.
Honorary Awards 2021
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In accordance with its purpose, the Board of Trustees of the Kimmel Foundation for Postal History was able to award the following honorary prizes at its meeting on June 23, 2021 after detailed discussion:
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Martin Gasser, as author, exhibitor and researcher of the Swiss postal route stamp 1805-1881
Claude Montandon, as an exhibitor and researcher for his exhibit "Schweizer Taxzahlen“
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Martin Gasser was born in 1932 and has been a member of the Aarau Stamp Collectors Association since 1960. From 1964 - 1971 Martin was President of the Aarau Stamps Association. From 1969 - 1972 he was Vice President of the VSPhV. ​
Since 1998, Martin has been dealing with the Swiss route and messenger stamps and, as far as possible, registered all of them with the date, place of origin and delivery address as well as the rate. This research work enabled him to reliably determine the place of use for most of the stamps and in 2010 to publish Volume X "Swiss Postal Route Stamps 1805-1881" in the Swiss Postal History series. We consider the approximately 400-page manual to be a successful pioneering achievement and a model of postal history research, which was honored with the "Golden Post Horn" as the highest award in the literature class at the "Postal History Live 2010" exhibition in Sindelfingen. His extensive collection from this area was awarded Gross Gold as an exhibit at the FIP exhibitions in 2009 and 2011 and also received a “Golden Post Horn” at the “Postal History Live 2013” ​​exhibition in Sindelfingen. ​
Our board of trustees has unanimously decided to award our honorary award 2021 to Mr. Martin Gasser as a collector, researcher, author and exhibitor.
Claude Montandon, born in 1946, has been an honorary member of the Board of Trustees since our foundation was set up. He has been leading the Swiss Association for Postal History since 2006 and organizes annual training courses for jurors and exhibitors wherever possible. During a four-year term of office, he took over the presidency of the VSPhV and served as a juror or jury president at many exhibitions. ​
Insufficiently franked letters stimulated his thirst for research and enabled him to collect and successfully exhibit previously little-known areas. For the first time, he researched the tax number stamps for unstamped letters from the Swiss post offices and the stamps for courier mail in the Jura. Several gold medals and a large gold award at FIP ​​exhibitions from 2000-2014 as well as the "Golden Post Horn 2008 Sindelfingen" showed that his exhibits also found international recognition. He also began to take an interest in the historically varied history of Alsace and to research postal history, with success, as he was awarded several gold medals with his exhibits in Bulle in 2019. ​
Our Board of Trustees unanimously decided to appoint Dr. To award our honorary prize 2021 to Claude Montandon as a collector, researcher and exhibitor.
Honorary Awards 2020
In accordance with its purpose, the Board of Trustees of the Kimmel Foundation for Postal History, at its meeting on June 15, 2020, welcomed Pierre Guinand, as author, expert and researcher on Swiss postal history of the 19th and 20th centuries, and Jürg Roth as exhibitor for his exhibit "Postal History Wynental 1813-1908 ", for which he won large gold in China, with the honorary award.
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Jürg Roth, born in 1957, worked for Swissair and Swiss Airlines for 44 years, most recently as the person responsible for the Lufthansa Group's aircraft handling contracts. ​
Since 1987 he has been studying the postal history of the canton of Aargau in depth and over the years has built up a postal history collection about the Wynental in the Kulm district. In 2004, his exhibit was awarded the silver post horn and has since been awarded gold or gross gold at various exhibitions in Germany and abroad, most recently in 2019 at the FIP World Exhibition in Wuhan, which Chinese city later became known as the origin of the corona virus. In 1996, together with fellow collectors, he founded the ARGE Canton Aargau research group, whose work was published in 2012 in the “Stempelwerk Kanton Aargau” as Volume XIII of the Swiss Postal History series. Since April 2001, Jürg Roth has been the editor of the association's magazine «Postgeschichte», which is published quarterly. He has been a member of our association's jury since 2007 and meets all the requirements to become a FIP juror. In 2020 he was appointed to the board of the Consilium and has been responsible for the exhibitions department in the VSPhV since March 2020. ​
Our board of trustees has unanimously decided to award our honorary award 2020 to Mr. Jürg Roth as a collector, researcher and exhibitor.
Pierre Guinand, born in Lausanne in 1940, worked as a teacher from 1961 until his retirement. On Christmas 1949, he received the Zumstein special catalogue, which is why his first German words were "Abarten und Plattenabnützung" before he learned German at school.
Since 1967 he has served the philatelic association as the association auditor for the Swiss editions from 1862 to 1907. He served as president of the "Cercle d'Étude Philatélique du Léman" for 25 years and as a jury member for our association for 30 years. His extensive collection of "Standing Helvetia" served as the basis for his first book, which was published in 1982. His research work on temporary stamps and their publication in 1990 are particularly valuable for our postal history. Temporary stamps, which were only used for a few days or weeks until these post offices received their repaired or adjusted stamps back, are important for research into Swiss stamps. His collection is undoubtedly the most important in this area and contains many rarities. His digital recording of around 100,000 stamps from the period 1867 up to the introduction of postcodes serves as comparison material for checking cancellations and often as proof of stamp forgeries and backdating.
Our Board of Trustees has unanimously decided to award our Honorary Award 2020 to Mr. Pierre Guinand for his life's work to date as a collector, researcher, author and examiner.
Honorary Awards 2019
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As part of this year's seminar, which the Consilium Philateliae Helveticae held on August 31, 2019 in Weggis, Kurt Kimmel presented the honorary prizes awarded by the Board of Trustees of the Kimmel Foundation for Post-History and recognized the merits of the winners.
Giovanni Balimann, born in 1950 and PhD in natural sciences since 1977, was a member of the management of Chocolat Frey and Delica AG for 25 years. Started as an exhibitor in the youth class in 1963 and received the gold medal at the FIP exhibition in Taipei in 2016 for his obvious research into stamps and 20th century Swiss postal history. From 2008-2016 he served as Secretary and President of the Consilium. Giovanni has been responsible for the exhibition department in the VSPhV since 2017 and was elected to the central board in 2018. For several years he was editor of the magazine “der Poststempelsammler” and from 1989-1992 he was a member of the editorial committee of the Swiss stamp newspaper.
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In 1978 the handbook of advertising date stamps and in 1983 the two volumes of machine stamps and in 1988 "Postgeschichte Aarau" were published, on which Giovanni worked as a co-author. In 2000 the Consilium published his work in two volumes "The development of velvet franking for cash franking 1911-1997". This successful pioneering achievement contributed to researching and collecting the Swiss postal history.
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Our Board of Trustees unanimously decided to award Dr. Giovanni Balimann our honorary award 2019 for his life's work to date as a collector, researcher, author and exhibitor.
Heini Windels, born in Schaffhausen in 1942, founded his own architecture office with general contracting in 1978 after 20 years of extensive training and professional experience in the construction industry. As a member of the Board of Trustees, he was therefore able to provide us with expert support in the purchase and renovation of the House of Postal History in Goldau.
Despite his busy job, he found time for philately. His extensive collection of the Principality of Liechtenstein from 1680 to 1985 was exhibited in Vaduz in 2012 and in Lugano in 2018 with 25-30 frames each in the courtyard of honor. Since 2012 he has been a member of the board of directors in the Ring of Liechtenstein Collectors and became Vice President of the VLS in 2018.
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In addition, he devoted his free time to researching the postal history of the canton of Schaffhausen. In doing so, he not only took into account the postal aspects such as stamps and tariffs, but also considered the historical and socio-historical background. The postal history of this small canton is particularly interesting because Thurn und Taxis held the postal rights until it was sold to the Swiss Confederation in 1853. His exhibit was awarded gross gold at our national exhibitions in 2012 and 2018 and the silver post horn in 2015 in Sindelfingen.
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While Heini Windels stepped down, our Board of Trustees unanimously decided to award him our 2019 Honorary Award for his life's work as a collector, researcher and exhibitor.
Honorary Awards 2018
The honorary prizes of the Kimmel Foundation were awarded on the occasion of the advanced training seminar on November 17, 2018 in the Olten railway station buffet. Kurt Kimmel was able to tell Dr. Zeno Inderbitzin and Joos Dünki present the highly deserved honorary awards.
Dr. Zeno Inderbitzin, born in 1930 in Schwyz, he was the director of Rex-Verlag from 1966 to 1983 and received letters from all over the world, which aroused his interest in stamp collecting. In 1985 he was appointed to the Lucerne Monument Preservation and worked in the afternoon in the State Archives, which made his extensive research easier for him. In 1997 he published his first book "Postal History of the Canton of Schwyz", which comprehensively presents this area, which had previously been neglected, on 685 pages. This exemplary work can serve as a template for processing the postal history of other cantons. A second volume followed in 2000 with all the stamps of the Canton of Schwyz. These are listed on 667 pages with details of the period of use and all stamps known to the author. In addition to his and other collections, this also includes those of the State Archives Lucerne, Schwyz and St. Gallen and allows conclusions to be drawn about the rarity. Some have since found their way into the collection of our foundation. Our Board of Trustees unanimously decided to appoint Dr. Inderbitzin to award our honorary award 2018 for his life's work as a collector, researcher and author.
Joos Dünki, born in Embrach in 1949, he has been collecting receipts and documents for his home collection in the Embrach Valley for more than 40 years, about which he published the brochure "150 Years of Post in the Embrach Valley" in 1992. After he exhibited his extended collection area "Postal History of the Bülach District" for the first time in 2006, he has since achieved three of the first-place exhibitions, each gold or large gold. His exhibit was awarded the Silver Posthorn in Sindelfingen in 2009, which was a notable success for a collection area of ​​regional importance. Joos Dünki has been a member of the board and broadcasting director of the Swiss Association for Postal History for around 30 years. He also played a key role in ensuring that Switzerland has been present and represented in a pleasant manner for many years at the "International Post-History Days", which take place in Sindelfingen at the end of October each year. Our board of trustees unanimously decided to award our honorary award 2018 to Mr. Joos Dünki, especially as a collector and exhibitor.
Honorary Awards 2017
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The Board of Trustees honors the winner of the 2017 honorary award as
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...author Felix Winterstein, for his life's work as a collector, researcher and author of books of importance to postal history.
...exhibitor Jean Voruz, for his FIP Grand Prix International exhibit "Geneva Postal Services 1839-1862".
Honorary Awards 2016
The Board of Trustees honors the winner of the 2016 honorary award as
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...author Richard Schäfer, for his life's work as a collector, researcher and author of books of importance to postal history.
...exhibitor Hans Häfeli, for his exhibit "Postgeschichte der Stadt Zürich 1602 - 1800".
Honorary Awards 2015
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The Board of Trustees honors the winner of the 2015 honorary award as
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...author Paolo Vollmeier, for his life's work as author and publisher of books of importance to postal history.
...exhibitor Max Matti, for his exhibit "Die Postgeschichte des Kantons Appenzell Ausserrhoden bis 1900".