The „Astrophil 2013" space philately exhibition.
The German-Russian joint space philately exhibition was held in the Russian House for Science and Culture at Berlin since April 12 till April 14, 2013.
The event was devoted to the 50th Anniversary of the first spaceflight of a woman cosmonaut and the 35th Anniversary of the first flight of a German national into space.
The exhibition was organized by:
Chairman of the FIP Section for Astrophilately Igor Rodin (Moscow, Russia);
the Federal Working Group on Space Philately (Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft „Weltraum Philatelie" e. V.) in the Federation of German Philatelists (BDPh);
the Russian House for Science and Culture at Berlin;
the Association of Russia/UdSSR Stamp Collectors Berlin (Verein der Briefmarkenfreunde Rußland/UdSSR Berlin);
the Federation of Berlin Stamp Clubs (Verband Berliner Philatelisten-Vereine).
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalenok and German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn, the 2 of the 4 participants of the first German space mission, were the honorary guests of the exhibition.
Before the opening ceremony, the press-conference with the cosmonauts and the organizers took place in the Russian House.
The press-conference was conducted by Sergey Zhuravlev (standing in the centre), deputy director of the Russian House.
The opening ceremony took place on April 12, the Cosmonautic Day.
The organizers and Honorary guests welcomed the exhibition.
The founder of the FIP Section for Astrophilately, Mrs. Beatrice Bachmann (Switzerland)
took part in the Exhibiton (in the center).
At the end of the ceremony the exhibitors and guests with a great interest watched
a video film by Sergey Rodin about space mail.
It was a non-competitive international exhibition. The exhibitors from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Romania, Russia and Switzerland took part in the event with 48 exhibits about the conquest of space in the following classes: the Honorary Class, Astrophilately, Thematic, Open Class and one frame exhibits.
The German Post issued a special cover and the pictorial postmarker (special official post mark) devoted to the exhibition. On April 13, German Postal Service attended the show with a mobile post office.
On April 13, cosmonauts Kovalyonok and Jähn told about of their joint "Intercosmos” space flight on Salyut 6, followed by round table talk about the future of manned space exploration.
The informal Closing Dinner was accompanied with an unscheduled autographing session.
On April 14, Igor Rodin gave a lecture on Astrophilately titled "From the History of Soviet/Russian Space Mail”. The translation of the lecture from English into German was made by Jürgen Esders.
Photos by Sergey Rodin
