The German state North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) is with a population of ca. 18 million the most populous state of Germany. Four of Germany’s 10 largest cities are situated in this state: Cologne (the largest), Dortmund, Düsseldorf (the state capital) and Essen. It is also the centre of thematic philately with the organization of the ECTP (European Championship of Thematic Philately) in Essen.
But they are also active on another front: the philatelic working group RUHR organised already for the 3rd time the online exhibition RUHRVIA (‘VIA’ = “virtuelle Ausstellung” or “virtual exhibition”). After the success of the 1st and 2nd RUHRVIA online exhibitions this is already the third one. The BDPh (German Philatelist Federation) has a new website. One of the most famous features is the “Exponate online” (= online exhibits). By organizing an online competition this could bring more exhibits online on the website. These exhibits in this competition might only be seen online, because not all of them enter a real exhibition. And you can watch them whenever you want.
When you exhibit online, you will have no frame or travel costs. Also low costs for the organization: they will have to find some judges who are willing to give an evaluation. 25 exhibits subscribed for RUHRVIA 2017 – 10 of them in the thematic philately class. One of them has been transferred to open philately, so here we find 3 exhibits in total. Exhibits have been judged according to category 3 (“Rang 3”), which means that you have a gold medal with 75% (and no large gold medals). Nice to see that also thematic judges find their way in exhibiting online (Damian Läge and Peter Lang).
The winner of all classes was the one frame exhibit of Damian Läge on the ‘Maoritaube‘ (New Zealand Pigeon). This exhibit was already on the BIRDPEX 8 (EXPHIMO 2018) exhibition in Mondorf-les-Bains, but not judged there, because he was one of the judges himself. Damian Läge also exhibited in RUHRVIA 2019 his first postal stationery exhibit: ‘Die Postkarten met Wertzeichen Postreiter – Spiegel der deutschen Inflationszeit 1921-1923 im Format 14×9‘ (with 91% the second best exhibit of RUHRVIA 2019!). If you are interested in one of these exhibits, don’t wait too long to see these online. Not everybody will put them on the BDPh website after the closing of the exhibition RUHRVIA 2019.
| THEMATIC PHILATELY | One frame | |
| Damian LÄGE | Die Maoritaube – ein ernsthaft bedrohter Gärtner in den Wäldern Neuseelands | 94% (G) |
| Clemens M. BRANDSTETTER | Jan Karski – einsam gegen die Endlösung | 73% (V) |
| Daniela VOGT-WEISENHORN | Kasperle – ein Spassmacher mit Migrationshintergrund | 72% (V) |
| Clemens M. BRANDSTETTER | Der Zauberberg | 70% (V) |
| THEMATIC PHILATELY | Multiframe | |
| Peter LANG | Von Mozart bis Madonna – Die Geschichte der populären Musik | 84% (G) |
| Wolfgang SANDERS | Der Glanz des Mittelalters – eine kleine Geschichte der Staufer | 83% (G) |
| Clemens M BRANDSTETTER | Die September-Verschwörung | 81% (G) |
| Clemens M BRANDSTETTER | Der Puppenspieler | 80% (G) |
| Fritz BAUMGARDT | Faszination Kuss – Eine Kulturgeschichte auf Briefmarken | 63% (S) |
| OPEN PHILATELY | Multiframe | |
| Christian CZUBEK | In Nacht und Eis – Der Mensch in der Antarktis | 83% (G) |
| Peter HORNUNG | Königliche Post: Die britische Monarchie von Queen Victoria bis Queen Elisabeth II | 78% (G) |
| Peter LOTZ | Leuchtturm-Serie auf Ole West Karten | 59% (S) |
