This web page contains links to the content of the exhibit pages for the exhibit 'The Break-Up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire' by Al Kugel.
This exhibit documents through contemporary postal material the history of the disintegration of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire into rump Austria and Hungary as well as the creation of several new successor states in Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and the augmentation of other neighboring countries, i.e. Italy and Romania.
In a number of cases, disputes arose over specific territories, which either became subject to plebiscites and/or precipitated military conflicts before the final boundaries could be settled.
In most cases, postal services remained in transition for some considerable period. Initially, the new governments continued to use the stamps of the old monarchy; then provisional overprints -- official, local or private -- were introduced; and, finally, definitives were produced reflecting the new political order.
This exhibit was created by, and is the property of the late Al Kugel, and is being supplied by his heirs as a courtesy to the Military Postal History Society. (See the MPHS webpage) The Military Postal History Society (MPHS) is a non-profit organization for philatelists and stamp collectors interested in the collecting and studying of the postal aspects of all wars and military actions of all countries, including soldiers' campaign covers, naval mail, occupation and internment covers, patriotics, propaganda, V-mail, censorship and similar related material.
These exhibit page scans were made from black and white photocopies of the original exhibits. Those exhibits were created by Al Kugel many years ago, and are presented here for historical and research purposes. As far as the MPHS is aware, there are no color scans available of these older exhibit pages, nor for any of the illustrated postal history items.
This exhibit, created by the late Al Kugel, is made up of 10 frames, each frame containing 16 pages. Due to their size, each frame is available as a separate PDF file. (See the PDF information page for additional help with this file format.)
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Updated 16 October 2022