Max Stern & Company

About Max Stern

Max has been a stamp dealer for over 65 years.  When he began stamp dealing at 17, he was the main provider for his family.  Remarkably, Max continued to operate his business throughout most of World War II.  After escaping the final deportation of Slovaskia's Jews in October 1944, Max went into hiding with others and following their discovery early in 1945, Max was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin, where he worked at clearing rubble from bombing raids and building anti-tank barricades.  When the War ended, Max had survived a death march from Berlin towards Hamburg. 

Max re-established a stamp business in Bratislava in 1945, but the Communists takeover of Czechoslovakia three years later made it impossible for him to continue.  Escaping with his wife Eva, they made their way to Australia.  He set up a stamp dealer business in 1950, opening a shop in Melbourne close to his present location in Port Philip Arcade, off Flinders Street.   Max Stern's career nurtured generations of collectors, and was recognised by his appointment as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1999.

Max Stern held the following positions:

Secretary of the A.S.D.A. Melbourne 1952

President of the A.S.D.A. Melbourne 1954-1956

Honorary Life Member of the A.S.D.A.

Foundation Member of the Australian Philatelic Federation

Past President of the Victorian Philatelic Federation

The company achieved the following milestones:

Max Stern & Co was established in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (1939)

Member of the American Stamp Dealers Association (1946)

Company moved to Australia (1948)

Member of the Australasian Stamp Dealers Association (1950)

Opening of the first shop in the Mutual Arcade (1952)

Shop moved and expanded at its present location (1956)