The invention of the postal service: about special deliveries, Hereditary First Postmaster Generals and what Thurn und Taxis had to do with it

The first child “sent” by post is a small boy from Ohio. In the middle of January 1913 his parents send him to his grandmother who lives about two kilometres away. The boy is franked with a 15 cent stamp and insured for 50 dollars. In the same month parents in Pennsylvania send their daughter to relatives in the same state for 45 cents. Both children arrive safely at their addressees.

It is not until 1914, a whole year later, that there is an official investigation into sending children by post and Postmaster General Burleson informs his staff that from now on it is prohibited to transport people. Now as you know, rules are there to be broken. More about this later, for the history of the postal service is an astonishingly long and sometimes turbulent one, which we would like to acknowledge at this point.

The Postal Service in Germany: "As fast as if you are flying"

In 1990 the Deutsche Post celebrated its 500th anniversary: since 1490, the year in which Maximilian I established an entirely new system of conveying messages within the Holy Roman Empire, the “post stations”, Germany has had its own, and on the whole relatively fast, postal system. Before this a courier had to ride the whole distance on his own from the sender to the receiver, for example from Brussels to Rome, and needed 30 days for this on average.

By contrast the new system with the post stations was faster and showed more consideration for the health of both rider and horse. “Fast, fast, fast, as fast as if you are flying” was supposedly on the time sheets of the couriers on horseback, yet they only had to cover thirty kilometres to the so-called “posta statio” before they had to hand over the “postal knapsack” (today’s mail sack) to the next rider as in a relay. In this way a letter was supposed to need at most twelve days from Brussels to Rome – a very fast service as compared to the previous 30 days.

The Taxis family from Tyrol, who were allowed to call themselves Thurn und Taxis from 1650 onwards, were awarded the contract to operate the postal service on horseback. They set the seal on their professional entry into the postal and communications industry by signing the “Magna Carta of the Modern Postal System,” with Charles I of Spain on 12th November 1516. The designations of the service providers were to be amended throughout the centuries to suit the respective emperors and kings: from “Postmeister” (Postmaster) to “Kaiserlicher Kämmerer und Hofpostmeister” (Imperial Chamberlain and Court Postmaster) to “Generalpostmeister” (Postmaster General) or the “Erbgeneraloberstpostmeister” (Hereditary First Postmaster General). The family business of Thurn und Taxis itself even survived the end of the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation” in 1806, before the postal dynasty was finished off by the war between Prussia and Austria.

Although Thurn und Taxis had a monopoly on letters for a long time, other transport requirements were formulated at the beginning of the 17th century and another influential family was found to take these on: the Maurenbrecher family from Düsseldorf with their “Maurenbrecherscher Fahrpost” (Maurenbrecher Mail Coach Service). They were not allowed to carry letters, but they used mail coaches instead and transported bulk mail, people, or bulky loads.  That this only occurred at such a late point in time was due to the poor condition of the roads in overland transport. However, the Fahrpost needed longer than a horse and so a journey from London to Oxford, for example, took two days on average. The emergence of the railways in the 19th century quickly replaced this kind of transportation of people and things.

There were already attempts to set up a system of organised communication in ancient times: in ancient Egypt, in Babylonia and in Mari (today in Syria). In ancient Egypt people travelling by ships on the Nile were given the task of conveying messages; there were also messengers on foot, who had to be physically fit enough to cover long distances in the shortest time.

The Postal Service: A legendary place of work

A heading which – if you have never worked for the same - can seem to be rather exaggerated. Yet the names Buffalo Bill, Knud Knudsen or Andrea Bunar tell a different story, both in the Wild West and in our time.

At the tender age of 14 William Frederick Cody became the youngest rider of the “Pony-Express”: for about a year, from 1860 to 1861, the fastest mail service in North America. The route stretched for more than 3,000 kilometres from Missouri to California, for which around 120 horses, 40 riders and 10 days were needed. The riders were not allowed to be older than 18 and no heavier than 60 kilos. William Cody, later known as “Buffalo Bill”, became famous when, arriving at his changeover station, he discovered that the next rider had been killed and so he rode on. He changed horses 21 times and needed only 21 hours and 40 minutes for 518 kilometres on one of the most dangerous Pony Express routes.

And then there is Knud Knudsen, Germany’s only “Watt” (intertidal mudflat) postman. Since 2001 Knudsen has walked through the Watt from Pellworm to the small “Hallig” (island) of Süderoog twice a week to where Mr. and Mrs. Matthiesen live: “It’s important to keep to the degrees and the course and to watch your speed. The general direction is southwest. First 200 degrees, then 190 degrees, then 210 degrees, then 225 degrees and the last part 240 degrees. In this way it‘s six and a half kilometres   to Süderoog.” He can’t stay for any longer than an hour, then he has to go back before the tide comes in. Once it happened that the water came in faster than calculated, due to a storm, and he had to return to Süderoog.

Or Andrea Bunar: she punts a post-barge through the “Spreewald” (Spree Woods) to Lehde, a district of Lübbenau, around 100 kilometres south of Berlin. Since April 2012 she has delivered 30 parcels, 600 letters and cards every week; she gets no extra pay for this. Her postal route is eight kilometres long and it needs muscle power, for the water is one and a half metres deep on average and the current puts pressure on her pole under the surface. Bunar also has a representative function: as a punting postwoman, she is a tourist attraction.

The End of the Children's post

After the announcement that it was no longer allowed to send people by post, a further three children were still sent in this way. The last child sent was the three-year-old Maud Smith, who travelled back from her grandparents to her mother. This case was recorded in a local newspaper and seems to mark the end of the “children’s post”. Perhaps public attention had become excessive. All of the children seem to have survived their journeys unscathed.  It was reported that a baby of 14 pounds, carried over twenty kilometres by a postman, had slept the whole way.
 
 

Sources and links

„Very Special Deliveries“– Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum Blog: https://postalmuseum.si.edu/very-special-deliveries (Last access: 16 March2017)

„So entstand die Post in Deutschland“ – WELT: https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article159436559/So-entstand-die-Post-in-Deutschland.html (Last access: 16 March2017)

„Deutsche Postgeschichte: Beginn der staatlichen Landesposten“ – Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Postgeschichte#Beginn_der_staatlichen_Landesposten (Last access: 16 March2017)

„Maurenbrecher (Familie)“ – Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurenbrecher_(Familie) (Last access: 16 March2017)

„Fahrpost“ – Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrpost (Last access: 16 March2017)

„Geschichte der Post: Die schriftliche Nachrichtenübermittlung in der Antike“ – Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_der_Post#Die_schriftliche_Nachrichten.C3.BCbermittlung_in_der_Antike (Last access: 16 March2017)

„Pony Express: William Cody“ – Wikipedia auf Englisch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express#William_Cody (Last access: 16 March2017)

„Pony-Express“ – Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony-Express (Last access: 16 March2017)

„Da geht die Post ab“ – Stern.de: http://www.stern.de/reise/deutschland/der-wattpostbote-von-pellworm-da-geht-die-post-ab-3049740.html (Last access: 16 March2017)

„Königin im Kahn“ – Zeit Online: http://www.zeit.de/2012/31/C-Kahnpostbotin/komplettansicht (Last access: 16 March2017)

More postwomen and postmen in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

More letters in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

Header image: "Brief von Dora Hitz an Wilhelm Stein" (1912), Bröhan-Museum, Berlin (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Deutschland)
 

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