Austrian postal history until 1806
The Austrian postal history up to 1806 deals in the form of an overview of the efforts of the Habsburgs to establish an independent regional postal system in their home countries. The beginnings date back to the time of Maximilian I return.
The beginnings
Since 1490 the German King Maximilian entertained I. first message relay races in the Holy Roman Empire , which he of couriers from the Italian family taxis was organized, with the sealed valise of postal riders day and night of coaching were promoted to coaching. A special feature was that in the period from 1493 to 1502 local Tyrolean postmasters looked after the Felleisenrouten in the empire and the Habsburg homeland.
The large correspondence between the officials from Innsbruck and the conference venue, especially during the Reichstag, took place via Felleisenstafetten. This required temporary postal courses and local postmasters such as Sebastian Meurl, Wendel Kay and Werndlin Gebs to organize. Like Janetto von Taxis before them, they too had to pre-finance the costs incurred. The first independent postal route organized by Sebastian Meurl ran from Innsbruck to Ulm in May 1493 . In addition to Meurl, a Wendel ("Wenndl") organized Kay Felleisenrouten from 1497 to 1498. After Meurl's death in June 1499, Werndlin Gebs was his successor. Since after the Augsburg Reichstag in 1500 the next Reichstag did not take place in Cologne until 1505, no fur iron relays were initially required. The last Felleisenroute was given up in 1502, and Gebs left as postmaster in Innsbruck.
The next Austrian postmaster did not appear until 1513, after the Innsbruck Court Chamber had initiated proceedings against Gabriel and Johann Baptista von Taxis for illegal external transport and incorrect accounting. The Innsbruck messenger Hans Scholl initially took over the southern routes to Trento as postmaster . After Maximilian I stopped the proceedings against Gabriel on December 20, 1514, Gabriel replaced Hans Scholl as operator of the Innsbruck-Trient-Verona route. Scholl was still responsible for smaller postal rates until 1521. In the case of these activities, however, one could not yet speak of an independent territorial post, since all routes in the Habsburg ancestral lands only had a short lifespan.
Hofpost under Ferdinand I.
After Maximilian's death on January 12, 1519 in Wels and the marriage of his grandson Ferdinand to the Hungarian king's daughter Anna at the end of May 1521, power was divided in January and February 1522 in Brussels between the brothers Ferdinand and Charles V. Ferdinand took over the administration of all Habsburgs Duchies with the exception of the estates in Alsace . Also Wuerttemberg , which since the expulsion of Duke Ulrich was among Habsburg, was among them. Ferdinand immediately had his own post relay set up in these areas.
As early as 1522, independent court post offices were established in Augsburg under the postmaster (Johann) Anton von Taxis and in Pressburg under Martin von Paar . From 1524 Vienna followed under the postmaster Hans Habenschadten and from 1525 Linz under Moritz von Paar. The postmaster Ambrosius von Taxis worked in Prague from 1532 . From 1542 the postmaster Lorenz I Bordogna von Taxis worked in Trento , who also worked for the post office in Milan. In 1548, the postmaster Innocent von Taxis was appointed to Füssen . In 1551 Ferdinand I appointed Ludwig von Taxis postmaster in Bozen.
On March 23, 1523, Ferdinand appointed Gabriel von Taxis from Innsbruck, who had previously worked for the imperial post office in Brussels, as the coordinator of his court mail. For this purpose he issued a first court mail instruction for the courses from Innsbruck to Trient , from Innsbruck via Linz to Vienna and from Innsbruck via Augsburg to Stuttgart , Rheinhausen and Worms , as well as from Füssen via Stockach , Villingen , Freiburg to Ensisheim . The postmasters, who were directly subordinate to Ferdinand I, looked after the local post office as well as the posts in the neighborhood. As a result, post holder dynasties often emerged from this. Depending on the region, payment was made by the responsible court chamber. Local post office owners were hired for long-term postal courses. Post riders who stayed overnight with farmers were used for temporary fur iron lines to the Reichstag and army camps . Even under Ferdinand, postmasters and postmen were often paid irregularly and slowly.
New postal rates under Ferdinand as the Bohemian and Hungarian king
After being elected King of Bohemia on October 22, 1526, Ferdinand opened a postal route Augsburg - Regensburg - Prague - Vienna in January 1527 and operated it until June 1527. The Innsbruck - Vienna postal route was initially abandoned for this purpose, but was operated again from July 1527 to April 1528. During this time, on December 17, 1527, Ferdinand was elected King of Hungary. On January 17, 1529 he appointed (Johann) Anton von Taxis from Augsburg to head his court mail. In 1536 he received his own postal instruction. He died on April 8, 1542. It has not yet been clarified whether there was another Anton von Taxis who was a coordinator at Ferdinand's court from 1521 to 1545.
After the death of postmaster Gabriel von Taxis in Innsbruck at the beginning of March 1529, Joseph von Taxis took over his office. The postmasters in Innsbruck and Augsburg also looked after the posts of the imperial post in Brussels on the route to Italy. After Charles was crowned emperor by Pope Clement VII in Bologna , his brother Ferdinand was elected German king in Cologne on January 5, 1531 . On May 12, 1534 Duke Ulrich won in Lauffen with the help of Philip of Hesse against Ferdinand and won Württemberg back as an afterfief in June . The postal route between Rheinhausen and Augsburg remained unaffected. On August 1, 1536, the brothers Johann, Philipp and Matthias von Taxis, who worked for Ferdinand as couriers, were raised to the simple hereditary nobility. In 1539 Innocent von Taxis , who later became the postmaster in Füssen, began working as a courier.
By 1540 at the latest, the imperial Dutch postal service increased its activities on the Dutch postal route . The posts up to Augsburg were paid from Brussels, the posts between Augsburg and Trento, on the other hand, from Innsbruck. The cost allocation was contractually regulated between Brussels and Ferdinand's Hofpost. After the death of Johann Anton von Taxis, his son Johann von Taxis took over the court post office and Seraphin I von Taxis took over the imperial post office in Augsburg. The latter leased the office on June 4, 1543 to Ambrosius von Taxis. On August 26, 1545, Matthias von Taxis was appointed third court postal coordinator by Ferdinand and received his own postal instructions for this purpose.
In 1546 the Protestant council of Augsburg rebelled against the emperor. The city fortifications were expanded and the post office in front of the city gate was demolished. On July 15, 1546 the imperial post was canceled by the Augsburg council. The brothers Johann and Ambrosius resigned from their offices, fled and did not return. Ambrosius died that same year, Johann in 1559. From January 1547, Innocent von Taxis took over the imperial post office in Augsburg and administered it until 1550.
On March 18, 1548, the Brussels postmaster general Leonhard I von Taxis appointed Innocent von Taxis postmaster in Füssen. Füssen was not an independent post office, but was under Innsbruck. Innocent replaced the escaped administrator Martin Röschmann. Ferdinand confirmed him on November 23, 1548 as court postmaster and Charles V on May 15, 1548 as imperial postmaster. In 1550 the underage Christoph von Taxis took over the Augsburg court post office. It was initially under the tutelage of the Innsbruck postmaster Joseph von Taxis and the Bolzano postmaster Ludwig von Taxis. Mail administrator in the court post office in Augsburg was initially Rudolf Höflich, whom Christoph replaced in 1552 with Mundin von Paar. After the death of the Innsbruck postmaster Joseph von Taxis in 1555, his son Gabriel II succeeded him.
Hofpost in the time of Ferdinand I as emperor
After the official resignation of Charles V as emperor in 1556, he left Ferdinand the decision to determine the time and place of the successor. It was not until the beginning of 1558 that the Electors appointed Ferdinand, the German-Roman King, " chosen emperor " in Frankfurt . This gave Emperor Ferdinand I sovereignty over the transit route from the Spanish Netherlands to Italy within the empire . The two post offices in Rome and Venice were also subordinate to him. His court mail lost its importance.
After the death of Seraphins I von Taxis, Christoph von Taxis was able to lease the Spanish-Dutch post office in Augsburg for six years on July 16, 1557. The Polish King Sigismund II August , who was married to Katharina , a daughter of Ferdinand I, was able to set up a relay course between Cracow and Venice on January 25, 1558 , which led via Vienna and Graz and was run by Italians. The attempt of Christoph von Taxis to introduce the foreign delivery of letters on the courses of the court post failed after complaints from the Innsbruck and Vienna postmaster. In the fall of 1558 Christoph was prohibited from sending foreign letters on official mail. There was a separate postal instruction for this. After the death of the court postal coordinator Matthias von Taxis on January 11, 1559, Christoph von Taxis was appointed his successor at the Augsburg Reichstag in July 1559. In July 1559, Christoph and Roger von Taxis set up a weekly Ordinaripost from Augsburg to Venice at their own expense , which was approved by Emperor Ferdinand. In 1562 Christoph von Taxis took over for 2,000 guilders p. a. the Polish postal course from Krakow to Venice. The route now ran through Innsbruck and Trento. After complaints, Christoph let the Polish postal route from Krakow to Venice run again via Graz from September 1563.
Territorial post after 1564
Distribution of the Habsburg ancestral lands
As early as February 25, 1554, Ferdinand I had decreed that the Habsburg ancestral lands should be divided among his three sons as follows after his death:
- Maximilian was to receive Upper and Lower Austria , Bohemia and Hungary with the main residences in Vienna and Prague
- Archduke Karl Inner Austria with Cilli , Carinthia, Krain , Görz , Trieste and Istria with the main residence in Graz .
- Archduke Ferdinand Tirol and the Vorlande with the main residence Innsbruck
After the death of Emperor Ferdinand I on July 25, 1564, his eldest son Maximilian became his successor. With the division of the Habsburg ancestral lands into three archduchies ordered by Ferdinand, three independent provincial post offices were created. This eliminated the office of a central court post coordinator and Christoph von Taxis had to resign.
Hofpost under Emperor Maximilian II.
Due to the tripartite division of the post, Maximilian II only had the post rates Augsburg - Regensburg - Prague - Vienna, Vienna - Pressburg, Vienna - Innsbruck, and Vienna - Graz. In 1564 Maximilian II appointed the Viennese postmaster Paul Wolzo to head his court mail.
Because of the family ties between Maximilian II and his Spanish cousin Philip II , the Augsburg - Brussels connection remained important to Maximilian. This route was operated from Brussels and paid for by the Chamber of Accounts in Lille . Maximilian II and the Brussels postmaster general Leonhard I von Taxis signed a contract on August 24, 1564, according to which the two post offices in Augsburg (court post office at Fischertor and Spanish-Dutch post office at Wertachbrucker Tor) were merged and the court post office closed. With that, Christoph von Taxis also lost his last office. Innozenz von Taxis from Füssen was appointed postmaster of the new Dutch post office. Seraphin II of Taxis, who was designated as the actual successor, litigated against this and won. Innocent had to withdraw to Füssen.
In 1572 the Polish King Sigismund II died August. This led to the discontinuation of the postal rate Krakow - Vienna - Graz - Venice. Since Maximilian II applied for the Polish royal office, a postal route from Vienna to Krakow was opened in 1572. Maximilian's interest in his own regional post office was low. The arrears of his post office keepers in December 1572 were 14,000 guilders. What worried him more were the strikes of the Württemberg post office owners on the postal route from Augsburg to Rheinhausen. After the death of Maximilian II on October 12, 1576 in Regensburg, his eldest son Rudolf II became emperor.
Provincial Post Office of Inner Austria under Archduke Karl II.
Archduke Karl appointed Johann Baptista von Paar in Graz as postmaster for Inner Austria. Thanks to the Polish postal rate Krakow-Vienna-Graz-Venice, he was able to use the exchange stations on the Polish route. The Graz-Vienna postal rate was paid by Graz to Gloggnitz .
After the Polish postal rate was discontinued in 1572, a Graz-Venice postal rate was established in 1573 with an Austrian post office in Venice under Karl Magno. In 1583 Johann Baptista von Paar in Graz made the proposal to expand the Vienna-Graz-Venice course. The transport should take place once a week and replace the longer route from Vienna via Innsbruck to Venice. After the death of the imperial postmaster Roger von Taxis in Venice in 1584, Archduke Karl asked the Kaiser to merge the two post offices in Venice either under Johann Baptista von Paar or under Hans Wolzüge. Emperor Rudolf II refused because David, the son of Rogers von Taxis, had a legal claim to the imperial postmaster's office in Venice.
In 1584, the Italian merchant Bartholomäus Castell became the new Austrian postmaster in Venice and successor to Hans Magno. Johann Baptista von Paar wanted to ensure the profitability of the course with him and Hans Wolhaben, but it was only after Castell's forced departure in 1588 that a weekly Ordinari post course Venice-Graz-Vienna could be opened. Paul von Paar became the postmaster in Venice.
After the death of Archduke Charles in 1590, his underage son Ferdinand became his successor. For this reason, the route Graz-Venice was suspended for a few years from January 1591.
Landespost von Tirol and the Vorlanden under Archduke Ferdinand II.
Archduke Ferdinand confirmed the Innsbruck postmaster Gabriel II von Taxis in his office in 1564. As regional postmaster, Gabriel had a much better position than Paul Wolhaben and Johann Baptista von Paar, as he was also responsible for the Spanish-Dutch transit route between Augsburg and Innsbruck and, together with the postmaster of Trento, for the Innsbruck - Rovereto - Venice route . Gabriel looked after the regional routes Innsbruck - Vienna, Innsbruck - Augsburg, Innsbruck - Füssen - Freiburg and Innsbruck - Trento. Important postmasters with dual functions were Innozenz von Taxis in Füssen until 1592, Ludwig von Taxis until 1569 and Wilhelm von Taxis in Bozen until 1575, and Johann Baptista Bordogna von Taxis in Trient.
On March 24, 1582, Archduke Ferdinand proposed to the emperor that his postmaster in Kollmann (between Bozen and Brixen ) Kaspar Möller von Mollenbruck be made postmaster general in the empire.
At the Reichstag in Augsburg from June 27 to September 20, 1582, the Augsburg Reichspfennigsamt had to pay 1,300 gulden to the post office keepers between Augsburg and Trento. Because of this, there were no strikes there. After the death of the Innsbruck postmaster Gabriel II von Taxis in 1583, his son Paul succeeded him. The payment difficulties in Brussels led on June 24, 1583 to a comparison between Jacob Henot and Paul von Taxis as spokesman for the post office keeper between Innsbruck and Augsburg about the payment of the arrears. In September 1586 Jacob Henot traveled from Prague to Innsbruck with a new postal order (extension of the postal order from 1583) for Tyrol. On March 27, 1589, another contract was signed in Innsbruck between Paul von Taxis, Archduke Ferdinand and Jacob Henot, but it was not until the end of 1595 that a final settlement with the Tyrolean post office was reached. They waived part of the claims and received an annual salary of 100 guilders from the Brussels post office. Archduke Ferdinand II died in 1595. As he had no male heir, there was initially no successor.
Court mail under Emperor Rudolf II.
Emperor Rudolf II. , Who initially resided in Vienna after taking office in 1576, but moved his residence to Prague in 1585, was more interested in postal affairs than his father Maximilian II. When Konrad Rott initiated the proposal in 1578 from the Augsburg merchants To organize an imperial imperial post through merchants based in Augsburg, Rudolf II reacted immediately. He made his Augsburg Reichspfennigmeister Georg von Ilsung an arbitrator (commissioner) in postal matters. Ilsung's son Maximilian acted as deputy. The proposal of the Augsburg merchants was rejected, but not the idea of founding an Imperial Post Office. When Konrad Rott then tried, with the help of the Saxon elector, to establish an imperial post from Saxony, the imperial court was alarmed. Between July and September 1579, the Archdukes Ernst , a brother of Emperor Rudolf, created in Vienna (July 10th and 28th). Ferdinand in Innsbruck (September 17th), as well as Duke Albrecht of Bavaria (July 29th) expert opinion. They granted the Saxon elector a territorial post, but not the right to operate an imperial post in foreign territories. Subsequently, on November 13, 1579, the emperor appointed a mixed commission for the reformation of the postal system with Hans Fugger , Georg Ilsung and Anton Christoph Rellinger. The latter was replaced on September 29, 1582 by Marx Fugger .
Rudolf II wanted a postal reform for his own court post as well. The basic idea was to further open the postal rates for external transport and to reduce costs with the postage income. On June 4, 1583, the Viennese court chamber made a first proposal to reorganize the imperial court mail. On January 7th, the postmaster at the court, Hans Wolhaben, was given the task of preparing an expert report on fixed postage, but on January 15th, 1585, he refused. After Wolzogen's death in early April 1588, on April 24, 1588, the court chamber commissioned Jacob Henot in Prague to deliver a draft for the reorganization of the court post office and proposed him as court postmaster. The answer came on May 5, 1588. Henot demanded the establishment of an imperial post including the imperial court post, the abolition of the Vienna-Graz-Venice course and the dissolution of the urban messenger services in the empire. Henot waited in vain for his appointment in Prague until the end of 1588. The new court postmaster was provisionally Georg Habenschadten, who died in April 1592. Thereupon Georg Pichl von Pichlberg was appointed imperial postmaster to the court in Prague on December 17, 1592. There was no longer any talk of reform. On June 16, 1595, the Brussels postmaster general Leonhard I von Taxis received an imperial letter of appointment from Rudolf II for all posts in the German Empire, insofar as they were maintained by the Spanish King Philip II. Associated with this was the title of General Postmaster General. The Imperial Post Office began operating between Brussels, Augsburg, Innsbruck and Venice and between Cologne and Augsburg in 1597. While the Kaiserliche Reichspost no longer incurred any costs, Rudolf II had to continue to pay for the costs of the Hofpost.
Between 1600 and 1612 there was a dispute between Emperor Rudolf II, Archduke Matthias of Lower Austria, Archduke Maximilian , who was Archduke of Tyrol from 1602, and Archduke Ferdinand of Inner Austria in the Habsburg home countries. The three archdukes allied themselves in the Treaty of Schottwien against the emperor. In this power struggle, Rudolf II lost influence without his opponent Archduke Matthias gaining any great advantages from this conflict.
This meant a standstill for the development of the Hofpost. Hans Christoph Wolzogens' successor as the Lower Austrian postmaster in Vienna was Karl Magno. In Prague, Hans Straub was appointed postmaster on April 23, 1601. He was followed on November 19, 1610 by postmaster Ferdinand Prugger, who remained in this office until 1643. After the death of the imperial postmaster Pichl von Pichlberg in December 1610, he was followed by Lamoral von Taxis , the son of the Brussels postmaster general Leonhard I von Taxis, for a year on May 26, 1611 .
The death of Emperor Rudolf II on January 20, 1612 put an end to the decline of the Hofpost. In the meantime the mountain of debt had grown. In May 1610, the postmen on the Vienna-Prague course were owed more than 10,000 guilders. It was the same on the Augsburg – Prague route.
Provincial Post Office of Inner Austria under Archduke Ferdinand II.
Archduke Ferdinand II took over the rule of Inner Austria in 1590 at the age of twelve without ruling himself. After the death of his postmaster Johann Baptista von Paar in 1599, he was followed by Hans Friedrich von Paar, who died in 1600. Then Johann Christoph von Paar took over the office. Archduke Ferdinand made no changes to his regional post. The route Vienna-Graz-Venice remained the most important connection.
Landespost von Tirol and the Vorlanden under Archduke Maximilian
Archduke Karl in Tirol was succeeded in 1602 by Archduke Maximilian, the third son of Emperor Maximilian II. In 1607 Lamoral von Taxis applied to take over the post office in Innsbruck and the associated postal rates free of charge for the Imperial Postal Service. The Archduke refused. It was the first attempt to enforce the imperial mail shelf in a state post office . The Reichspost failed, as did later attempts after the Thirty Years' War. The state postmaster Paul von Taxis remained in his office. After his death in 1613 Andreas von Taxis was his successor. The Archduke himself died in 1618.
Court mail under Emperor Matthias and Emperor Ferdinand II.
Archduke Matthias, a brother of Emperor Rudolf II, was elected his successor in Frankfurt on July 13, 1612.
After the death of the Brussels General Postmaster General Leonhard I von Taxis in May 1612, his son Lamoral left the postmaster's office in Vienna on September 19, 1612 to take over the Brussels headquarters. Lamoral's successor as court postmaster was Karl Magno, who had been postmaster of Lower Austria until then. Even he could not stop the increasing debt of the Hofpost. On July 20, 1615 Lamoral von Taxis was commissioned by Emperor Matthias to set up a relay post route from Cologne via Frankfurt, Aschaffenburg and Nuremberg to Rötz , where the Hofpost should take over the letters to Prague. A replacement was needed for the sluggishly functioning postal route Augsburg-Prague. At the same time, Lamoral was obliged not to compete with the Imperial Post Office for the Austrian court post in Bohemia, Lower Austria and Inner Austria. In return, the general postmaster's office was raised to a hereditary fief on July 27, 1615.
The uprising in Prague, which ended on May 23, 1618 with the lintel of the Prague window, sparked the Thirty Years War. In the summer of 1618 the Bohemian-Palatinate War began with the defection of Lusatia , Silesia and Bohemia from the Habsburgs. On August 22, 1619, the Bohemian estates voted out the Archduke Ferdinand of Graz as King of Bohemia and replaced him with the "Winter King" Friedrich , the Elector of the Palatinate. After the death of Emperor Matthias on March 20, 1619, the Electors elected Archduke Ferdinand of Inner Austria as King and Emperor on August 28, 1619.
The merging of Lower Austria and Inner Austria initially did not change the management of the provincial postal services in Vienna and Graz. After the resignation of the court postmaster Karl Magno in 1620, his son Hans Jacob Magno took over the successor in Vienna.
The princes of the Catholic League allied themselves with Spain against the Palatinate at the end of 1619. On November 18, 1620, the Habsburgs defeated the Bohemians on the White Mountain outside Prague. The Palatine Elector and Bohemian Winter King was ostracized and fled to Holland.
On February 13, 1621, Emperor Ferdinand II issued new postal instructions for the court mail. Nevertheless, in 1622 there was a dispute between the Hofpost and the Hofkammer. The Hofpost had not made any accounts since 1616. The amount in dispute was 67,000 guilders. A draft for a postal reform, which provided for the leasing of postal rates to the exclusion of competition, remained without a response in mid-1622. Another commission also failed. On November 14, 1622, the Bohemian Prince Liechtenstein demanded a reorganization of the court post. The Prague postmaster Prugger agreed to take over the costs of the postal route from Prague to Vienna, which the Viennese court postmaster Hans Jacob Magno prevented. On May 1, 1623, the Graz postmaster Johann Christoph von Paar took over the court post office in Vienna for 15,000 guilders. Hans Jacob Magno resigned. On September 4, 1624, Paars was enfeoffed as hereditary post office manager.
Until 1627, the Hofpost refused to settle accounts with the Hofkammer. 102,000 guilders were now disputed. After an imperial request on November 6th, 1629, the postmaster general Alexandrine von Taxis incorporated the ten desolate posts on the Hofpostroute from Augsburg via Regensburg to Waldmünchen on the Bohemian border into the Imperial Post Office on October 26th, 1630 . Even up to 1630 there was no accounting. The amount in dispute was now 103,000 guilders.
At the collegiate meeting of the electors in Regensburg in the last quarter of 1636, there was a dispute between Alexandrine von Taxis and Johann Christoph von Paar about who was allowed to transport the imperial mail from Regensburg at that time.
Emperor Ferdinand II died on February 15, 1637. His successor was Ferdinand III. He had already been elected King of Bohemia in 1625 and King of Hungary in 1627. His election as German-Roman king failed in 1630 and was only successful in 1636.
Provincial postal service from Tyrol up to the incarnation (nationalization) in 1769
After the death of the Tyrolean Archduke Maximilian from Lower Austria in 1618, Leopold from Inner Austria became Archduke in Tyrol. After his death in 1632, his widow Claudia de 'Medici administered the Archduchy as regent until 1646. It was followed by the sons Ferdinand Karl from 1646 to 1662 and Sigismund Franz from 1662 to 1665. Since there were no descendants, the Tyrolean line of the Habsburgs died out, and all three archduchies were reunited in the hands of the emperor.
After the death of Andreas von Taxis in 1620, the brothers Wolf Dietrich and Paul II von Taxis took over the postmaster's office in Innsbruck. Wolf Dietrich resigned after a short time, and Paul II administered the office until 1661. During the Thirty Years' War Innsbruck was an important hub for postal routes to Vienna, Brussels and Italy. This was especially true after the victories of the Swedes between 1630 and 1635
Emperor Ferdinand III. On October 20, 1642, the Innsbruck Taxis family became hereditary imperial barons. On August 3, 1646 the postmaster's office with all postal courses was confirmed as a hereditary fiefdom.
The name extension to "von Thurn, Valsassina and Taxis", applied for by Lamoral Claudius Franz von Taxis in Brussels and approved in 1650, was also allowed to be adopted by the Innsbruck Taxis family. But they kept the name "von Taxis". After the death of Paul II von Taxis, Franz-Werner Freiherr von Taxis followed as postmaster in 1661.
Count Karl von Paar's application in 1665 for the imperial post office to take over the Tyrolean postal service failed because the emperor had to take into account the special status of the Spanish transit route. Therefore, Innsbruck remained independent as the last of the three Habsburg post offices. Thanks to the grants from the Brussels headquarters, it was financially more favorable for Vienna to leave it at the status quo. On September 19, 1680, Emperor Leopold I raised Innsbruck taxis to the rank of imperial count. The following postmasters held the post in Innsbruck until 1769: Franz-Werner Graf von Taxis until 1685, Franz Nikolaus Graf von Taxis until 1726 and Leopold Graf von Taxis until 1769. Even after the nationalization, the taxis remained in the postal service: Joseph Graf von Taxis until 1791 and then Alexander Graf von Taxis.
Hofpost under Emperor Ferdinand III. and Emperor Leopold I.
Under Emperor Ferdinand III. there were further changes in the management of the Hofpost. After the death of Johann Christoph von Paar in December 1637, Rudolf Freiherr von Paar followed for one year. The next court postmasters were Ferdinand Freiherr von Paar until 1645 and then Karl Freiherr von Paar. In 1640, the Hofpost refused to submit an invoice again despite a request from the Councilor. The amount in dispute was 69,000 guilders. An administrator was appointed and 29,000 guilders were withheld by 1646. This put the couple's family under financial pressure. Only on April 30, 1646 was the forced administration lifted again.
From September 1640 to July 1641, a Reichstag met for the first time in Regensburg with the participation of opponents from the Electoral Palatinate, Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Hesse-Kassel. Ferdinand von Paar set up a court post office in Regensburg for the time the emperor was present. The Brussels postmaster general Alexandrine von Taxis protested and unsuccessfully demanded the use of Regensburg's own post office. During the peace negotiations for the Thirty Years War between 1644 and 1648, however, the Kaiser only used the facilities of the Imperial Post Office and not his own court post.
The situation after the Thirty Years War
After the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, despite violations of the imperial post registers and the protests of the imperial imperial post in some Protestant territories, separate state post offices were established. The imperial estates justified the legality by the fact that the Habsburg home countries already owned their own territorial post in 1523 and in 1564 set up three Austrian provincial post offices.
The Paar family, as operators of the Hofpost, also benefited from the increasing number of private letters in the second half of the 17th century. But she did not set up any stagecoach routes. In 1652 Karl Freiherr von Paar was raised to the rank of count. His post included Lower Austria, Inner Austria and Bohemia. The takeover of the post office in Breslau failed. On November 4, 1656, he received a feudal letter for the postmaster's office.
After the death of Emperor Ferdinand III. On April 2, 1657 Leopold I was elected as Roman-German King and Emperor on July 18, 1658. Karl von Paar died in 1674. His son Karl-Josef Graf von Paar, who was still a minor, did not take over the office until 1678. In 1690, the couple's family was also able to take over the post in the Kingdom of Hungary.
In 1701 the dispute over the succession of the Spanish king led to the War of the Spanish Succession with fights in Bavaria, Italy and the Netherlands. The Great Hague Alliance was formed with England, the Habsburgs and the States General against France and Bavaria. It began with the invasion of the Spanish Netherlands by French troops and the proclamation of Philip V , a Bourbon, as King of Spain.
The nationalization of the Austrian Post
Postal system under Emperor Joseph I and Emperor Karl VI.
After the death of Emperor Leopold I on May 5, 1705, his son Joseph I succeeded him on the throne. Under Joseph I, the court chamber began to consider nationalizing the postal system in the Habsburg lands because of the growing profits of the feudal holders. A limited nationalization of the postal system was first called for in 1705 in a report on the postal question.
After the death of Emperor Joseph I on October 20, 1711, Karl VI. who, according to Austrian ideas, was to become King of Spain by this time, his successor. After the Spanish King Philip V renounced the French crown, the Peace of Utrecht came on April 11, 1713. Charles VI and the imperial estates did not join the peace until March 6, 1714 and September 7, 1714.
A decision to nationalize ( re-chamber ) the Austrian postal system was made by the emperor in early 1716. The process was first tried out in Silesia. On July 1, 1722, the couple family had to cede the post loan to the Habsburg state in return for an annual lease of 66,000 guilders. The income and expenses were now administered by the state. Only the organization of the post remained in the hands of the couple's family. The negotiations with the feudal bearer in Tyrol failed because the Imperial Post Office resisted. In Italy, however, the nationalization of the postal services of Milan, Mantua, Naples and Sicily was successfully carried out in 1522. The Austrian Netherlands was a specialty . There in 1706 a Francois Jaupain had leased the postal system in the Netherlands. His lease was confirmed, but then replaced in 1725 by a lease with the Prince of Thurn und Taxis.
After the reform was completed, there were three postal organizations in Austria: the Postlehen von Tirol, the leased post in the Netherlands and a nationalized Hofpost in the remaining areas.
After the death of the Habsburg emperor Charles VI. on October 20, 1740 the War of the Austrian Succession broke out , which lasted until 1748. The focus was on the two Silesian wars between Austria and Prussia 1741/42 and 1744/45, as well as the Habsburg occupation of Bavaria up to 1744. On January 14, 1742, the imperial estates did not elect Maria Theresa's husband, but Karl Albrecht of Bavaria as German king and Emperor.
On December 12, 1743, the powers of the couple family were further restricted, and on January 16, 1744, a post office was established in Vienna.
The situation under Emperor Franz I and Emperor Joseph II.
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After the death of the Bavarian Emperor Charles VII on January 20, 1745 in Munich, Franz I , Maria Theresa's husband, was elected as his successor on September 13, 1745 .
In 1750, Baron Michael Florenz von Lilien took over the management of the Austro-Habsburg postal system for five years while maintaining his position in the Imperial Postal Service. He carried out a postal administration reform in Vienna and founded a state-owned carriage post office in Austria with courses from Vienna to Linz, Prague and Wroclaw.
After the death of Franz I on August 18, 1765, his son Joseph II became emperor. Under his government, on November 7, 1766, a Viennese court ordinance was issued to replace the Innsbruck postal loan. Thus, on November 11th, 1769, an Innsbruck Postal Commission was formed to nationalize (incarcerate) the postal system in Tyrol and the foreland in letter and parcel traffic. After that, the Vienna Court Postal Commission took over the management, but failed and finally had to lease the postal system in Tyrol and the foreland on April 1, 1777 to the Imperial Post Office. Since the work of the Viennese court postal commission did not meet the expectations of the emperor, it was dissolved on April 30, 1783 and the tasks were distributed among the states.
Development under Emperor Leopold II and Emperor Franz II.
After the death of Emperor Joseph II on February 20, 1790, his brother Leopold succeeded him on September 30, 1790, but died on March 1, 1792. The last German-Roman emperor was Franz II. His election took place on July 5 1792. On August 6, 1806, under pressure from Napoleon , he resigned from the office of Emperor in the German Empire.
Up to this point there had been an unprecedented decline in the imperial post office. Between 1792 and 1794 Austria lost the Netherlands. By December 26, 1805, all Italian possessions fell to France. Between 1805 and 1809 Tyrol and the German foreland were also lost to Bavaria.
outlook
Only after the victories over Napoleon did the peace treaty signed in Paris on May 30, 1814 turn things around. With the recovery of the lost territories in Bavaria and the takeover of Lombardy , Veneto and the Illyrian provinces , a new postal system could be established in Austria. On the soil of the former Holy Roman Empire, from now on, in addition to smaller provincial postal companies and private operators such as the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post, only Prussia and Austria as "major postal powers" faced each other.
Literature (selection)
- Eduard Effenberger: History of the Austrian Post. Vienna 1913
- Eduard Effenberger: From old postal files. Vienna 1918
- Christine Kainz, In: Archive for German Postal History. 1/79, pp. 111-134
- Ludwig Kalmus: World History of the Post. Vienna 1937
- Otto Lankes: The post office in Augsburg ... Dissertation, Munich 1914
- Eduard Leitner, In: Archive for German Postal History. 2/80, pp. 32-53
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Rübsam, in: L'Union Postale (UP) 12, December 1891, p. 199.
- ↑ Abbreviated as OPNA, Ordinari Post to Antwerp, or OPNV, Ordinari Post to Venice or OPNPVW Ordinaripost to Prague and Vienna. The original is older, as the post office in Diedelsheim is still called "Tiffelsheim" there, and was relocated to Knittlingen in 1563.
