Cochem postal system

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The Reichspoststation und Posthalterei Cochem was founded only a few years after the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1620. One of the oldest documents about this dates from August 23, 1720, when the post of imperial postmaster Johannes Albertus Finger was transferred due to age by the postmaster general Anselm Franz von Thurn und Taxis to the son of the same name, Johannes Albertus Finger (born July 13, 1701).

History and origin of the post office in Cochem

After Emperor Rudolf II had dismissed the successful postmaster Jacob Henot from the post office in Cologne on October 25, 1603 at the instigation of the postmaster general Leonhard I. von Taxis , the new position was given by the brother-in-law of Taxis , Johann von Coesfeld occupied. During Coesfeld's tenure, the first Imperial Taxis Reichspoststation was founded in Cochem and belonged to the Coblenz post office area. There was another document about this from the holdings of the General Directorate of Thurn and Taxis Reichsposten from 1801, according to which the post office in Cochem was founded in 1620. Although these files are no longer preserved, the reason, it is assumed, was the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars , there is hardly any doubt about the founding year due to the careful maintenance of documents by Thurn und Taxis.

Little is known about the first hundred years of the Cochem postal system. The post course Koblenz -Cochem was served with the help of riding posts . After the end of the Thirty Years War, Cochem had seen many belligerent powers, in addition to imperial troops also Spaniards , Swedes and French , the postal system had to be rebuilt, as in many other places in the Middle Rhine region . The post administrator Johann Hausmann was entrusted with the reconstruction of the postal system on the Moselle in February 1651 in Koblenz. He found support from Lieser's post office manager . The greatest difficulty was that many post offices had been given up due to the long war and the post service was now performed by merchant posts. Hausmann tried to meet the competition with cheaper postage. He found help at his request from Trier Elector Philipp Christoph von Sötern , who on May 13, 1651 had all postal service activities of the merchant's posts in his territory prohibited. In order to compensate for the lack of post runs between Koblenz and Trier, the number of post runs was increased from one to two per week by order of Lamoral Claudius von Thurn und Taxis .

Preserved relief panel from 1699 of the original Finger House in Cochem

In May 1689 soldiers Louis XIV blew up Cochem Castle and on August 26, 1689 they finally burned the town down. Reconstruction began very slowly and many of the Cochemers who had fled only came back to the city after the Peace of Rijswijk in 1697. Johannes Albertus Finger was the imperial postmaster in Cochem, but he was not able to rebuild his destroyed house on the market square until 1699. It can be assumed that the postal service could not be continued for a long time or only with severe impairment. Merchant posts, which had meanwhile gained a foothold again in the Trier Archbishopric , now faced competition from the Cochem market ship, which had set up a regular mail delivery service between Cochem and Koblenz. Both services reduced the Thurn and Taxis income, whereupon both the Koblenz post office and the Cochem post office again obtained electoral bans. In 1716, Elector Franz Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg threatened marketers and merchant messengers with fines, but this had no effect and so the bans had to be repeated in 1717 and 1718. Also in 1718 the roads leading along the Moselle, which had been prepared for postal traffic, were repaired, as there had already been a few accidents between the riding posts and their horses.

On August 23, 1720, Johannes Albertus Finger (born July 13, 1701) from Cochem received the post of his father of the same name from Postmaster General Anselm Franz von Thurn und Taxis as the new Imperial Postmaster with the order: “To colligate and distribute the letters to take postage and to charge to us or to our superior Reichs Postambt Coblentz , to receive and order all ordinaries, besides those staffettes , ".

A contract was signed between Elector Neuerburg and Postmaster General Anselm von Thurn und Taxis on April 25, 1725 to establish mail car traffic across the Eifel Heights between Koblenz and Trier. In this contract, the Electorate of Trier was obliged to a. to turn off all competition for the Thurn und Taxissche Post (meant were electoral messengers, mail delivery by carters and market ships), b. To have carters and the Cochem market ship inspected at the request of the post office and c. to build the roads and bridges between Koblenz and Trier required for riding and driving posts and to repair them if necessary. In order to connect Cochem to this Eifel line, the order was issued on May 25, 1725 to prepare and maintain the necessary roads. On March 28, 1726, the elector informed the Postmaster General Thurn und Taxis that the necessary work had been completed and that passenger and freight traffic could begin.

In the Eifel , Prince Thurn and Taxis had additional post offices set up in Polch , Kaisersesch , Lutzerath , Wittlich and Hetzerath , and the post offices on the Moselle were now also served by the new mail car line - coming from the Eifelhöhe. Between Cochem, Lutzerath and Alf as well as between Kaisersesch and Karden , messengers traveled either on foot or on horseback. Although the new postal connections had led to an improvement in the infrastructure in the Eifel and on the Moselle, the Cochem market boaters did not fail to continue to carry letters between Cochem and Koblenz, despite the existing prohibition by the electoral government. For this reason, the market boatman Ley had to appear before the council of the city of Koblenz on November 16, 1730, because her market ship had repeatedly carried unauthorized letters. Therefore, the Koblenz post office requested a visit to their ship, as more letters were suspected there.

After Karl Anselm von Thurn und Taxis took over the post of general inheritance postmaster from his father Alexander Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis in 1773 , he had the entire postal staff sworn in on him. This also included Maria Katharina Gertrud Finger as head of the post office in Cochem. At that time Josef Finger was already entitled to the successor as post administrator in Cochem, from which it was concluded that the Finger family, who had moved from Bernkastel-Kues to Cochem in 1624 , was a family business, and the Post was a male and female Members was passed on.

When French revolutionary troops penetrated as far as the Rhine during the First Coalition War with France in October 1794 , there were initial losses in mail traffic. France incorporated all areas on the left bank of the Rhine and in 1795 the central government in Aachen appointed an inspector general for the postal system between the Rhine, Moselle and Maas . In addition, the road between Koblenz and Trier was named one of eight main postal routes for postal traffic on the left bank of the Rhine. The postal system now belonged to the French State Post and even more attention was paid to economic efficiency than at Thurn und Taxis, so that many post offices, which also included Cochem, had to be closed. In order to be able to maintain the mail transport, the mayor's offices founded their own messenger system between the remaining post offices with the approval of the administrative unit of Canton Cochem (French: Canton de Cochem ). A messenger now ran between the mayor's offices Mairie Cochem and Mairie Kaisersesch to exchange official mail and private mail for the population. In 1799 an attempt was made to set up a French post office in Cochem, which was to be taken over by the Finger family, but this did not succeed. It was not until 1806 that a small letter collection point was set up in Cochem on the corner of Schloßstraße and Herrenstraße, which was run by the two unmarried Birk sisters, popularly known as Postjuffern .

When the French had to evacuate all areas on the left bank of the Rhine during the Wars of Liberation in 1814, the private Thurn-und-Taxis-Post , which had existed since 1806, took over the mail delivery service there again. For the time being, however, Cochem did not receive a new post office. After Prussia received what would later become the Rhine Province at the Congress of Vienna , the end of the private Thurn-und-Taxis-Post was in sight. On July 1, 1816, the Rhenish post offices became Prussian. Before October 1817, Cochem received a new post office attendant on instructions from the Berlin General Post Office as the highest Prussian postal authority. From 1 January 1817 was Postmaster General John Frederick of Seegebarth single task - or date stamp introduce that below the place name auswies the day the letter task as a number and the month in letters. The oldest existing Cochem stamp is from July 9, 1822.

In order to better meet the growing demand for the transport of mail and freight, the first Kariolpost was set up in 1820 for the transport of mail by horse-drawn carriage between Cochem and Lutzerath, which drove three times a week. The Koblenz-Trier postal line has also been served three times a week as express mail with a four -in-hand truck since July 1, 1820 . The already existing connection between Cochem and Lutzerath received approval on September 1, 1835, to be able to transport two people in addition to the post. For this purpose, a pair of horses was now used , which served the line once a day from October 1, 1839. Departure from Cochem was at 8 a.m., the return journey from Lutzerath started at 3 p.m. The journey took 2 hours and the fare was 12 silver groschen . Since September 1, 1835, there was also a cariole post with Alf, Zell , Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel. At the beginning of 1837 a post office for ordinary items was attached to the Cochem postal expedition through the General Post Office, whereby both horses and wagons were to be provided for the scheduled items.

After Prussia introduced the postage stamp on November 15, 1850 , ring number stamps were used to cancel the stamps . Cochem received at this time the stamp number 253. In order to make since 1847 Landbriefträger relieve, took place in 1852 an invitation to the communities, their money mailboxes set up. In Cond and Sehl , the demand was not followed up until 1866, since the post office in Cochem would be so close.

Milestone from 1852

In order to replace the existing post road Cochem-Jünkerwald- Landkern -Kaisersesch, which was extremely dangerous to drive due to its steep incline from the Enderttal, a new 12.5 km long district or premium road from Cochem was opened by Fahrendeier from 1852 Valley built over Landkern to Kaisersesch. In addition to this first construction phase of the 21 km long route, there were further planned roads from Kaisersesch to Monreal (2nd section) and from Monreal to Mayen (3rd section), the aim of which was to connect the state road between Koblenz and Trier. On April 1, 1853, the personal mail between Cochem and Kaisersesch was taken with a pair of horses, while the connection from Cochem to Lutzerath was discontinued.

After the Prussian government had carried out the first measures to expand the Moselle for steam shipping in 1839 , one of the co-founders of the Moselle steam shipping company was u. a. Trier Heinrich Adolf Kraemer and Johann Baptist Grach , 1841 began the first regular steamship service between Trier and Koblenz with steamers like the Mosella or Baldwin . Another steam shipping company was operated from the mid-1850s by Matthias Josef Scheid from Merl with his paddle steamers Moselthal and the city ​​of Cochem , who also carried mail between Koblenz and Cochem. In May 1859, four ships a week were used to transport mail on this line.

Old entrance door of the former post office in the Kornreich building (around 1862) on the Cochem market square (today in Kirchgasse)

Further improvements in mail transport came after the completion of the Moselle district road (Prämienstraße) on November 1, 1860 between Alf and Karden and the opening of the Moselle Railway from May 15, 1879. The Reichspost had rail mail cars integrated into the trains , which then became rolling ones - and points of departure for letters were used. The new railway line made many stagecoach lines unnecessary, but new lines were also created. By order of the Imperial Upper Post Office in Coblenz on April 30, 1879, a 4-seater personal mail was to run between the Cochem train station and Lutzerath every 7 days of the week. The Reich's own temporary omnibus car No. 6610 had an additional open seat, but was soon to be replaced by a lighter mountain car. The 2 horses were to be kept by the postman Peter Kunzen at the Cochem station, the responsible post administrator was Clemens Keiffenheim from Post Office III in Cochem. From 1892 Peter Ostermann ran the last post office in Cochem. According to a report from Postmaster Krebs, who was the head of the Imperial Post Office II in Cochem, Ostermann owned 3 postilons , 6 post office horses, 4 imperial post cars and 2 post station cars in 1903 . The average number of mail travelers transported daily was 7 people.

Historical post box at the Thorschenke in Cochem

In addition, there was a private passenger wagon owned by Fuhrmann Löscher from Ellenz, which served the Cochem-Ellenz route from 1879 and was also used to transport mail. In a contract with the Imperial Upper Post Office dated September 1, 1883, Löscher promised to use solid cars. The passenger transport ran for their own account, so that the income remained with the entrepreneur. On January 18, 1895, the postal agent Peter Ring from Ellenz took over the company. On October 5, 1920 Ostermann's last stagecoach drove on the Cochem (train station) -Kaisersesch route. Then it was replaced by a bus that had served the Cochem- Ellenz - Senhals - Eller route since August 18, 1919 . From Cochem, the Reichspost had further connections with buses to Lutzerath and Bullay set up until 1928 . The use of the railways as a mail transport agent had indeed made the Moselle steamships dispensable from 1879, but the Reichspost had in 1923 once more resorting, as it during the time of the French occupation of the Ruhr fight not directed paths would operate.

Special postmark Kochem (Mosel) 19.12.38

In addition to the land post, the power post gained increasing importance from 1926, so that in 1927 an excursion vehicle with an all-weather deck was delivered for special trips. The first advertising stamp, which was used from 1928 to 1935, contained a picture of Cochem Castle and had the inscription “In the post truck to the pearl of the Moselle”. After the National Socialists seized power in the Third Reich , on December 6, 1935, the name of the place Cochem was renamed to the Germanic spelling Kochem. In 1941, the postal code area numbers were introduced in Germany and Cochem was assigned to the code area 22 (Moselland). After the war, Cochem officially got its old spelling back in 1950. The French occupiers and the city administration wrote again in the old spelling after 1945. In the period from 1953 to 1959, three two-circle stamps were in use with the following code letters without the postal code:

  • b from December 30, 1955 to November 19, 1959
  • c from December 14, 1957 to June 8, 1958
  • d from November 7, 1953 to December 23, 1954

After the announcement of new four-digit postcodes in 1961, Cochem received postcode 5590, although mostly only the first three digits 559 were used. When a new post office was opened in the Cochem district of Brauheck in 1967 , the postmarks initially bore the area designation Cochem Brauheck . After the introduction of a new local guidance system , Brauheck received the designation Cochem 11 as a delivery post office and after the changeover to the five-digit system on July 1, 1993, Cochem received the new zip code 56812.

Administration of the Cochemer Post

Postage stamp 1970 from the Tourism series

In 1806, a letter collection point and the post office that was set up in 1817 were sufficient in Cochem, but the needs for mail delivery that have grown in the meantime had to be further adapted. For this purpose, the Prussian postal administration converted the post office that had previously been connected to the sub-tax office into a postal expedition . Under-tax collector Fritsch became the first postal expedition, followed by Pützmann, Amor, Haas, Hager and Münz. Until December 31, 1849, the postal expedition was directly subordinate to the General Post Office (GPA) in Berlin. Mathias Kunzen became the first independent postal expedition in 1844, who took care of the postal business for 10 years until March 31, 1854. On April 1, 1854, the official business was transferred to Philip Engers, who ran it until 1861, he was followed by Post Expeditionary Wachter until 1865. In 1865, Post Expeditionary Heinrich Kierig was transferred to Cochem, but had to give up his work in 1870 due to illness. From 1870 to 1871, a Postélève (postal pupil) Schinnen managed the postal expedition on a representative basis.

From April 1, 1871 to December 31, 1880, Clemens Keiffenheim was in charge of the Cochemer Post, initially as a postal expedition and from 1872 as head of the post office III with the official title of "post administrator". On January 1, 1881, the post office secretary Bernhard from Mainz was given the management of what was now Post Office II. He received his appointment as postmaster on March 1, 1883, but it was reported that he must have been an extremely sensitive and sensitive man. An old chronicle reported: “It should not go unmentioned that in the period from April 1, 1882 to December 1, 1889, the civil servants PS Gärner, PS Küppers, the PAss Bauer and Becker, as well as an unnamed Tel -Assistant because of the extreme nervousness of Bernhard all had to go elsewhere for the transfer. ” On July 1, 1901, Postmaster Bernhard retired at the age of 62 due to extreme nervousness. On October 1, 1901, Postmaster Krebs from Bergisch Gladbach took over as his successor. In January 1911 he received the title of accountant. On August 4, 1914, the third day of mobilization in World War I , Postmaster Krebs entered military service as captain of the reserve , from which he did not return until February 1, 1919. Post Secretary Wilhelmy had taken over the representation until February 5, 1919. From February 6, 1919 to June 1, 1920, Postmaster Krebs took over the office again. From June 1, 1920 to July 31, 1933, Chief Postmaster Julius Timmermann was in charge of official affairs, later as post office man. From 1933 to 1936 the office management was transferred to Oberpostmeister Schätzle. From 1936, the previous head of the motor vehicle department, postal inspector Rudolf Krayer, took over the official business until 1945. His successor until December 31, 1956 was post office manager Heinrich Junk, then for a short time in 1957 Lothar Anheier, until April 1958 Chief Postmaster Adolf Ulmen and until May 1958 Chief Postmaster Oskar Scholz.

Post office in Cochem

1920 Old post office at Ravenéstraße 22 in Cochem

In the course of its existence, the post office in Cochem kept changing offices. This was mainly due to the fact that before the conversion from a postal expedition into a post office, the offices were provided by their managers. If the manager owned a house, the offices were usually in his house. From 1844 to 1853 the postal expedition was in Bernstrasse and Moselstrasse. From 1854 to 1862 it was first in the Catholic rectory, then in Haus Pauly (today Markt 11) and then in the Kornreichschen Gasthaus (today Markt 2), before moving to Zollstrasse in 1863 and then back to the Moselpromendae (Haus Josef Kemp) moved. From May 1870 the post office in Oberbachstraße was operated by J. Klee, from 1871 by J. Schwab on the Moselpromenade (next to today's Burg-Café), then in 1880 the move to the newly built Schneiders-Schausten house at Moselstraße 90 –91, the later so-called "Alten Post". In 1889 it went back to the Amlinger house (today Burg-Café) on Moselpromenade 23, before the post office was able to move into a specially built apartment building at Ravenéstraße 22 on April 1, 1903, which was rented by the then owner, the Pauly family had been. After the class division was omitted in 1924, the Oberpostdirektion Koblenz placed several postal agencies successively under the Cochem post office until 1930, such as B. Lutzerath, Ediger, Senhals, Klotten , Ellenz, Eller, Bruttig , Pommern , Sehl, Ernst , Cond and Bremm .

Special stamp 350 years post in Cochem-Mosel September 21, 1970
The “Alte Post” in Cochem during the renovation in 1910 at Moselstrasse 90–91

On December 24, 1944, the post office building on Ravenéstraße was badly damaged in an air raid and the post office was maintained from January to September 1945 from Gasthaus Dehren in Sehl . From September 1945 on, the post office was relocated to the "Alte Post" at Moselstrasse 90-91 and remained there until 1948, after which the post office was again housed at 22 Ravenéstrasse. Since at the beginning of the economic miracle the existing rooms in the rented building were no longer sufficient, planning began for the construction of a new post office. In 1960 the telecommunications service, which had been separated from the post office, moved to a new post-owned building at Endertstrasse 84-88. In October 1961, the motor vehicle operations center, founded in 1919, moved its postal service to its own building with an attached workshop. In 1963, planning began for the post office's own service apartments, in 1965 construction work for a new post office, on January 12, 1967 the inauguration of the new post office in Brauheck in Lilienthalstrasse and on March 29, 1968 the new post office 1 in Ravenéstrasse 18-20 was inaugurated . The construction costs for the new building amounted to 1.9 million DM at the time. In 1989 the post office received a new entrance area for a further 300,000 DM. Since 2006 there is only one post office at Endertstrasse 35, which the current operator Hans-Werner Kreutz, however, also has Terminated with effect from March 31, 2020.

Branches in Cochem

  • Postal system in Sehl : On December 1, 1903, a postal agency was opened in Cochem-Sehl, while at the same time the location was detached from the Cochem country delivery service, which was subordinate to the Cochem post office. In 1967 the post agency in Brausestrasse was downgraded to the acceptance post office “Cochem 12”, which was shortly followed by the abandonment of the post office in Sehl.
  • Postal services in Cond : The first postal agency in Cond was opened on May 1, 1905. It was assigned the land control areas Valwig , Valwigerberg and the “Conder Höfe”. The post agency was subordinate to the Cochem post office. The post agency was located on Zehnthausstrasse from 1905 to 1963 and was run by the Ubach family. In the period from 1963 to 1975 Anna Laux took over the post agency at Zehnthausstrasse 10 before the Postelle Cond was closed in 1975.
  • Postal system in Brauheck : After the air barracks and the first apartments in the soldiers' settlement had been moved into, there was also a need for a separate post office in Brauheck, which until then had been posted under “ Dohr ”. The opening of the first post office in Brauheck took place on January 2nd, 1967 at the northern approach to Lilienthalstrasse, the inauguration followed on January 12th, 1967. The postmarks were labeled “Cochem-Brauheck”. In the meantime, a curiosity arose with the registered mail number slips when the wrong postcode 599 was used instead of the correct number 559. With the introduction of the local guidance system, “Cochem-Brauheck” was given the name “Cochem 11”. On July 28, 1999, the post office in Brauheck was closed, the building abandoned and the tasks of a post agency in the new “Brauheck Center”. After this post office was closed on October 14, 2010, it was operated from January 18, 2011 to August 23, 2018 in the Newel dealership in the industrial park. Since August 30, 2018, the post office has been back in the Brauheck-Center in Thomas Reuter's shop.

literature

  • Heribert Appelhans (author): Zeitgeschichtliche Bilddokumente Cochem Volume II-1990, Geiger-Verlag, Horb am Neckar, ISBN 3-89264-427-6 , September 21, 1970 - 350 years post office Cochem, pp. 118-120.
  • Klaus Layendecker, Willi Pütz (authors): Familienbuch Cochem , according to the church records of the parish of St. Martin with the branches Sehl, Faid and Dohr, 1691–1889, Volume 1, pp. 213–214, City of Cochem (ed.), Treis -Karden / Bessenbach March 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Walter Kunz (author): The stagecoach in the Cochem area , In: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Cochem-Zell 2005, pp. 122–127.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Theo Winterscheid (author): 375 years of post in Cochem , In: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Cochem-Zell 1995, pp. 140–146.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j The origin of the post office in Cochem and its development up to the present day, Hermann Zilles Sen. (author), Cochem April 24, 1989, 6 pp.
  4. ^ Johann von Coesfeld Postmaster, Complete Collection of Actis Publicis and Staats-Schriften under Kaiser Franz, July 1747 in the Google book search
  5. ^ Johann von Coesfeld Postmaster, City Stories: Tales of Life in the City, by Hanna Holthausen (Ed.), December 2009, ISBN 978-3-8391-3812-0 in the Google book search
  6. ↑ Johann von Coesfeld Postmaster, D. Christian Friedrich Hempels General European State Law Lexicon or Repetorium ..., Volume 9 by Christian Friedrich Hempel, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1775 in the Google book search
  7. ↑ a b c Theo Winterscheid (author): Postal development of the Mosel-Eifel region , In: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Cochem-Zell 2006, pp. 63–66.
  8. ^ Publications of the Society for Rhenish History, Volume 35, Rheinische Postanstalten, P. Hanstein 1919
  9. ↑ a b Cochem in the stamp database stampsX
  10. ↑ a b c Dr. Helmut Weinand (author): “Art roads” in the Cochem-Zell district , In: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Cochem-Zell 2012, pp. 45–51.
  11. ↑ Werner Lutz (author): Postkutschenweg Cochem - Kaisersesch , In: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Cochem-Zell 2012, pp. 43–44.
  12. ^ Mosel-Dampfschiffahrt, German Railway and Steam Ship Book , by Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden, Berlin 1845 in the Google book search
  13. ↑ Bernkastel-Kues / Traben-Trarbach / Trier In the 19th century Matthias J. Scheid, who came from Zell-Merl, ran a steamship company on the Moselle. The company existed for about four decades, In: Volksfreund
  14. ↑ a b c d e f Günter Diederichs (author): II. Die Deutsche Post, 1) Die Postanstalt, Head of the Postanstalt [Cochem], 7 pp.
  15. ^ Post office III. Class Cochem, manual for the German empire to the year 1879, Berlin, 1879 Carl Heymann´s publishing house in the Google book search
  16. ^ Josef Heimes (author), Die Poststempel von Cochem 1817 to 1984 , Cochem 1985 p. 15.
  17. ^ Walter Gattow (author) March 29, 1986 will go down in the history of the city of Cochem and the Oberpostdirektion Koblenz , In: Rhein-Zeitung March 30, 1968
  18. ↑ Cochem post office closes The branch operator has canceled the post office contract effective March 31 of next year. Deutsche Post AG would like to stay in Cochem and is looking for a new operator, In. Wochenspiegel October 22, 2019
  19. ^ A b Günter Bretz (author), compilation of the postal system in the Cochem districts, Sehl, Cond and Brauheck, 2020.
  20. ^ Günther Bretz (author): 50 years of Cochem - Brauheck. In: Jahrbuch Kreis Cochem-Zell 2012. pp. 134–135.
  21. ↑ Günther Bretz: 50 years of Cochem-Brauheck - 1961–2011, 80 p., Postal supply p. 46 . Möhnen-Druckerei, Cochem May 2011.