Extra post

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Up until 1919, extra items were journeys on post roads , which had to be provided by the post office holder on special request for the transport of travelers or goods and which were driven for a special fee.

Their operation was initially based on the private haulage trade, for which special conditions existed with regard to the provision of horses etc. for the carriage of extra mail. The shortcomings that arose from this made it necessary to redesign the extra postal system at an early stage.

In Prussia in 1712 it was decreed by edict that driving with mail horses under the name "Extrapost" was a matter of the postal system, while driving with carter horses as "wage driving" was a matter of the trucking trade. In 1766, an extra post regulation was issued that was later changed and supplemented several times by new provisions. In the other German regional postal administrations, the extra mail system developed similarly to that in Prussia.

The provisions of the General Instructions for Post and Telecommunications (ADA) applied to the territory of the Deutsche Reichspost . In particular, it stipulated certain transport deadlines by kilometers for journeys and regulated the collection of charges. The postal law (law on the postal system of the German Reich of October 28, 1871) granted the extra items special privileges.

The heyday of the extra items was from 1835 to 1840. They were used extensively for court festivities and trips by princes. Their importance diminished with the increase in the number of ordinary people and the development of railroad and motor vehicle traffic . The transport of extra mail was therefore canceled in 1919.

In the sense of the Postal Act ( Post Ordinance PO § 54, III), the extra items corresponded to the special trips for passenger transport by motor vehicle. However, after the law on the transport of people by land of December 4, 1934, the operation with vehicles used exclusively for this purpose from the area of ​​responsibility of the Federal Post Office , they are only limited to occasional traffic with vehicles of the regular service .

History and operation

The forerunners of the extra items in Prussia were the series journeys carried out under the supervision and direction of the state , to which all the guild wagoners were called in. In the long run this facility was unable to cope with the increasing demands of traffic. The post offices lacked the power to maintain discipline and order among the “enrolled” citizens and carters. On bad roads or during harvest time, they often refused to fulfill their obligations under all sorts of pretexts. They usually provided bad horses, unsuitable harnesses, drove without prior knowledge of the post office, overpriced the travelers and whatever other inconveniences were. By edict of April 30, 1712, the series trips were canceled. At that time it was determined “that driving with mail horses under the name 'Extrapost' will henceforth be a sovereign institution, consequently an accessory to the postal system”, whereas “driving with carter horses under the name 'wage driving' will be a separate, independent, civil trade should be considered ”. These regulations with their explanations and additions formed the basis for the extra mail system.

Gradually, the extra mail system was considerably improved. Each station employed its own postman who had to maintain a certain number of postilions and horses. On April 11, 1766, an extra postage regulation appeared, which set the extra postage money for the horse and the mile ( old dimensions and weights (Prussia) ) to 8 good groschen (for courier and relay horses to 12 good groschen) and the postilion allowance to 3 good groschen for the mile stated. The long extra mail routes have been shortened by setting up new extra post stations and precise provisions have also been made regarding the covering of the extra items. As a result of the poor road conditions, a strong covering of the posts was necessary at that time. Traveling by extra mail was therefore relatively expensive. At least three horses had to be taken, four horses for three people, five horses for four people, six horses with two postillions for five people, etc. A peculiar institution was the so-called "Poste royale", that is, the extra amount of postage for one mile, the was levied on extra mail travelers arriving or departing from Berlin and Wroclaw because they could be picked up from their home or taken there. The income from the Poste royale was used to create a foundation to support the post office keepers, a facility similar to the previous horse fund .

On shorter mail routes, the stipulation that the post office keepers were obliged to keep a certain number of horses only for extra mail traffic had to be dropped. In 1767, row journeys among the citizens were reintroduced on these routes and post office owners were released from the obligation to maintain special extra mail horses.

In the 19th century, the entire Prussian extra postal system was redesigned and considerably improved. The construction of artificial roads, the improvement of the paths, bridges and ferries, the police care for the safety of the country roads, the legal regulations on clearing the snow and the increase in post offices contributed significantly to the speeding up of the post office and to increased punctuality in the transport . As a result, the extra post system (extra post, courier and Estafetten transport ) was lifted at the same time . Little by little, an extra mail service was connected to almost all post office stations. The increase in the number of horses in the post offices as a result of the increase in regular posts allowed a greater expansion of the extra mail system. The handling of the extra items, which in many places used to be left to the post office owners alone, was continuously entrusted to the post offices. This prevented oppression of the traveling public and improved monitoring of the extra mail operations. The clearance procedure, the delivery times, the principles of the clothing and the fees have been adapted to the changed carriage and route conditions. The provisions about this were published in order to protect the travelers from unfounded claims by the post office keepers, sub-officials and postillions, but on the other hand also to hold them back from unreasonable claims. Even in times of heavy traffic (trade fairs, maneuvers, etc.), it was strictly observed that the extra mail and courier horses as well as proper and comfortable wagons were provided quickly. The punctual observance of the delivery deadlines for extra items (40 minutes to the mile) and for couriers and Estefetten (30 minutes to the mile) was also monitored. In this way it was achieved that the travelers in all parts of the empire can be transported safely and punctually with changed horses at any time of the day or season without stopping.

The development of the extra postal system in the Bavarian and Württemberg as well as in the Taxis postal administration was roughly the same as in Prussia . The other former German regional postal administrations ( Baden , Braunschweig , Hanover , Saxony , Oldenburg , Mecklenburg and the Hanseatic cities of Bremen , Hamburg and Lübeck ) also had similar facilities to those in Prussia. Even though there was competition between the individual administrations in some respects and even if they were often inclined to claim special rights for themselves and to give in to the inclinations of small states, they were nevertheless forced to take each other into consideration in order to meet the needs of travelers and to meet the needs of traffic. There was also the fact that the extra posts often passed through several postal areas, so that the individual administrations were forced to make special agreements with each other, through which the course of the posts was regulated and punctuality and security guaranteed. In this way it gradually came about by itself that there was agreement between the individual postal administrations, both with regard to the design of the mail wagons and with regard to the conditions of carriage and other facilities.

The extra items were also used to a large extent at court festivities and when traveling by the Most High and Most High. These trips usually required large numbers of horses and postillions. So that the post offices could meet the demands placed on them, they often had to be referred to temporary horses from distant post offices. What the Post was able to achieve in this regard was shown, for example, in 1835 on a trip by the Prussian king to Kalisch and from there to Teplitz. Some of the 81 relays required 600 horses each. In Liegnitz alone, 145 extra items with 570 horses were handled in one day.

Due to the considerable increase in the number of ordinary people and the construction of the railways, the extra posts lost more and more of their importance from around 1860 onwards. Up until 1919, extra items were processed in various regions of the German Reich. The Eberswalde post office located at the gates of the Reich capital Berlin was an important extra post office until 1914. Where in the Schorfheide located Jagdschloss Hubertusstock all newly married princes and princesses spent their honeymoon . In addition, Kaiser Wilhelm II came to the Schorfheide several times a year to hunt. The transport of the entire court as well as the postal couriers and all shipments for the imperial court kitchen there was carried out from Eberswalde with extra items .

The heyday of the extra items were the years 1835 to 1840. This is best shown by the annual income in extra post money. She cheated:

The receipt of extra post money then steadily decreased, until at the end it was only a few thousand marks a year. Extra items have not been posted since 1919. The regulations on extra items, which were previously contained in ADA Sections V, 1 and 2, ceased to exist at the same time.

Law

The extra items were previously granted special privileges by the Royal Decree and later by the Postal Act (see: Privilege of the Post ). In special cases, where the normal mail routes were impossible or difficult to use, the extra items could use the side roads and field roads as well as the unshared fields and meadows without prejudice to the owners' right to compensation. An attachment against them was not allowed. Each wagon had to use the usual signal for the extra post. In the event of an accident, the residents of the street were obliged to give the extra items the help they needed to get ahead in return for full compensation as quickly as possible. The gate guards and bridge keepers were obliged to open the gates and barriers immediately as soon as the postilions gave the prescribed signal with the post horn . Compensation for the loss of or damage to property that the traveler was carrying, or for physical damage to the traveler, was not granted by Extrapost (Section 11 PG).

For the transport with special journeys that were carried out by motor vehicles (see: Kraftposten, Sonderfahrten), was considered to be extra post transport within the meaning of the Postal Act (PO § 51; III.).

See also

literature

  • Handheld dictionary of postal services
    • 1st edition: Article by Hermann Boedke (Oberpostrat in Berlin)
    • 2nd Edition:
    • 3rd edition: p. 659; Extra items → mail car
  • Heinrich von Stephan : History of the Prussian Post from its origins to the present . Pp. 60, 132, 193, 304, 767ff.
  • Max Aschenborn : The law on the postal system of the German Reich of October 28, 1871 ; 6th edition, Richard Schoetz, Berlin 1901; P. 202 note 14; 208ff.
  • The postal secrets in Project Gutenberg ( currently not generally available to users from Germany ) , Leipzig 1803, pp. 23–30
  • Scholz: The post, telegraph and telephone law systematically presented ; Reprint from the manual of all commercial law, edited by Viktor Ehrenberg, 5th volume. II. Department; OR rice country; Leipzig 1915; P. 178ff.
  • Niggl: Postal law. The provisions of domestic and international postal law (including postal check law) are explained ; W. Kohlhammer , Berlin-Stuttgart-Leipzig 1914; P. 24ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e concise dictionary of the postal system; 2nd Edition; P. 258
  2. ↑ a b c concise dictionary of the postal system; 1st edition; P. 220
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h concise dictionary of the postal system; 1st edition; P. 221