Hermann Lingnau (post office clerk)

Hermann Lingnau

(Carl) Hermann (Leberecht) Lingnau (born July 11, 1815 in Neustrelitz , † December 2, 1885 in Lübeck ) was a high-ranking German postal worker.

Life

Hermann Lingnau was born as the son of the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Strelitz Postmaster, Postrat, most recently Hofpostrat Carl Lingnau (1789–1864) and his wife Sofie Friederike Johanne, née. Barnewitz. Hermann followed in his father's footsteps and in 1833 got a job at the Neustrelitz court post office, where he initially worked as a post clerk, and since 1849 court post secretary and post auditor at the GhGL. Chamber and Forestry College Neustrelitz and at the same time negotiator for the government in postal matters.

On April 2, 1851, Lingnau was appointed director of the postal service of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck , the city ​​post office . His main task was to reform the inefficient and outdated organization. Post director Lingnau managed to completely renew and restructure the city post office in a relatively short time.

In the first year of his term of office, Lingnau contracted the postal relations of Lübeck to the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (November 7, 1851), to the Thurn and Taxis'sche Post (November 22), to the Kingdom of Prussia ( November 22) during the Postal Congress in Berlin ( December 1) and the Kingdom of Hanover (December 3), all of which had their own post offices in the city with powers that had previously overlapped and were difficult to define.

On Lingnau's initiative and based on his organizational preparatory work, Lübeck was able to join the German-Austrian Post Association in 1852 and thus gain access to the general standardization of the postal system.

In 1859 Lingnau continued the modernization of the Lübeck Post Office by convincing the Lübeck Senate of the usefulness and necessity of introducing postage stamps through detailed reports ; In 1862 he had the first mailboxes installed.

Lingnau's extensive reform work enabled the smooth integration of the Lübeck postal system into the postal administration of the North German Confederation on January 1, 1868. The city post office became the upper post office in the northern German postal district , with the powers of an upper post office ; Lingnau remained head of the authority as chief post director and held this post until 1884, the year before his death. In 1883 he was awarded the Bene Merenti commemorative coin for his services .

Hermann Lingnau was married to Luise Sophie Emilie Stübener (1820–1906), daughter of the Neustrelitz court musician Julius Stübener. Three daughters are known from this marriage. His brother Carl Lingnau (1817–188?) Left literary traces as a bookseller, publisher and councilor weigher in Neubrandenburg ; In the 1848 revolution he belonged to the circle of radical democrats in Mecklenburg , played a role in the escape of Gottfried Kinkel and Carl Schurz through Mecklenburg in 1850 and finally emigrated to America after economic failures.

literature

• Antjekathrin Graßmann and Werner Neugebauer: From postmen, letters and ducats. From eight centuries of Lübeck postal history . Schmidt-Römhild publishing house, Lübeck 1993
• Wilhelm Kähler: The Lübeck postage stamps . In: Der Wagen 1960. A yearbook from Lübeck . Published by Paul Brockhaus. Schmidt-Römhild publishing house, Lübeck 1960

Web links

• Literature about Hermann Lingnau in the state bibliography MV