Königsberg postal system
For more than 500 years, the Königsberg postal system served the transport of mail in the Teutonic Order , in the Duchy of Prussia and in East Prussia .
history
The origins of the Königsberg postal service lay in the messenger mail that the Teutonic Order set up in the 13th century. Since 1457 the center of attention has been Königsberg, the seat of the Grand Master . With the duchy, the office and school post was created in 1525 with a headquarters in Königsberg Castle . The merchants had the Hansepost with their own messengers. Altstadt , Kneiphof and Löbenicht also went into business independently in the 17th century with a city postmaster. When the Great Elector combined both postal operations to form the headquarters in the castle, the merchant's mail was received in the “post office” of the (old) stock exchange on the Green Bridge . The government messenger master Martin Neumann set up one postcours after the other. In 1649 the 1500 km long connection from Cleve to Memel was established . Besides the court post office (Berlin) , Königsberg was the only court post office . In 1709 the postmaster Heinrich Bertram had four employees. Friedrich Wilhelm I promoted the postal system. Seven post lines with a horse-drawn carriage and rider left Königsberg.
During the Russian occupation (1758–1763) in the Seven Years' War , the court post office was called the Russian Imperial Court Post Office . The post office buildings, especially the warehouse at the castle, were poorly maintained and fell into disrepair. According to v. Hippel's death in 1797 succeeded in buying the court post director Johann Ludwig Wagner (1735–1820) his property (later Poststrasse 15). The Hofpostdirektor Friedrich v. Madeweis headed the Königsberg postal system from 1808 to 1822. He introduced many innovations. In 1820 he was subordinate to seven other post offices and 25 post offices. The main post office, built in 1849, was in service until 1945. At the beginning of the battle for Königsberg , the city had 23 post offices . From 1842 to 1944 the Königsberger Post issued 43 special and advertising stamps.
From 1894 to 1900 there was the private mail "Hansa" . An illegal school mail with considerable sales and 287 different postage stamps existed from 1917 to 1923.
Oberpostdirektion
With the reorganization of the Prussian postal system , the Königsberg post office was established on September 16, 1849. The first director was Oberpostdirektor Pieck . In 1850 the OPD district had 67 offices and offices. In 1862 there were 71 post offices with 135 officials. There were also districts of the new government district of Allenstein (1905) and the former West Prussia (1920–1939). In 1942 there were 1,814 post offices with 10,861 officials. 1.7 million letters and cards were posted in the district in 1870 and over 90 million in 1942. In the same year, 8.5 million parcels were posted. The last presidents of the Reichspostdirektion Königsberg were Hans-Joachim Münzel (1940) and Dipl.-Ing. Walter Pietsch (1942). Both were previously Ministerialrat in the Reich Ministry of Post . In the Battle of Königsberg , Pietsch dissolved the RPD on January 27, 1945.
The official seat of the OPD was the main post office building on Poststrasse. After the First World War, the Oberpostdirektion (Königsberg) , Brahmsstrasse 7, corner of Hansaring was established. General Otto Lasch's command post was in his cellars until March 1945 . With files and facilities, the OPD was to be moved to the Post Security School in Sternberg (Mecklenburg). When the trucks got there, the Red Army welcomed them.
Private mail
In 1894, the private post office "Hansa" opened in Koggenstrasse for the city of Königsberg . It was run well compared to other cities. In 1899 it had a total turnover of more than 2.5 million items with 165 letter boxes (25 more than the Reichspost). On March 31, 1900, the private posts were dissolved.
literature
- Horst-Günter Benkmann : Königsberg (Pr.) And his post. A contribution to the history of the post office in Königsberg (Pr.) From the time of the Order to 1945 (= Prussia series of publications. Work 6 = publication series of the East and West Prussia Foundation in Bavaria, "Professor Doctor Ernst Ferdinand Müller" eV, Vol. 3). Schild-Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-88014-075-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Robert Albinus: Königsberg Lexikon . Würzburg 2002, ISBN 3-88189-441-1 .
- ^ Postal history (territorial.de)
- ^ Ostpreußenblatt, March 6, 1982