Post box (Germany)

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Mailbox of the Deutsche Bundespost , which is still used today by the Deutsche Post AG . - The red point indicates emptying on Sunday.

The post box is a container of a postal service provider intended for the delivery of letters , which transports these mail items to the recipient and usually stores them in a house letter box or post office box ; mailboxes are usually set up so that they are accessible to the public. In Germany, Deutsche Post AG had the most post boxes with 110,000 in 2016 ; in 2012 it was 112,000. Mailboxes from other postal companies are usually only represented regionally and differ in design and color. In 2012 the number was 6,000 mailboxes.

history

"Historic letter boxes" on a composite print from the 1985 postage stamp year of the GDR Deutsche Post

introduction

City mailbox of the Royal Prussian Post from 1824
Post boxes from different times and countries in the Museum for Communication Berlin

Containers, boxes or barrel-like vessels were already set up at the collection points at antique riding and messenger posts so that messages to be conveyed could be dropped in before the messenger or rider arrived.

In 1641, a total of 13 wooden mailboxes were installed in a post office in Hamburg. Her hole-like throw-in was labeled with various city names. The senders could distribute the letters not yet franked at the time in the various directions.

A mailbox at the Prussian Post is mentioned for the first time in 1766; it was placed in the corridor of what was then the Berlin court post office ( Poststrasse at the corner of Königstrasse ) "for the comfort of the correspondents and the facilitation of their correspondence". In the Berlin post office in Königstrasse and Spandauer Strasse , which they moved into in 1816, there initially seems to have been no mailbox, because Berlin business circles expressed the wish to make arrangements for Berlin after what had happened in the larger cities of France and England, “that the Letters intended for the post are not delivered to a secretary located at the window or table (which is extremely difficult for this secretary, especially on the two lively weekly post days on Tuesdays and Saturdays), but at all times of the day - from morning to evening - in an adjacent one A flap attached to this window or table with two narrow openings the length of an ordinary letter and over it can throw ”.

With the general introduction of letter boxes - still made of wood - the Prussian post did not begin until 1823 on the basis of an expert report from the Oberpostamt in Cologne from 1818. The reason was the letter boxes set up by the French during their rule from 1794 to 1814 in the German area on the left bank of the Rhine , which were common in France since 1653. In 1817, consideration was given to abolishing these letter boxes, which were still present in individual main towns in the Rhine Province from French rule, in the post houses themselves and in other suitable places. At the Oberpostamt Koblenz the box was removed, and only after lengthy discussions it was possible to suppress the aversion to the facility to such an extent that the postmaster general Johann Friedrich von Seegebarth not only approved the retention of the mailboxes in Aachen, Düsseldorf and Jülich, but 1818 also allowed the reintroduction in Koblenz. Even outside the Prussian administration, one could not make friends with mailboxes at that time. For example, the Fürstliche Thurn und Taxis'sche Ober-Postamts-Direktion 1818 stated, “that a separate mailbox for the unfranked… letters never existed at the Frankfurt Oberpostamt.” It goes on to say: “Only for the unfranked letters sent to France For a while there was a separate box, which, however, since it was often abused by evil-minded people ... has been discontinued. "

At the request of Postmaster General Karl Ferdinand Friedrich von Nagler , the Prussian King issued the following cabinet orders :

"I approve on your request of 13. d. Mts. That the existing post box facility on the Rhine has been made general for the convenience of the public, but the arrangement according to which, in the cases you have indicated, the letters may only be handed in at the Post- Comtoir , remain unchanged and, if at the same time letters of this kind are found in the mailbox, with these as well as with the letters subject to franking, which are found in the mailbox, will be dealt with. "

- signed Friedrich Wilhelm : Potsdam, October 18, 1823

On October 23, 1823, a circular was sent to all post offices with the stipulation that “in all places of the monarchy where correspondence is of some importance, mailboxes should be placed at the post offices and in large cities also in other decent places which the public can put down the letters to be sent by post at any time of the day, insofar as they are not postage paid and are not intended for countries or people, for which letters can only be accepted in franco. "In the end it said:" In the small places, where this facility does not appear necessary for the public, the General Post Office is inclined to permit such a box in the corridor of the post office for the convenience of the officials. However, approval must be obtained, and in this case the cost of the box must be paid for by the official who wants to benefit from this convenience. ”From January 1, 1824, there were wooden mailboxes in two sizes that were opened from below. They were locked by a strong snap lock. In the description it says: “So that no letters can fall from the sides when opening, two leather side walls are attached, which are fastened from the inside to the sides of the box and to the flap with nails and have a crease in the middle lies down towards the inside of the box. On the front of the box, in a ¼-inch recess, is the printed instruction on use, attached with paste. The rest of the outer part of the box is painted with good white oil paint. ”In the late 1870s, this first mailbox design was reverted to because of its simplicity, usefulness and safety.

"Letter box" of the Prussian Post around 1850

The mailbox from 1823 was a wooden box painted with white oil paint that was opened at the bottom. "Rules of conduct" printed on paper were attached to the front. For example, here are the rules on a later (1850) blue Prussian wooden mailbox:

"Do not put in the letter box, but hand it in at the post office:
  1. the letters to His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen, to the princes and princesses of the Royal House and to the members of the Princely Houses of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ;
  2. those letters destined for foreign countries which are wholly or partly subject to mandatory franking;
  3. those letters which the sender wishes to postage not with postage stamps or postage paid envelopes, but with cash in cash;
  4. the recommended letters ;
  5. all letters weighted with money, declared cash register instructions , government papers , precioses, etc., for which a consignment slip is issued ”.

Letters sent to the royal family or the royal houses were not allowed to be placed in the mailbox because the Bavarian King Ludwig I had received numerous begging and abusive letters after the dancer Lola Montez had won the king's favor in 1846 .

In 1830, the Post of the Kingdom of Württemberg , shortly afterwards the Bavarian Post, introduced letter boxes. In Bavaria, there were initially security concerns about letterboxes attached to the outside of buildings, which is why slot slots were attached to the counters in the post office. Outside mailboxes were only available in Bavaria from 1845.

After the introduction of the postage stamp ( Schwarzer Einser on November 1, 1849 in the Kingdom of Bavaria ), larger numbers of letter boxes were set up everywhere because franked letters could now also be posted (at no cost to the recipient).

Material, manufacture and standard models

Up until the 1850s, letter boxes were made of wood. In 1837 sheet metal was used on a trial basis.

Then cast-iron boxes with a bronze coating were used, which were decorated with a crown, eagle and console from 1866. The letters were initially removed one by one before insert bags made of linen and leather, insert boxes made of sheet metal, linen, wire mesh, wood and buffalo leather were used one after the other. In 1874 the drop flap, from which the letters fell into a container underneath, was introduced for emptying.

  • Historic cast iron mailboxes

  • Around 1885, wall mailbox in a postal museum, insertion and emptying on the side

  • After 1890, wall mailbox at the main post office in Eberswalde

  • Wall mailbox at the Augustus Bridge in Dresden

  • Around 1900, pillar mailbox at the town hall in Isselburg

  • Around 1899, cast iron mailboxes were manufactured in the Isselburger Hütte

The first letter boxes made of sheet steel came into use around 1910. In the mid-1920s, the Oberpostdirektion (Berlin) was responsible for procuring all letter boxes in the Reichspost area . The supplier was Franz Kuppler from Berlin-Weißensee . This shows the first efforts to standardize the mailboxes used in Germany.

The eight standard models (EB), which were made exclusively from sheet steel from 1930, continued to be used by the Deutsche Bundespost and Deutsche Post of the GDR. From 1955, letterboxes were made of sheet steel in the GDR (instead of the previous 8, only 5 models with their own designation from A to F).

Individual cast-iron models used before the development of the standard letterbox series made of sheet steel can only be found at historical sites or are used in places under monument protection.

After 1950, the Deutsche Bundespost started thinking about using plastic to make letter boxes, but the old boxes continued to be used until 1952 and a ninth model made of sheet steel was introduced. A first test series of 50 plastic letter boxes was put into service in 1956, and series production began in 1960. The Central Post Office (PTZ) in Darmstadt was responsible for testing and procurement . The individual parts of the plastic mailboxes are pressed from glass fiber-reinforced polyester resin dyed post yellow and glued, riveted or screwed together.

The Deutsche Bundespost first used nine letterbox models (standard designation "EB 1" to "EB 9"). For reasons of type restrictions, the number was initially limited from nine to six, but then expanded again to include two models.

Quantities

  • 1828: 112 letter boxes in the Prussian postal area (88 postal locations).
    In cities like Berlin, Cologne and Koenigsberg there were two mailboxes each, in Aachen, Breslau, Düsseldorf, Elberfeld, Liegnitz, Potsdam and Stettin one mailbox each. The 153 places with post offices but without mailboxes included: Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Bromberg, Crefeld, Dortmund, Memel, Münster, Trier. General-Postmeister von Nagler suggested installing a larger number of mailboxes. As a result, a new letter box was delivered for Aachen and Koblenz and two for Elberfeld and Stettin. The relevant sub-authorities reported no further need for any of the other locations.
  • 1856: 4,809 mailboxes in Prussia.
  • 1873: 39,271 post boxes in the German Empire.
    Of these, 30,665 at the Reichspost, 5,543 in Bavaria and 3,063 in Württemberg.
  • 1880: 58,000 mailboxes in the German Empire.
  • 1910: 153,000 letter boxes in the German Reich.
  • 1978: 108,832 mailboxes at the Deutsche Bundespost in West Germany including West Berlin.
  • 1984: 109,512 mailboxes at the Deutsche Bundespost in West Germany including West Berlin.
  • 2003: There were 140,000 mailboxes at Deutsche Post AG.
  • 2009: 108,000 mailboxes
  • 2012: 112,000 Deutsche Post mailboxes
  • 2015: 110,000 Deutsche Post mailboxes

Colours

Wall mailbox German Reichspost 1926 in blue

Until 1871 different colors such as white, gray, walnut, green, bronze and blue in different tints (for Prussia, Bavaria and Hesse) were to be found at the various post offices. From 1872 the boxes of the Reichspost (which was responsible for the German Empire without Bavaria and Württemberg) were marked in blue according to the Prussian example. Württemberg later joined after a bronze-green tone had been used until then. Bavaria introduced the color yellow for the post boxes and kept this until the mid-1920s, only after that the boxes turned blue. After the National Socialists came to power, the color changed to red at the end of May 1934 ( RAL No. 840 B2 color No. 7, which today would correspond to RAL 3000 "fire red").

In 1946 all zones of occupation were switched to yellow boxes or repainted and the inscription Reichspost was removed. The Deutsche Bundespost as well as the Deutsche Post of the GDR stayed in yellow and applied their lettering. After the postal reform, Deutsche Post AG continues to use yellow mailboxes. Private postal companies set themselves apart by other colors.

The different shades of the Deutsche Reichspost, Deutsche Bundespost and Deutsche Post AG are shown below:

number Color sample Surname use
RAL 3000 Fire red Pre-war RAL no. 840 B2 color no. 7, which today would correspond to RAL 3000 “fire red”. From May 1934 to May 1945
RAL 1005 Honey yellow German Federal Post Office 1949 to 1971
RAL 1007 Daffodil yellow historically Post Yellow referred
RAL 1021 Rapeseed yellow Deutsche Bundespost 1972 to 1980
RAL 1032 Gorse yellow Deutsche Bundespost since 1980, Deutsche Post AG since 1998
RAL 5007 Brilliant blue Airmail mailbox
RAL 6002 Foliage green Postal check box
RAL 7005 Mouse gray House mailboxes in the country
RAL 9005 Jet black Font color or post horn

Private mail letter boxes

Left: Mailbox of the private city post office "Wormatia" in Worms , which existed between July 1895 and March 1900.

Mailboxes from private postal companies already existed in the times of the German Empire, but at that time they were limited to the respective city area. Since the privatization and liberalization of the postal system, private postal companies have been able to operate again since the 2000s. Usually these are only active in some regions and not in the entire federal territory. A special variant can be found in Bremen, where the local provider Citipost Bremen has installed letter boxes on board the trams.

Subdivision at Deutsche Post AG according to application

In addition to the most common mailboxes, which are mainly mounted on a wall, there is also the so-called column mailbox standing on the floor.

The wall mailbox is divided into city and country mailboxes. These non-self-explanatory post office designations distinguish the model, which was previously mainly hung in cities with emptying through a floor flap, from the model which was previously mainly hung or set up in rural communities with emptying to the side.

Both wall and column mailboxes are double mailboxes with separate slots for local and long-distance mail. In all of these models, however, the height of the slot is too small to accommodate all of the permitted letter dimensions (e.g. a maxi letter ).

City mailbox

  • City mailboxes

  • With the emptying flap open, including a collection bag

  • With side entry flaps

  • With front throw-in flap (variant: blinking ), rails for the collection bag at the bottom

City mailboxes are attached to walls or support pillars. They are designed for emptying with a letter collecting bag and are equipped with two rails on the underside for inserting the bag and with a bottom flap. After the mailbox has been inserted into the rails, the lock of the bottom flap attached to the box with hinges is opened so that the flap falls straight down. The mail items placed in the mailboxes then slide into the mail bag. City mailboxes are equipped with the emptying indicator in accordance with PTZ standard 1342.78 and are identified by two post horns attached to the side. Letter boxes type EB 3 and EB 4 K have two letter slots on the side, letter boxes type EB 6 K have one letter slot attached to the front wall.

  • Type EB 3 letter boxes are only installed in cities where the volume of mail is so large that EB 4 K is not sufficient for receiving the mail and a post box cannot be set up.
  • Type EB 4 K mailboxes were generally installed in cities.
  • Type EB 6 K letter boxes were mainly used in old town areas, in smaller towns and areas on the outskirts, if the width of the sidewalk was so narrow that pedestrians could be obstructed by the use of EB 4 K or the mail volume was low.

In the 1970s, consideration was given to reducing the number of types; EB 14 should replace EB 4 K and EB 6 K.

Country mailbox

  • Country mailboxes

  • With side opening

  • Emptying through the mailbox roof.

Country mailboxes are attached to walls or support pillars. When emptying, the items must be taken out of the box individually. Letter boxes type EB 7 K and EB 8 K have a side-mounted door for this purpose, letter boxes type EB 9 have a flap that falls forward on the front wall. Type EB 7 K are equipped with the emptying indicator in accordance with PTZ standard 1342.78, EB 8 K and EB 9 with an insertion device for emptying signs in accordance with PTZ standard 1342.79. Letter boxes type EB 7 K are identified by two post horns on the side, type EB 8 K and EB 9 by a post horn on the front. Country mailboxes have a mail slot on the front wall. Country mailboxes are mainly used in rural communities and suburban areas when emptying is carried out by hand and not with a bag. If the emptying is not carried out more than once a day, letter boxes of the type EB 8 K are attached, if there is only a small amount of mail, EB 9 is attached. Mailboxes EB 7 K are only used where emptying more than once a day.

The country mailboxes EB9 from the 1970s onwards were intended to be emptied by hand by opening the lid (mailbox roof). They are equipped with a removable and exchangeable front panel; the front panel accommodates the letter slot and emptying indicator or, in the case of the type “house letter boxes in the country” EB 101, the deposit indicator; it also has the option of specifying all emptying times and attaching advertising texts (for example: postcode advertising ) or the name plate on the “house mailboxes in the country”. The types EB 17 (replacement for EB 7 K and EB 6 K) and 18 (for EB 8 K and EB 9) have two post horns attached to the side. EB 17 have an emptying indicator, EB 18 a turntable. With the appropriate identification, the turntable is at the same time the deposit indicator for "House mailboxes in the country" EB 101 (for EB 100 K), these were equipped with special locks with main locks.

Pillar mailbox

  • Pillar mailboxes

  • Upper part reserved for stamps (within the gray frame)

  • Letter slot on the front wall (left) or side (center), on the right a stamp machine

  • Auto mailbox, upper part for value signalman or Postreklame reserved

Pillar mailboxes are mounted on a base embedded in the ground. In the column under the mailbox there is a bag for collecting letters (mailbag) into which the letters fall and which is exchanged for an empty bag when emptied. The mailboxes are equipped with the emptying indicator in accordance with PTZ standard 1342.78 and marked with two post horns attached to the side. Letter boxes type EB 1 Wzg ( stamp dispenser ) can be equipped with two coin machines. They have a letter slot on the front wall. Type EB 2 letter boxes have two letter slots on the side. Column mailboxes are set up in cities where the volume of mail is so large that city mailboxes are not sufficient to receive the mail, for example at post offices or today at post offices, train stations and in busy places.

Local remote mailbox

Local remote mailbox from West Berlin (before reunification): "Other directions" / "Berlin (West)". Today in the Museum for Communication Berlin .
Two pillar mailboxes in Munich with the selection for "ZIP 80000–81999" and "other ZIP"

These mailboxes are attached to walls or support pillars. They are equipped with two letter boxes lying next to each other, each of which is intended for local mail or long-distance mail and is specially marked as such. There is a partition in the mailboxes. The emptying takes place with a letter collecting bag, which is provided with a partition. They are equipped with an emptying indicator in accordance with PTZ standard 1342.78 and are identified by post horns.

As early as the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, "double mailboxes" were being tested in Berlin. After initially two double mailboxes were attached to the central post office building ( Leipziger Straße and Mauerstraße) and had been tested in operation for a long time, further boxes of this type have been installed at post offices since mid-1902, primarily as post office mailboxes, so that nine of them were in use. For better differentiation, the department for location letters was painted yellow and for long-distance letters a blue paint (editorial note: the information in the DVZ is partly contradicting each other. There is also talk of the reverse color scheme) , and the flaps on the front were also used the inscriptions “For the place” and “To the outside”. The wrong sorting was between 3 and 17% up to 1902, on average about 9%. The Post nevertheless saw a satisfactory result (for comparison: in the City of London , according to the last annual report of the British Postmaster General at the time, the number of incorrectly inserted items was 10%). The lowest percentage of such inserted letters is found in a street mailbox used almost exclusively by individual deliverers, while the percentage is much higher in the case of the heavily used mailboxes in a lively business area. A further test was started on April 1, 1903 at the Post Office Berlin 12 in Zimmerstrasse, a special emptying district in which only two-part mailboxes are used. This district includes the five mailboxes at the houses Zimmerstrasse 1, 16/17, 81a, 90/91 and Wilhelmstrasse 92/93. The newly installed double mailboxes, in which the insertion openings were attached to the front, have two emptying devices; Separate collection bags are used for each department to empty them. A special emptying indicator with a turntable was installed for each department in order to maintain the possibility of determining different emptying times for local and long-distance broadcasts in appropriate cases. A count made in 1905 showed that among 1,662 items posted by the department for location letters, 486 items or 29.2% items were sent outside and among 2,361 items from the department for "outside" there were 323 or 13.7% local items found. As a result, the hoped-for advantage of fast processing of correspondence and the shortening of closing times were lost; on the contrary, the wrong sorting resulted in additional inconveniences for the company. Since under these circumstances a further continuation of the experiments could not be expected to have any notable success, the two-part mailboxes were withdrawn at a suitable opportunity and replaced by mailboxes of the usual type.

Woman places a mail item in the part of the local long-distance mailbox at Kurfürstendamm underground station intended for Berlin (West) (1978)

It was not used again until after the two world wars in 1969 in Osnabrück and from 1972 in West Berlin (“1000 Berlin (West)” and “Other Places”) until the mid-1970s. As early as 1956, there were only a few local remote mailboxes at major traffic hotspots. A plastic model followed in 1972 (EB 13). In the mid-1980s, the split mailboxes were also introduced in Frankfurt am Main. The special thing there was that items that were posted in the “district” of a letterbox in front of a delivery post office by around 5 o'clock were usually delivered within the city on the same day.

In 1977, two pillar mailboxes made of sheet steel were used in East Berlin for this purpose. The box for long-distance traffic had a 40 mm wide red stripe below the emptying indicator, and that for local traffic had an equally wide green stripe.

In the then island city of West Berlin, the mission was very helpful because from March 1, 1963 to October 3, 1990, there was reduced postage for postcards and letters “in local traffic”, i.e. within the whole of Berlin. This postage level was abolished in the Federal Republic on March 1, 1963.

Thanks to the modern distribution systems in the mail centers , the use of local / remote mailboxes is actually no longer necessary, but they are still available in Berlin, Munich and Wuppertal, for example. In the case of the Berlin local long-distance mailboxes, the surrounding post code regions 14, 15 and 16 in Brandenburg are included. In other cities such as Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart you can also find local / long-distance mailboxes, but these do not contain any information on pre-sorting and are therefore used as normal mailboxes.

  • Local remote mailbox in:

  • Berlin: "Other postcodes" / "Postcodes 10000–16999 (Berlin / Brandenburg region)"

  • Wuppertal: "Wuppertal" / "Other places"

  • Munich: "ZIP 80000–81999" / "other ZIP"

  • Frankfurt am Main: without reference to pre-sorting

Special mailboxes

Airmail mailbox

  • The first airmail mailbox (Berlin, 1923)

  • Airmail post box, mark: blue color

  • Airmail city mailbox 1962

Sheet steel mailboxes of the types EB2, EB3, EB5 and EB6 were used as "airmail mailboxes". Their prescribed color was yellow between 1923 and 1938 (exception: Bavaria: blue there), then light blue until 1942 and then yellow again. After 1945 the color changed to brilliant blue ( RAL 5007) for the last time . They also had a note " Airmail " on the front or on the side in black letters . The mailboxes were mainly used at air post offices, at airfields and in city districts, where experience has shown that a relatively large number of airmail items were sent.

Postal check box

Postal check box in the Museum for Communication in Frankfurt

Sheet steel mailboxes of the types EB2, EB3 and EB4 with leaf green ( RAL 6002) paint were used as "postal check letter boxes ", which were marked in black letters on the front or side with the note "Only for postal check traffic". The mailboxes were used to deliver mail to the post office and were installed in front of or in the vestibules of these buildings.

Rolling mailboxes

So-called rolling mailboxes are attached to public transport , that is, to a rail mail car , a tram or a post bus . They enable postal users to drop their letters at any train station , stop or stop .

Directional mailbox

Directional mailboxes, also called route mailboxes, were set up next to the usual station mailboxes (mailboxes at train stations that were emptied separately and at short intervals) at larger train stations carrying mail . They were a supplement to the mailbox on the rail mail car and only intended for receiving letters in a certain direction and for certain trains. These were ordinary pillar mailboxes, which were usually opened half an hour before the departure of a railway mail in this direction and were only emptied shortly before the departure time so that their contents were immediately delivered to the railway mail. This facility made it possible to post the post even after the local post office had closed, saving the sender from having to buy a platform ticket and to go to the platform. The first directional mailboxes were set up for this route in spring 1926 at the train stations in Frankfurt am Main and Munich . After the closure of the platform , the directional mailboxes became unattractive and no new ones have been added since 1967, the existing ones have been gradually removed.

House mailbox in the country

Mouse-gray "house mailboxes in the country"

A "house letter box in the country" (today called "country letter box" by Deutsche Post AG, type EB100K) is a letter box set up on the country road, usually mounted on a support column. In contrast to the usual house mailbox, it belongs to the postal company and was set up free of charge for postal customers if they live more than 100 meters from the public road network and cannot be reached by motor vehicle or only under difficult conditions.

Such a post box is used

  • the deliverer to insert the letters and parcels intended for the postal customer,
  • the postal customer to insert his outgoing mail.

The mailboxes are provided with a master key system. Postal customers and deliverers each have a key (the deliverer has a master key). The boxes are provided with a lid (letter box roof) for emptying, they have a name plate and a deposit indicator. The actuated deposit indicator shows the deliverer that there are consignments in the box to be taken away. The letter slot is on the front.

The boxes originally consisted of polyester resin dyed mouse gray ( RAL 7005). Deutsche Post AG offered three different models up to 2004: "Ludwig red" and "Knut" in green and "Sam", which is in the style of American tin mailboxes. This service has since been discontinued and Deutsche Post no longer sets up country mailboxes.

Ship mailbox

Ship mailbox on board the Schleswig-Holstein ferry

Ship letter boxes can be found on seagoing vessels and on inland waterway vessels. These mailboxes must remain closed in foreign ports.

In German-speaking countries, there were ship mailboxes on the Lake Constance ships. The first ship's mailbox on Lake Constance was on Bavarian ships in 1882, followed by Austria in 1885, and Württemberg and Switzerland in 1891. Initially, letters with postage stamps from all riverside states could be franked. Since 1900 the stamps of one state had to cover the full fee, other stamps could be used in addition. The letter boxes were emptied in the larger port towns and, in addition to the day stamp, were given an additional stamp indicating that the ship was being transported. The ship's mailboxes were removed in 1939 and replaced in 1949. These were finally removed from the Bodensee ships on May 1, 1961.

The first direct ship post connections between the German states and North America were established in 1847, previously this was established by English and French ships. After HAPAG and Norddeutsche Lloyd operated regular steamers, these companies also took over a large part of German mail overseas. In order to enable mail to be distributed more quickly after arrival, the mail was sorted by post officials on the ship during the crossing. The General Post Office was considering setting up sea post offices as early as 1873, but these were only introduced on December 24, 1890 with the agreement on the establishment and maintenance of joint German-American sea posts with the North American postal administration on April 1, 1891. The agreement stipulated, among other things, that at least one mailbox should be placed on the ship. For reasons of representation, the city mailbox model from 1885 was used and, in addition, the heraldic eagle with crown and instead of horse heads and the hermen-like female half-figures were exchanged for stylized fish. The mail delivered during the crossing was canceled by the accompanying officer of the sea post office with an often oval stamp which contained the inscription "DEUTSCHE SEEPOST" and the indication of the shipping line.

Since the end of 2011 there has been a ship's letterbox on the Schleswig-Holstein ferry , which is emptied twice a week. The shipments receive an oval stamp "DEUTSCHE SCHIFFSPOST" of the ferry connection ( Dagebüll - Föhr - Amrum ).

Event-related mailbox

The green stripe draws attention to the fact that this box “Only for shipments with collector's stamps - not for urgent shipments” is intended

Event-related mailboxes are mostly found at exhibitions and trade fairs. Items posted there will be canceled with a special stamp. Usually there is a notice on such mailboxes that no urgent appointments should be inserted, as processing is done by hand stamping and is therefore slower.

In the case of special campaigns, mailboxes are also set up for a specific recipient, such as the Christ Child and Santa Claus (the recipient is a Christmas post office that does not need to be addressed in detail).

Parcel box

The usual post boxes have narrow slots, they are not intended to receive packages and parcels. Deutsche Post AG's subsidiary DHL installed letterboxes for parcels for this purpose . The parcel box for delivering parcels and parcels has existed since September 2006 , and the Packstation was added in August 2010 , at which parcels and parcels can also be received using the mTan access procedure . Since autumn 2013 DHL has been testing “parcel boxes” that are mounted on customers' homes like letter boxes. The first test area was the city of Ingolstadt . These parcel letter boxes can be used for both dispatch and receipt by Deutsche Post DHL. Since the tests were very well received, the parcel box has been available nationwide since May 2014. The box can either be rented for at least 1.99 euros per month or optionally purchased. Other postal service providers are not allowed to use DHL parcel boxes.

  • Parcel box on the left and Packstation on the right.

  • Parcel box on the left and city mailbox on the right.

  • Post 24/7 base station with parcel box (right)

Depot box

Mail deposit boxes or depot boxes are used exclusively by the postal company. They are mainly set up in delivery areas where postal bicycles or handcarts are used. If these vehicles cannot pick up all the mail items at once, more are deposited in such a nearby box and the postman picks them up one by one. The boxes are usually located next to other postal or telecom inventory and are somewhat similar to cable distribution cabinets .

  • Post box in Munich (older design, recognizable by the post horn arrows)

  • From left to right: mailbox, telephone booth , postage stamp machine and a depot box

Emptying indicator

The emptying indicator on the mailbox shows the day and time of the emptying, any night emptying and the responsible mail center . In addition, a reference is made to the next mailbox with an even later emptying. The late emptying happens so early that the shipments usually reach the recipient in Germany the next day. In the case of night emptying, on the other hand, the mail items from the postal routing regions shown on the emptying indicator usually only reach their recipients with the next delivery if the incoming mail center is also the outgoing mail center.

At the Reichspost there were mailboxes that were emptied up to ten times a day. Today, most mailboxes are only emptied once or twice a day. The Deutsche Bundespost stopped emptying all mailboxes at night on January 6, 1984. Boxes with remaining night emptying were indicated by signs in red.

A red point has been pointing to an emptying on Sunday since the post office hours. By early 2016, Deutsche Post emptied 10 percent of the 110,000 mailboxes nationwide, or 11,000, on Sunday. Since the volume of mail has decreased in recent years, the Post wants to empty only 2,000 mailboxes on Sundays in the future. These are located at heavily frequented places such as train stations, at larger post offices primarily in cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, district towns, urban districts and at train stations with ICE connections, as well as at the mail centers.

On some mailboxes, the weekday of the next emptying is set after each emptying. Country mailboxes used to have emptying labels that were exchanged after each emptying for others with the information about the next emptying.

Trivia

Hofheim, mobile mailbox
  • Germany's highest post box is at the Munich house on the Zugspitze .
  • Since 1964 there has been a post buoy in the Steinhuder Meer during the sailing season , and the Bundeswehr field post is also happy to use a post buoy at maritime events in order to be able to deliver mail on the “high seas”.
  • During the Expo 2000 there was the largest mailbox in the world in Hanover, the Postbox .
  • Since 2011, one provided with a post box is BMW - scooter from a post office in Hofheim operated as a "mobile mailbox". The scooter is painted in postal yellow (gorse yellow) and officially approved as a letterbox.

Legal

A legal regulation on the quality requirements of postal mailboxes in Germany can be found in § 2 No. 2 of the Postal Universal Service Ordinance (PUDLV). According to the regulation , postal mailboxes are “devices suitable for posting letters”. They must be sufficiently available that customers in contiguous residential areas generally do not have to travel more than 1,000 m to get to a mailbox. According to the ordinance, mailboxes must also be emptied every working day and, as required, every Sunday and public holiday , whereby the emptying times and the next emptying must be indicated on them.

Posting post boxes without permission is prohibited. Any unauthorized use is illegal and obliged to pay damages according to § 823 BGB and will be prosecuted according to § 303 StGB . Theft from a mailbox is a criminal offense of serious theft in accordance with Section 243 (1) No. 2 of the Criminal Code.

Everyday culture

Literary

One comes across the mailbox occasionally in literature as well.

"You can see numerous boxes hanging,
both in wide alleys as well as in narrow
ones , where you can have
parcels placed by your servant ,
letters, billets and certificates at
all hours of the night and day!"

- Reiner, J. de, F.

toy

Mailboxes were often used in children's mail games and as money boxes . In addition, the Federal Post Office published a magazine for children under the title The Yellow Mailbox - a magazine for hard-working children . Gerhard Kretschmann acted as editor , the magazine was published by Verlag Kultur und Wissenschaft in Frankfurt am Main from 1954.

philately

Although the letter box is one of the most famous postal facilities, it has so far been immortalized on relatively few stamps or postage stamps. Rather, there are special stamps that take up the motif of the mailbox. The first German postage stamp to show a letterbox is a Berlin stamp from 1969 on the occasion of the World Congress of the Personnel of the Post, Telegraph and Telephone Companies (IPTT). However, the stamp shows an Australian postman and consequently also an Australian mailbox. This was followed in 1974 by a stamp on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union.

In 1985, the GDR issued four stamps with different types of post boxes.

  • First officially introduced wooden mailbox (until approx. 1850)

  • Cast iron mailbox (around 1860)

  • Cast iron mailbox (around 1900)

  • Mailbox made of sheet metal and cast iron (around 1920)

After reunification, there was a letterbox motif with a machine stamp in 2002. A year later a rural house mailbox followed and in 2007 a drawn post box.

literature

  • Federal Ministry for Post and Telecommunications (Ed.)
    • Concise dictionary of the postal system :
      • 1st edition; Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder) 1926, pp. 151–153.
      • 2nd completely reworked edition; Frankfurt am Main 1953, pp. 173-174.
      • 1st supplement to 2nd edition, 1956, p. 37.
      • 3rd completely revised edition; 1. Volume A-F, Berlin 1971, pp. 405-409.
    • Throwing in is enough: Post boxes since 1850 (illustration of eleven different post box models). In: Connections 500 years of post. P. 44.
    • Post book: Advice for customers
      • 1982 edition, pp. 17, 53.
      • 1988 edition, pp. 33, 56.
  • Postal information. Published by the Central Postal Service
  • A wonderful facility - 185 years of mailboxes in Germany. In: Mint never hinged - Das Philatelie-Journal . September / October 2009, p. 30 f.
  • Manfred Stephan: You can see numerous boxes hanging - a brief cultural history of German mailboxes. Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-344-00163-9 .
  • Gottfried North, Pedro Warnke: 150 years of mailboxes. (Special exhibition in the Bundespostmuseum from November 15, 1973 to February 28, 1974) Ed .: Bundespostmuseum Frankfurt, printed by Union-Druckerei, Frankfurt am Main 1974.
  • German Society for Postal and Telecommunication History (DGPT), publisher and publisher:
    • Archive for German Postal History
      • Karl Dopf: The mailbox tells its story. Frankfurt / Main 1965, no. 2, p. 63.
      • Herbert Leclerc: The postal department of the Federal Postal Museum. Issue: 1/1973, pp. 13–34.
      • Ingo Hildebrand: Postbox as a crowd puller - Welcome to the largest mailbox in the world! About the successful appearance of Deutsche Post at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover. Issue 1/2001, pp. 59-62.
  • Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung (DVZ). Berlin.
  • Journal for the Post and Telecommunications System (ZPF) published and published by Josef Keller Verlag with the support of the Federal Minister for Post and Telecommunications.
  • Sheila Patel: Country mailbox remodeled with a brush . In: Marler Zeitung , April 23, 2011.

Web links

Commons : Post letter boxes in Germany  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Dpa: Deutsche Post: Mailboxes are on the rise. In: heise-online. August 2, 2016, accessed August 2, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Since there were no postage stamps back then , only unfranked letters could be thrown into letter boxes, the transport costs of which had to be paid by the recipient.
  3. ↑ ZPF , issue no. 2/1974; P. 61
  4. ^ Heinrich von Stephan: History of the Prussian Post , p. 314
  5. ^ A b c d e Herbert Leclerc: The postal department of the Federal Postal Museum. Section: Mailboxes and Mailbags, p. 29
  6. ↑ a b c d From the history of the letter box . In: DVZ , 1879, no. 22, p. 170
  7. ↑ a b From the history of the mailbox . In: DVZ , 1879, no. 22, p. 171
  8. ↑ Illustration: City mailbox with instructions for use - Prussia 1850
  9. ↑ ZPF , issue no. 2/1974; P. 61
  10. ↑ a b c d e concise dictionary of the postal system . 3. Edition. P. 406
  11. ↑ a b Herbert Leclerc: The postal department of the Federal Postal Museum . Section: Mailboxes and mailbags, p. 30
  12. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system ; 1st edition 1926; P. 152
  13. ↑ a b Manfred Stephan; P. 160
  14. ↑ a b Concise dictionary of the postal system . 2nd Edition; P. 174
  15. ↑ a b Our Post : Information folder 2, Ed .: Deutsche Bundespost, status: 01/1984
  16. ↑ Deutsche Post AG's stock exchange release on finanznachrichten.de
  17. ↑ Deutsche Post advertisement: "We give everything every day for your letter", status: October 2009
  18. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system ; 1st edition 1926; P. 152
  19. ↑ Vfg. ​​No. 185 of May 22, 1934, No. 45
  20. ↑ a b Manfred Stephan; P. 159
  21. ↑ https://www.verkehrrundschau.de/nachrichten/bremen-brief-logistik-mit-der-strassenbahn-520304.html accessed on July 13, 2018
  22. ^ Deutsche Post AG : Comment on Facebook of May 21, 2013.
  23. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system . 3. Edition. Pp. 406-407
  24. ↑ a b c d Concise dictionary of the postal system . 3. Edition. P. 407
  25. ↑ a b Concise dictionary of the postal system . 3. Edition. P. 409
  26. ↑ a b c d e concise dictionary of the postal system . 3. Edition. P. 408
  27. ↑ DVZ , 1899, issue 5
  28. ↑ double mailbox . In: DVZ , 1902, H. 45, p. 525
  29. ↑ Double mailbox . In: DVZ , 1901, no. 7, p. 64
  30. ↑ double mailbox . In: DVZ , 1902, H. 45, pp. 525-526
  31. ↑ double mailbox . In: DVZ , 1903, issue 15, p. 197
  32. ↑ double mailbox . In: DVZ , 1905, H. 45, P. 521
  33. ↑ 150 years mailbox; P. 13
  34. ↑ ZPF , issue no. 2/1974, p. 62
  35. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system . 1st supplement to the 2nd edition. 1956, p. 37
  36. ↑ Manfred Stephan; Pp. 105 and 160
  37. ↑ Michel catalog; Germany Special 2004, Volume 2; Pp. 876-877
  38. ^ Postal history and postage stamps of Berlin # special features
  39. ↑ a b c PTZ standard 1342.91; dated August 1980
  40. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system. 2nd Edition. P. 173.
  41. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system. 2nd Edition; P. 626.
  42. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system. 1st supplement to the 2nd edition; P. 192.
  43. ↑ ZPF , issue no. 2/1974, p. 62.
  44. ↑ a b The “Ludwig rot” model is right at the top of the popularity list in Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , published on January 30, 2001.
  45. ↑ Figure "Knut" on the manufacturer's website Süd Böhl from Böhl-Iggelheim
  46. ↑ Country letter boxes ( Memento from February 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Press release from Deutsche Post AG
  47. ↑ Monika Kallfelz: Polarstern: Discovery tour on the ship . ( Memento from July 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Die Rheinpfalz , December 9, 2011
  48. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system . 2nd Edition. P. 664
  49. ↑ Manfred Stephan; P. 62
  50. ↑ 150 years of mailboxes . P. 27
  51. ↑ Manfred Stephan; P. 59
  52. ↑ Manfred Stephan; P. 60
  53. ↑ Manfred Stephan; P. 61
  54. ↑ Christkind is going to stamp again . rhein-berg-online.de, November 17, 2010
  55. ↑ [1]
  56. ↑ DHL Paketkasten available nationwide - The mailbox for parcels is now available for all regions of Germany - Rent from 1.99 EUR per month or buy basic version from 99 EUR Press release from dpdhl.com of May 12, 2014.
  57. ↑ [2]
  58. ↑ The parcel box joins the mailbox - if you miss the parcel carrier and no longer want the delivery at your neighbor or even in the branch, you now have an alternative: Deutsche Post DHL is now offering its own parcel box for your front door. faz.net with material from AFP from May 12, 2014.
  59. ↑ Deutsche Post parcel box No more queuing for a Berrit Gräber parcel on sueddeutsche.de from May 14, 2014.
  60. ↑ Now everyone can order the parcel box - Deutsche Post considers it “the greatest invention since the mailbox”: The “parcel box” can now be ordered nationwide - and should make many trips to the branch superfluous. AFP / lw welt.de from May 12, 2014.
  61. ^ "Will not prevail" Post competitors blaspheme against DHL parcel box focus.de from May 15, 2014
  62. ^ Augsburger Allgemeine , January 5, 2009, section Das Datum
  63. ↑ Mailboxes - Post restricts Sunday emptying to rp-online.de from January 29, 2016
  64. ↑ Post restricts emptying on Sundays - Swiss Post wants to save costs. So far there are 11,000 mailboxes with a red dot. In future, far fewer will be emptied on Sundays. faz.net from January 29, 2016
  65. ↑ Deutsche Post - Sunday emptying is becoming rarer - email, SMS and Co. are competing with Deutsche Post's mail business. Now the yellow giant is brushing up the Sunday emptying of mailboxes. Too little amounts made many journeys simply useless. from: dpa on handelsblatt.com from January 29, 2016
  66. ↑ Mailboxes: Post restricts Sunday emptying in the country on Spiegel Online from January 29, 2016
  67. ↑ Das Münchner Haus (on the right, hangs Germany's highest POST mailbox) , accessed on April 27, 2012.
  68. ↑ Postman on the Zugspitze ( memento from July 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) on antenne.de , accessed April 27, 2012.
  69. ^ Westfalen Bären-Blatt , accessed on December 19, 2011.
  70. ↑ Wolfgang Bieber picks up the post at home . In: Die Welt online , November 15, 2011.
  71. ↑ Note on post boxes in the Munich city area
  72. ↑ Brief history of the mailbox . In: Berliner Briefmarken-Zeitung , 1913, issue 19, pp. 415–416
  73. ↑ Manfred Stephan; P. 9.
This article was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 13, 2012 in this version .