Postal history and stamps of Bremen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bremen postage stamps

Due to the stamps that were issued by Bremen between 1855 and 1867, this country is still present in some scrapbooks as an independent area.

Organization of the postal system in Bremen

Main post office 1, former Imperial Post Office from 1879 on Domsheide

First, various messengers took care of the correspondence in Bremen. For example, the merchants had their own messengers in order to better handle the trade in various goods .

A good hundred years after the establishment of the first regular postal service in Central Europe, the Dutch postal rate between Tyrol and the Habsburg Netherlands in 1490, Leonhard I von Taxis was appointed General Postmaster General in the Holy Roman Empire in 1596 , and since 1597 the postal service has been considered an imperial shelf . The first post office of the Imperial Post Office in Bremen was opened in 1617.

After the Thirty Years War , large parts of the Thurn und Taxis postal service continued to be organized and expanded, but some imperial estates established their own state posts. The first post office of a state in Bremen was that of the Electorate of Hanover in 1709 . A short time later, in 1727, Prussia also established its own post office in Bremen.

Bremen opened his first own post office, the Bremen City Post Office, in 1804 on Katharinenstraße. The Hanoverian post office, since 1803 in the former episcopal Eschenhof , which then housed the secondary school and finally had to give way to the Imperial Oberpostdirektion Bremen , fell to Prussia in 1805. In 1806 the Duchy of Berg also opened its own post office in Bremen, which was headed by the previous postmaster of Thurn und Taxis.

During the occupation by France in the course of the Napoleonic wars from 1807 to 1813, all postal services were taken over by the Imperial French Upper Post Office.

After the French withdrew, the former post offices resumed their activities and began again to expand the postal service. In 1819 the city post office and the Prussian post office moved into the newly built town house . The Thurn- und Taxissche Post has been located on the corner of Obernstrasse and Hakenstrasse since 1843. The Bremen city post office opened further post offices, including in Bremerhaven in 1846 , in Vegesack in 1847 and in Bremen (Dechanatstraße 10, at the train station, Am Wall 39, Ostertorsteinweg 27).

In the years 1850 to 1851, the postal rates were finally divided between the individual post offices. The Thurn und Taxis post office, for example, was entrusted with the mail traffic to France, but Hanover took over the entire mail traffic to Braunschweig .

One year later, on December 1, 1852, he joined the German-Austrian Postal Union . Three years later the first stamps were introduced in Bremen.

Own stamp issues

1855: 3 Grote stamps

The first stamps

3 Grote: On April 10, 1855, the first postage stamp for 3 Grote (72 Grote corresponded to 1 Bremer Thaler) was issued in Bremen. This value was only intended for domestic postal traffic in Bremen. An output of supplementary values ​​was already planned at this point in time. Bremen's first postage stamp was issued imperforated . On the stamp image you can see the Bremen coat of arms in the middle of the stamp in addition to the value and the words “Stadtpostamt Bremen” . The single-color printing of the postage stamp was done on gray-blue paper . Like all other postage stamps from Bremen, the stamp was valid until December 31, 1867. The estimated circulation was 60,000 pieces.

Supplementary values

Since it is extremely difficult to process mail with just a single value, new supplementary values ​​were soon issued.

5 Grote: On April 4, 1856, a new postage stamp for 5 Grote was published. The slightly changed brand image was in turn adorned with the coat of arms of Bremen. The inscription was changed from “Stadtpostamt Bremen” to “Francomarke - Fünf Grote”. This stamp was also issued imperforate. The edition was about 26,500 copies. The stamp paper used was colored (carmine) grayish.

5 silver groschen: On August 22, 1859, another supplementary value of 5 silver groschen was issued (5 silver groschen corresponded to 11 sizes, intended for shipments to Great Britain). This time the drawing has been changed significantly, but the Bremen coat of arms is still the focus. This time the inscription was "Bremen - 5 Sgr.".

7 Grote: Almost a year later, on July 10, 1860, a new postage stamp for 7 Grote was issued. The drawing as well as the inscription on this stamp completely matched the value of 5 Grote of the first Bremen stamp issue. The circulation of this postage stamp, however, was set at 20,000, somewhat below that of the 5 Grote. The stamp paper was colored yellow.

10 Grote: In the middle of November 1861, the last supplementary value for 10 Grote of the series was issued. The brand image again shows the Bremen state coat of arms, but in a new drawing. What is special about this brand, however, is not the new drawing. It is Bremen's first perforated postage stamp. The perforation was made by means of a puncture .

The introduction of the perforation

1861: The Bremen postal administration soon recognized the advantages of the stamp separation of the puncture. In the following years from 1861 to 1864, the previously issued stamps of 3, 5 and 7 sizes as well as 5 silver groschen were also issued pierced. Bremen's new supplementary value for 2 Grote, which appeared on April 29, 1863, was issued exclusively pierced.

1866/67: From 1866 to 1867, the company finally switched from piercing as perforation to perforation . All six Bremen postage stamps issued by then were perforated and issued with line perforation 13 (for 13 see perforation level ). The perforation was sometimes a bit poor, so that the perforated stamps of Bremen sometimes look like pierced stamps.

North German Confederation, German Empire

On January 1, 1868, she joined the North German Confederation (forerunner of the German Empire). From this point on, the postal history of Bremen divided the postal history of the North German Confederation . The fifteen stamps from Bremen could only be used up to that day.

After the establishment of the Empire in 1871, the postal and telegraph system in Bremen was integrated into the administration of the German Empire . From now Imperial Oberpostamtszeitung 1874 was Imperial Oberpostdirektion with its new building by 1879. The stamps from this period showed no Bremer motives.

Bremen motifs

Town Musicians of Bremen 1982
Bremen Roland 1989
City Hall, 1997
Steamer Bremen 2004

Some motifs with a reference to Bremen were used on postage stamps in the German Reich from 1919 to 1945 and in the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR . These include:

  • 1937: Steamer Bremen , value 40 + 35 pfennigs of the winter aid stamps
  • 1940: Bremen town hall , value 25 + 15 pfennigs of the winter aid stamps
  • 1964/65: Bremen town hall, worth 20 pfennigs from the state capitals series
  • 1965: International transport exhibition - sailing ship Hammonia and passenger ship Bremen , value 70 pfennigs, valid until December 31, 1968
  • 1971: Bremen Town Musicians, six special stamps of the Deutsche Post of the GDR as fairy tale motifs on small sheets with the values ​​5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 pfennigs as part of a series of small sheets from 1966 to 1985
  • 1973: Bremen harbor view, value 40 pfennigs from the series City Views from 1969, valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1975: Ludwig Quidde 1858–1941, Bremen Nobel Peace Prize Laureate , 50 Pfennigs, valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1977: Bremen Schnelldampfer (1929–1841) - Blue Ribbon 1929, value 50 + 25 pfennigs from the youth stamp series , valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1977: Bremer Kogge - Hanseatic Gross-Schiff (1380), value 30 + 15, Berlin youth stamp
  • 1987: Wilhelm Kaisen (1887–1979), President of the Senate, worth 80 pfennigs, valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1982: Bremen Town Musicians, value 40 pfennigs, special stamp with silhouette, valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1982: Federal President Karl Carstens , Bremen Federal President, value 80 pfennigs, valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1887: 1200 years of the bishopric of Bremen , worth 80 pfennigs, valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1988: Bremer Roland , 280 pfennigs of the definitive stamp , valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1989: Bremer Roland, worth 38 pfennigs of the definitive stamp, valid until June 30, 2002
  • 1997: Bremen town hall, value 440 pennies, definitive stamp
  • 1992: Bremen coat of arms at a value of 100 pfennigs of the coat of arms series
  • 1995: Franz Radziwill (1895–1983), painter from Bremen, motif: Water tower in Walle-Walle (1931), worth 100 pfennigs
  • 2004: Dampfer Bremen - winning the Blue Ribbon , worth 55 cents
  • 2007: Lighthouse Bremerhaven Oberfeuer , value 45 cents, series lighthouses from 2004
  • 2009: The United Nations brought out a 44 cnt stamp with the view of the town hall to the UNESCO World Heritage Site - Town Hall and Statue of Roland
  • 2012: 200 years of Grimm's fairy tales with u. a. the motif of Bremen Town Musicians, value 55 cents
  • 2014: Bremen market square, stamp block with two 60 cent stamps from the series Germany's most beautiful panoramas .

literature

  • BE Crole: History of the Deutsche Post . II edition. Verlag W. Malende, Leipzig 1889. The author is Bruno Emil König from Berlin.
  • K. Schwarz (Postrat): Timeline of German postal history . RV Deckers Verlag, Berlin 1935, Volume 22 Post and Telegraphy in Science and Practice.
  • Christian Piefke: The history of the Bremen regional post office . Kasten, Bremen 1947.

Web links

Commons : Post in Bremen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Bremer Briefmarken  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Postage stamps with Bremen motifs  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rudolf Stein, Classicism and Romanticism in the Architecture of Bremen , p. 175 ff., The main post office and the Eschenhof