Postal history and postage stamps of Hamburg

Hamburg postage stamp as a motif of a postage stamp from 1959 of the Deutsche Bundespost

This article deals with the postal history and postage stamps of Hamburg from the medieval messenger system to the transition of the Hamburg postal administration to the northern German postal district in 1868.

Historical development

After the founding of the German Hanseatic League in the high Middle Ages, so-called regulated messenger trains were formed , which transported messages from Hamburg via Lübeck, Rostock, Stettin, Danzig and Königsberg to Riga and via Bremen to Amsterdam and via Celle and Braunschweig to Nuremberg.

In 1649 a Danish post office is opened in Hamburg. In the 17th century, the taxi service post settled in Hamburg, and the imperially privileged mail and freight carriage between Hamburg and Nuremberg was created.

Messenger of the Hamburg foot mail 1808

Napoleon annexed the three Hanseatic cities and north-western Germany in 1810 as part of the continental blockade against Great Britain.

After the end of the French occupation , various posts were established again in the city of Hamburg, which then became a sovereign state. On January 1, 1822, the previously private postal rights were nationalized and the Hamburg State Post was founded as the Hamburg City Post Office. The Hanseatic city had its own post offices in Hamburg and Ritzebüttel . In the Hamburg city post office (Mengstrasse no. 43) the Swedish-Norwegian (from 1858 Swedish), the taxissche (Mengstrasse no. 48) and the Hanoverian post were housed. The Prussian upper post office, the Mecklenburg and the Danish post offices worked in their own buildings. Until 1835 there was also a post office in Braunschweig and from April 1848 to February 18, 1852 a post office in Schleswig-Holstein (or from April 26, 1851 in Holstein).

In a directory you could look up where you had to deliver your mail in the different directions. The post office provided the mail to England and overseas. Taxissche Post was responsible for France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland. After Russia and Poland, as well as to Turkey via Austria, Prussia provided the post. Scandinavia supplied the Danish and Swedish-Norwegian post.

As early as 1796, mail to Heligoland , which was then Danish, was handled by a Hamburg postal agent. There was a Hamburg postal agency on Heligoland .

Hamburg joined the German-Austrian Postal Union on January 1, 1852 . Since 1866 Hamburg has belonged to the North German Confederation , which took over the postal service in the North German postal district on January 1, 1868 .

Postage stamps

Postage stamps from the Hamburger Stadtpost

Hamburg city post stamps

The first stamps of the Hamburg city post office were introduced on January 1st, 1859. They were rectangular and had the city's coat of arms in the middle, overlaid with the value of the brand as a number. Below is the word "Postmarke", above it "Hamburg". The value and currency (Schilling) are printed on the outside as text. Values of ½, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9 shillings appeared. In 1864, supplementary values were issued in a modified frame drawing of 1.25 and 2.5 schillings. These early editions were already gummed, but not yet perforated. Only the following nine values, which appeared again in the drawings of the first issues in 1864 and 1867, had perforation for the first time. In 1866 two values appeared again with a changed, now octagonal frame drawing and on May 5, 1867 another stamp following the design of the first editions. The Hamburg postage stamps lost their validity at the end of 1867; from January 1, 1868, only the stamps of the northern German postal district were valid.

Postage stamps from the Hamburg Messenger Institute

The Hamburg messenger institute issued a ½ schilling stamp. The private company only delivered letters and newspapers in the city of Hamburg and asked for half a schilling. The stamps were printed in black on colored paper.

literature

BE Crole: History of the Deutsche Post . II edition. Verlag W. Malende, Leipzig 1889. The author is Bruno Emil König from Berlin. P. 293, The Hanseatic Cities.
K. Schwarz (Postrat): Timeline of German postal history . RV Deckers Verlag, Berlin 1935, Volume 22 Post and Telegraphy in Science and Practice.
Handheld dictionary of postal services . Frankfurt a. M. 1953
Müller-Mark: Old Germany under the microscope. 7th edition, Verlag M. Zieme, Oberursel, Volume 1
expertise Publisher: Deutsche Post AG, issue 4/2011, pp. 8–11
Herbert Munk : Kohl-Briefmarken-Handbuch 11th edition, Volume IV. Association of Friends of the Kohl-Briefmarken Handbuch, eV Berlin 1933. S. 306-450.

Individual evidence

↑ Michael Hundt: Sovereignty. In: Franklin Kopitzsch , Daniel Tilgner (Ed.): Hamburg Lexikon. 3rd, updated edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-8319-0179-1 , pp. 439-440.

Web links

Commons : Stamps of Hamburg - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Post topic page with contracts for the abolition of the Scandinavian post offices in 1868/1869 - sources and full texts

[1] Michael Hundt: Sovereignty. In: Franklin Kopitzsch , Daniel Tilgner (Ed.): Hamburg Lexikon. 3rd, updated edition. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-8319-0179-1 , pp. 439-440.