Postal history of Cottbus
The postal history of Cottbus , an independent town in Brandenburg , dates back to 1692, when a riding and driving post connection from Berlin / Cölln to Cottbus was established.
The ritual of “stagecoach cleaning” goes back to this time, which is immortalized in the tongue twister of the Cottbus stagecoach , which is known beyond the city limits : the Cottbus stagecoach cleans the Cottbus stagecoach box . The stagecoach has served the city as an advertising medium for over 150 years. In 2006, the sculpture Der Cottbusser Postkutscher by the artist Christian Uhlig , which depicts the tongue twister in a humorous way , was placed at the city gate (Lindenpforte) .
Middle Ages until 1944
The general non-public post in the Middle Ages
There was no public post until the late Middle Ages. Only emperors and imperial princes used messengers and riders who were sent directly to the destinations with written messages. Merchants and guilds carried their letters through the local messenger service. In the beginning the post was a stately post that was not accessible to the general public. It was not until 1530 that the post became public. The central European cities were connected to one another by regular postal connections. Fixed post stations were set up every day's journey . In the course of time, these stations acquired considerable economic importance. They were meeting places, inns, inns, stables, exchange and trading centers. Post stations became an important focal point in the development of villages and towns.
Development of the post office up to the construction of the first post office in 1692
Already in 1580 the Elector Johann Georg issued the first Brandenburg messenger code. In the period that followed, messengers on horseback were increasingly used. Elector Johann Sigismund issued a new messenger order in 1614, but it did not come into force until 1660. In 1692 the Saxon Post ran directly via Cottbus on its way from Dresden to Warsaw . Cottbus was a Brandenburg-Prussian enclave in the middle of the electoral Saxony. It was therefore necessary to set up a Prussian border post office in Cottbus. At that time the postal expedition was in the building of the Hubert district council. This was probably the first post office in Cottbus.
Stagecoaches and postillions until the end of the stagecoach era in 1872
Until 1692, the ritual of "stagecoach brushing" can be traced back, because the former postal order wrote the postilions before that they had pull up with clean carriages in front of the post office building. Already in 1692 there was a riding and driving post connection in Brandenburg from Berlin / Cölln to Cottbus via the Saxon town of Lieberose . The Cottbus Postillion had the task of transporting people by stagecoach. The arrival of the stagecoach was indicated by the horn of the stagecoach until 1694, when the elector forbade the stagecoach to blow their horn in the city. In 1698, a further connection was established for passenger transport between Berlin and Cottbus by stagecoach. In the heyday of the stagecoach, around 1852, 14 postal routes were used daily by 14 postillions. 44 post horses were available in the post office in Cottbus. Up to 60 passengers a day needed accommodation in Cottbus. In 1866 Cottbus was connected to the railway network and a new gateway to the world opened. However, with the incorporation of Niederlausitz into the railway network, the number of postal routes decreased. In 1867, the post office had only twelve postillions and 40 horses. A year later there were only ten postillions, 25 horses and eight stagecoaches. On February 29, 1872, the last mail drove to Forst , the railway had replaced the stagecoach. The postillions were relieved of their actual function and from then on only drove parcels from the public collection points to the post office and the train station. After the end of passenger transport in 1872, the job title "Postillion" remained until the motorized transport of mail in the 1920s. In 1878 the last passenger stagecoach finally ran.
Development of the post office and post offices from 1700 to 1944
The first Cottbus post office was in 1700 in Sandower Gasse - corner of Gertraudenstrasse. In 1701 the outgoing mail for Berlin was dispatched twice a week from Sandower Strasse 54. The fare for a traveler with the stagecoach was five groschen per mile and person in 1702, plus the postilon's tip. The postage cost a groschen and six pfennigs at the time. According to the postal order of 1711, money had to be placed in the letter at the post office in the presence of the postmaster and then sealed. The shipment was then placed in special custody at the postilion. Only a year later it was decided that letters had to be sealed as a matter of principle. The mail items were delivered to the postmaster personally and entered in the mail acceptance book. A package order was set up at the local post office on July 1, 1862. The postage for a package was one and a half silver groschen.
Since the end of the 17th century there was a first post office in Cottbus, initially in Spremberger Gasse (today Spremberger Straße, opposite today's castle church). The Cottbus postal expedition (which today corresponds roughly to a postal agency) was housed in 1801 on the site of the later district court on today's Schlossberg. On April 15, 1810, a map with all post offices in Cottbus and the surrounding area was issued for the first time and displayed in the post office. The royal mail expedition was moved to the house of the dyer Mundt in front of the Luckauer Tor on November 29, 1811. In 1819 the postal expedition moved to the house at Klosterstrasse 180 (not far from the Wendish Church - today part of the site at Klosterstrasse 18). In 1824 the post office was in the Luckau quarter, house number 180. The captain a. D. Peter Joachim Schröder was postmaster at the time and took care of the postal business with the postal secretaries Michaelis and Lutze.
On July 1, 1835, the Cottbus post office was given another new location in the “Lobedanschen Haus” at Spremberger Strasse 74, which later became the Waldschmidt department store, now the “Stadt Cottbus” restaurant.
In 1852 the post office was relocated from Spremberger Straße 74 to the inn of the innkeeper Zesch opposite. The passengers could be fed here, and they spend the night there. The restaurant was later called "Alte Post". In 1853 the passenger room moved again, this time to Spremberger Straße 44, in the house of the master baker Kriesche (right next to the castle church). Technical progress, telegraphy , did not stop at Cottbus either. On July 16, 1858, the city's first telegraph station was built at Wallstrasse 7 (today Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse) . By 1869, telegraphy developed so rapidly that a telegraph station was rented on the post office site in Berliner Strasse. The postal connections also increased significantly, so in 1862 there were four stagecoaches daily that drove from Cottbus to Guben . In 1866, when Cottbus was connected to the railway network, mail was also transported by rail. For this purpose, a branch of the post office was even set up on July 1, 1871 on the railway site.
The postal administration bought the property at Berliner Platz 3 in 1875 in order to centralize postal operations. The site was purchased for 169,500 thalers by the post office, the postmaster general Heinrich von Stephan . On December 16, 1876, the entire postal service was relocated to Berliner Platz 3. In November 1877, the first telephone was installed in Cottbus town hall . On April 24, 1878, the first railway post for Cottbus was set up at Görlitzer Bahnhof (later the state station and today's main station ). As early as 1880, Swiss Post acquired additional space in order to be able to keep up with developments. The existing messenger posts between Cottbus-Bahnhof and Madlow were abolished on May 15, 1885, in their place a rural postal service was set up between the places mentioned. This rural postal service of the local post office was replaced in 1887 by a private vehicle. On June 26, 1886, the Post began laying lines and telephones. Telephone communications with other cities began three years later.
Reichspost around 1925
Berliner Platz with the weekly market
Station post office - around 1915
Berliner Platz with post office around 1900
In 1888 the old post office was demolished and at the same time a new post office was built on Berliner Platz, which was put into operation on June 22, 1891 as the new main post office. The construction of the two-story neo - renaissance building cost around 282,000 marks. The overhead lines of the telegraph were visibly housed in the tower. As early as 1914, the post office building was too small for day-to-day operations, the building was increased by one floor, and the tower with antenna dome that was no longer needed was removed.
In 1894, a post office opened in Sandower Hauptstraße 11 for the Sandow district. In 1904 the first gasoline car was bought for the distribution of rural mail.
A railway post office building for the public was opened in December 1912. The counters and the packing room were on the ground floor, the lounges for the civil servants were on the upper floor. Unfortunately, it was only three years later in World War destroyed. In 1917 the high volume of field post was transported with B double-decker planes. In addition, the civil airfield in Cottbus was opened on May 23, 1927 . The pilots took over the airmail shipments for the city of Cottbus.
In 1928, an additional post office with its own postmark was opened in the airport terminal. In an air raid on the airfield on April 11, 1944, the post office at the Rennbahnsiedlung was badly hit.
In 1930 the rail mail traffic on the Spreewaldbahn was stopped. When the main building was no longer sufficient (war mail), a massive wooden barrack was also erected on Berliner Platz in 1943. It contained the mail distribution as well as the newspaper and radio station.
Postage stamps, post boxes and postmarks in Cottbus
A letter from Cottbus to Berlin cost two groschen in 1699, which was more than twice as much as a pound of meat. The postage from Cottbus to Berlin was only a groschen and six pfennigs in 1702.
Ring stamp from Cottbus
Scroll from 1739
Post mark - Cottbus 1895
The first postmark from Cottbus appeared in 1799. A postmark from 6 November 1805 from Cottbus is one of the first in Prussia to have been handed down on a mailing slip with the signature of the local postmaster Wilke.
The first stamps were issued on November 15, 1850 in Cottbus. In the Cottbuser Wochenschrift from April 25, 1824, a mailbox "in the post office" (Spremberger Strasse 74) was mentioned for the first time. In 1827 there was still only one mailbox in Cottbus.
As a result of a higher order, two more mailboxes were set up on February 4, 1851, one in the corridor of the town hall, since the magistrate was one of the largest and most important postal customers of the city at that time. A second was set up at Luckauer Tor (Berliner Platz).
1945 to 2014
The post-war mail with makeshifts and superstructures
The main station and the station post office were destroyed in the bombing raid on February 15, 1945. In the spring of 1945 the post office on Berliner Platz burned out almost completely. Many employees of the post and telecommunications office in Cottbus got together after the destruction of the main post office building to save what could still be saved. That was shockingly little, however. Where their post office was, they saw a horror. Ruins, smoke-blackened outer walls of the main building and the side wing stared into the air. The early activists had to find out that only the packing chamber building and the 23 motor vehicle halls as well as the post barrack built in 1944 on Berliner Platz had been preserved. On July 2, 1945, the Cottbus post office was able to reopen its doors with a counter for letters and postcards. Since there were no postage stamps, the fees were paid in cash. The opening was announced by notices in the city. Deliveries were made on foot, by bicycle and horse-drawn vehicles. The following postal connections existed in June 1945: Cottbus- Guben with the meeting point Tauer , Cottbus- Forst with the meeting point Haasow , Cottbus- Spremberg with the meeting point Groß Oßnig .
In October 1945 the train service was able to resume its work. So a modest mail delivery service was born. At the beginning of November 1945 there were already 14 delivery districts in Cottbus. For the exchange of mail at the station, a makeshift shed was built from the wooden structure of the destroyed branch post office at the corner of Vetschauer Strasse / Thiemstrasse at the height of the current entrance to the passenger tunnel. Later the Deutsche Reichsbahn provided the post office with a goods shed (on the former station forecourt) for the post office at the station.
In 1946 the post barracks on Berliner Platz, which housed the employment office after the war, were returned to the post office. In 1947, the city council acquired the property of the former "Drei Kronen" inn located opposite the destroyed post office building and handed the building over to the post office for use.
On June 16, 1948, there was a currency reform in the western zones of Germany . Then, the ordered German Economic Commission on 23 June 1948, the Soviet zone of occupation such on. The means of payment was the Deutsche Mark of the German Central Bank . This had a noticeable impact on the postal workers. Postal savings, instructions and checks were temporarily suspended by order of the Post and Telecommunications Administration. At the counters and in the main cash desk of the Cottbus post office on June 23, 1948 after the counters closed, financial statements were made and the previous currency segment was settled. The next day work began on new cash books. During night work, as a provisional measure, the previous numbered postage stamps were imprinted with the district stamp and sold at their old face value against payment of the new money until new postage stamps were issued on July 3, 1946 with the imprint "Soviet Occupation Zone".
On April 1, 1949, Deutsche Post was given an important task. It took over the transport and the entire distribution of all periodical press products from the distribution companies. This task went significantly beyond the tasks of the previous newspaper offices of the post offices. With this measure, the Deutsche Post became responsible for the distribution of the press. Many employees had to get used to the fact that the distribution of the press had priority over the delivery of the mail. In Cottbus, the "Brandenburgische Pressevertrieb" took over the newspaper delivery. The previous employees of the "Brandenburgische Pressevertriebs" and its newspaper carriers were integrated into the staff of the post office. The Postzeitungsvertriebes (PZV) Cottbus was formed, whose office was initially located at Mauerstraße 8. The outsourcing of the PZV could not be avoided for reasons of space. The post barrack on Berliner Platz was demolished in 1949 due to urban changes.
In 1950 the post office in Cottbus received the necessary funds for the partial reconstruction of the southern part of the post office ruin on Berliner Platz. On July 1, 1951, the telecommunications system was separated from the Cottbus post office. A separate telecommunications office was created. At the same time, the Cottbus telecommunications construction office was dissolved again. The telecommunications office moved into the rooms of the former hotel "Weißes Roß" on Berliner Strasse. The post office Cottbus was responsible for the post offices Guben , Forst , Spremberg , Peitz , Burg , Lieberose , Neuzelle , Döbern , Vetschau , Drebkau and Kolkwitz .
Another big event for the post office and the citizens of Cottbus was the official commissioning of the rebuilt part of the post office ruin. From January 2, 1952, the Cottbus post office was renamed a main post office by decree of the General Post Office in Potsdam and took over the tasks of a main post office.
The Lieberose, Neuzelle, Vetschau and Spremberg post offices were spun off from the Cottbus main post office. The first accommodation of the district office for post and telecommunications in Cottbus was ready for occupancy in May 1953. A barrack was built on Bautzener Strasse.
In 1953, trucks were used in the mail delivery service for the Cottbus- Hoyerswerda and Cottbus- Senftenberg routes . They brought decisive improvements for mail delivery, especially for newspaper delivery.
On January 1, 1959, the PZV Handel Cottbus was formed as an independent postal newspaper distributor. On October 1, 1959, the Cottbus telecommunications construction office was established.
The social and cultural facilities for the postal workers
There was a company sports club of the Post very early on (around 1948/1949) . The first joint company sports festival of the district administration, the main post office and the telecommunications office took place in 1954 in the Stadium of Friendship .
The dance group of the main post office, the later dance ensemble "Friendship" of the Deutsche Post Cottbus, performed for the first time on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the Deutsche Post in Cottbus. The ensemble was dissolved when the GDR post was taken over by the Deutsche Bundespost in 1989. There was also lunch for the employees, a kiosk with groceries and a children's facility.
In January 1971, the district headquarters in Crottendorf in the Ore Mountains bought a holiday home, which was later expanded as a company holiday home and was used by Post Cottbus employees from May 1971. There were 12 rooms and 34 beds.
The construction of the new main post office from 1955 to 1957
On April 30, 1955, the foundation stone was laid for the new post and telecommunications office building on Berliner Platz. The new building was erected after the rebuilt part and extended as a corner building into Berliner Strasse. This also integrated the building of the former "Weißes Roß" hotel into the new post office building. On January 17, 1957, the new Cottbus remote office with 30 remote workstations was put into operation in the newly constructed technical building. The new post office building on Berliner Platz was inaugurated on March 28, 1957. With the new building, the new counter hall was in operation and at 3:50 p.m. the first post office customer was served. The commissioning of the new building on Berliner Platz has improved the working and living conditions for many employees of the Cottbus post office. The provisional barracks and the temporary solution in the “Drei Kronen” inn were finally over. The employees moved into their new work rooms on the second floor of the new corner building.
In addition, construction work began to convert the side wing into a packing chamber with a first floor. The postal workers were able to move there from the garages in the Posthof at the Bahnhofstrasse exit. On November 10, 1958, the new packing chamber on Berliner Platz was put into operation.
Mail distribution center 2 in the train station from 1983 to 1989
Over 25 million marks had been spent on this complex with the main building, post office building and facility with three sidings.
New construction of the main post office without public traffic on Vetschauer Straße
Main post office, demolished at the end of 2013
After the turn which took German Federal Post , the German post office of the GDR . There were considerable structural changes. The previous technology was converted to the processing regulations of the Deutsche Bundespost. An entrepreneurial way of working and better customer service were the result. Construction work has repeatedly been carried out around and on the post office building in order to adapt the rooms and equipment to the technical requirements. In 1993 the post office Cottbus 2 was the head office, responsible for the management of the postal service in the districts of Cottbus-Stadt and -Land, Forst, Guben, Spremberg and in some places in the district of Calau. The focus was on incoming and outgoing letters for the Niederlausitz region ( zip code : 03 ...).
Here, an average of 305,000 incoming and outgoing letters were sorted on working days. 150,000 letters were handled without fine sorting. A feeder ride to and from Dresden Airport provided a connection to the domestic German night airmail network . In the freight service, around 11,300 parcels, parcels and mail passed through the Cottbus 2 post office every working day. 65 motor vehicles were stationed, which covered a total of 2200 kilometers on working days. There were 41 trips within the city, e.g. B. Supply trips to other post offices, mailbox emptying trips, etc. There were ten trips to other district towns and to postal traffic centers such as Berlin and Dresden. The courier vehicles were also stationed. 34 yellow vans transported around 4900 freight shipments to the recipients. There was no counter service here. 310 workers worked in the post office Cottbus 2. There was a counter service in the reception building of the neighboring train station. In 2013 the entire building complex was demolished.
The letter center 3 in Dissenchen went into operation in 1989
The Cottbus 3 - Dissenchen letter center went into operation on November 27, 1998. It was built for 30 million marks and created 200 jobs. This object replaced the post office 2 building at the train station in Vetschauer Straße. The land area is 25,000 m². 298,000 standard and compact letters, 44,000 large letters and 5,000 maxi letters were sorted every day. The maximum capacity was 750,000 letters. Deutsche Post's “Brief 2000” logistics concept - faster and more cost-effective mail transport - was implemented here. There were two integrated address reading and video coding machines as well as fine sorting, large letter sorting and setting up machines. For the deliverer, the work was made easier by pre-sorting according to delivery areas.
The post office in Cottbus after 1990
With the unification of Germany on October 3, 1990, the Cottbus district office was dissolved. Its tasks were taken over by the newly formed Postal Service Potsdam for the new federal state of Brandenburg . For the postal service, a post office with administration was created in Cottbus as an organizational unit, to which the city of Cottbus and the districts of Cottbus Land , Forst , Guben and Spremberg (now district Spree-Neisse ) and some places in the area around Neupetershain (former district Calau ) as the postal administrative area were assigned. In the following time the postal service changed and expanded its range of services. Letters and parcels were always delivered to the front door. The old delivery box systems disappeared. Tele letters and courier deliveries were posted at the Cottbus 1 post office on Berliner Platz. The entire vehicle fleet has been modernized. The transit times of letters were brought into line with the normal standard of the German Federal Post Office by connecting Cottbus to the domestic German night airmail network via Dresden Airport. The publishers were responsible for delivering daily newspapers. The post offices were reduced. On July 1, 1993, the new, pan-German postcodes were introduced. For the city of Cottbus and the peripheral areas, 11 postcodes were assigned for delivery and 19 postcodes for post office box collectors within the range of 03001 to 03058.
Reconstruction of the main post office and reopening in 1995
Main Post Office 1968
Main Post Office 2019
On April 25, 1995, the post office opened at Berliner Platz in Cottbus after extensive renovation and modernization measures. Since then there has been a complete postal service at open counters. All services of the Post, Postbank and Telekom can be used here.
Since then, parcels have also been received and issued here and no longer separately at the side door opposite the parking lot - towards the city promenade.
Locations and development of the post offices in Cottbus from 1971 to 2014
In 1971 there were 16 post offices in Cottbus:
- Cottbus 1 - Berliner Strasse 6
- Cottbus 2 - At the train station
- Cottbus 3 - Sandower Hauptstrasse 17
- Cottbus 4 - Drebkauer Strasse
- Cottbus 5 - NVA object airfield
- Cottbus 6 - NVA property at Paul-Hornick-Strasse
- Cottbus 7 - Branitzer-Siedlung, Holbeinstraße 27
- Cottbus 8 - Hammergrabensiedlung, Am Hammergraben 82
- Cottbus 9 - Ströbitz, Chausseestrasse
- Cottbus 10 - Schmellwitzer Hauptstrasse - corner of Schulstrasse
- Cottbus 11 - Schmellwitz settlement, Peter-Rosegger-Straße 6
- Cottbus 12 - Klein Ströbitz, Hallische Strasse 25
- Cottbus 13 - Heidesiedlung, Schlichower Weg
- Cottbus 14 - Leipziger Strasse 13d
- Cottbus-Madlow 15 - Alte Poststrasse
- Cottbus-Sachsendorf 16 - main street
At that time the main post office in Cottbus included Burg, Kolkwitz, Peitz, Drewitz-Süd, Jänschwalde-Ost, Neupetershain, Drebkau and Welzow.
In 1988 there were 22 post offices for the city of Cottbus, 9 letter boxes, 107 payphones and 21 newspaper kiosks. At the end of 1993, only nine post offices and one post agency were still working in Cottbus.
In 2014 there were 18 post offices, 5 sales points and 20 DHL parcel shops in Cottbus.
The development of Deutsche Post in the GDR from 1959 to 1989
The German Post (DP) was due to a law of 3 April 1959, state institution and at the same carrier of Posts and Telecommunications in the GDR. She was given the sole right to convey messages, transmit messages and distribute press products on the territory of the GDR. It was directed by the Ministry for Post and Telecommunications of the GDR (MPF). It was divided into directorates and offices, and the Telecommunications Construction Combine as well as other institutions and educational institutions belonged to the authority.
The integration of the GDR post into the Deutsche Bundespost in 1989
After 1989, the unified Deutsche Bundespost was split into the Deutsche Bundespost Postdienst, the Deutsche Bundespost Postbank and the Deutsche Bundespost Telekom as a result of the first postal reform . Although these three sub-companies were nominally given a board of directors, they nonetheless remained authorities and were still subject to the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications . In spite of expanded powers in economic management, the usual budgetary principles of public administration largely retained their validity. On the basis of Article 27 of the Unification Treaty , Deutsche Post (the GDR) was incorporated into the Deutsche Bundespost. In the accession area, various postal services were set up in the post area instead of head post offices, the Postbank central office and the Postbank branches at Postbank and the telecommunications department in the telecommunications service area.
Privatization of the Deutsche Bundespost and formation of the Deutsche Post AG
So today's Deutsche Post has numerous predecessor organizations. It was created between 1989 and 1995 through the privatization of the Deutsche Bundespost - Postdienst ("yellow post") authority. At the same time, the “telecommunications service” (“gray post”) division became Deutsche Telekom and the Postbank division (“blue post”) became the Postbank .
Cottbus stagecoach - birth of the idea and sculpture at the city gate
Sculpture Cottbus stagecoach
Sculpture Cottbus stagecoach
Stagecoach
The Cottbus stagecoach was born over 150 years ago as an advertising idea and was shown on a postcard together with the tongue twister: "The Cottbus stagecoach cleaning the Cottbus stagecoach box".
Since then, Cottbus has been on everyone's lips. The stagecoach is now an advertising medium for the city. Many events with him and city tours are offered. It has its own website. The sculpture "The Cottbusser Postkutscher" is a gift from the Tower Association to the City of Cottbus. It has stood at the city gate (Lindenpforte) since 2006 and was designed by the artist Christian Uhlig from Angermünde .
literature
- Cottbus home calendar 2000. Udo Bauer, post address no. 270.
- Cottbus home calendar 2010.
- 850 years of Cottbus.
- Information booklet on Deutsche Post facilities in the district town of Cottbus - non-fiction book, 1988.
- Wilhelm Dreger: Cottbus in distress in 1813.
- Dora and Heinrich Liersch: The post office on Berliner Platz. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . September 7, 1990.
- More than a fleet of yellow vans. In: Lausitzer Rundschau. February 26, 1993, p. 14.
- Complete service now on vacancies. In: Lausitzer Rundschau. April 25, 1995, p. 9.
- The Cottbus - Dissenchen letter center goes into operation on November 27th, 1998. In: Lausitzer Rundschau. November 26, 1995, p. 11.
- Laying of the foundation stone for the new post office building on Berliner Platz. In: Lausitzer Rundschau. May 5, 2005.
- The development of the post and telecommunications system in the city of Cottbus. Volume I: 1945-1970. Ed .: District Office of Deutsche Post, 1986.
- The development of the post and telecommunications system in the city of Cottbus. Volume II: 1971-1985. Ed .: District Office of Deutsche Post, 1986.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Kunstgiesserei Flierl: Cottbus stagecoach .