Postal rate

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The Postkurs (also: Poststraße , Postlinie , Postroute ) describes an old street that was mainly used by mail riders and later by stagecoaches to transport mail .

Post rates

From Innsbruck to Mechelen

The Dutch postal route from the Netherlands to Innsbruck and Italy , established in 1490, led through what would later become Rheinhessen , initially along the Rhine and before 1500 across the Rheinhessen hill country . Rheinhausen opposite Speyer (1495, 1499 and 1506), Flonheim (1506), Bobenheim bei Worms (1540), Hangen-Weisheim (1561) and Wöllstein (1563) are mentioned as early post offices . At the post stations riding horses were kept ready for the mail riders and mail travelers, and later, after the introduction of the stagecoach, also for the postilons of the stagecoach so that they could bring their mail to the recipient or a colleague could bring the mail to the next delivery point without having to rest. According to the postal contract of 1516 , the delivery time for a letter from Brussels to Innsbruck via Estafette was only five days.

Post stations were also set up in Bingen (1664) and Mainz (1616) on other routes of the Imperial Post Office operated by the Taxis, later Thurn and Taxis .

From Antwerp to Venice

Augsburg mileage disk from 1629 with the postal rates
Augsburg - Brussels - Antwerp
Augsburg - Trient - Venice
and Augsburg - Prague - Vienna

Except for the extensions to Antwerp and Venice, this postal rate is identical to the Dutch postal rate, which connected the Netherlands with Italy. For a list of the early post stations from Brussels to Trento, see List of Post Stations of the Dutch Postal Course . From Trento, the route to Venice ran according to the information on the Younger Augsburg Mile Disc of Kaspar Augustin from 1629 via El Barga (=  Borgo ), Elgrimm (=  Grigno ?), Caperne (=  Crespano ?), Bassano , Castel Franco , Dorfis (=  Treviso ?), Mestre and Marghera before reaching Venice.

From Leipzig via Johanngeorgenstadt to Karlsbad

Johanngeorgenstadt was included in the post road system of the Electorate of Saxony . The distance column from 1728 in front of the post office in Neustadt, the all-mile column No. 56 opposite the Powder Tower and the quarter milestone No. 55 in the Steinbach district, both of which date from 1725, are reminiscent of this time . There are also several royal Saxon milestones in the vicinity of the city, which were set up in the years from 1858 onwards. B. at the old postal course from Auerbach / Vogtl. via Carlsfeld and Wildenthal to Johanngeorgenstadt.

From Bremen to Hamburg

On July 5, 1665, the royal Swedish government granted approval for regular mail traffic between Bremen and Hamburg via Osterholz and Bremervörde . Another post line existed to Cuxhaven via Burt, Osterholz , Hagen , Lehe , via the Wursten country via Dorum .

From Berlin to Hamburg

The "Alte Hamburger Poststrasse" from Berlin ( Oranienburger Tor ) to Hamburg (Prussian Posthaus), which was laid out in 1654 at the behest of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm on the old pilgrimage route from Berlin to the "Wunderblut Wilsnak" , ran from Berlin via Hennigsdorf , Bötzow , via the Krämer , Flatow , Linum , Fehrbellin , Wusterhausen / Dosse , Kyritz , Perleberg , Nebelin , Lenzen to Hamburg . From September 1656 on, the traveling mail ran between Berlin and Hamburg. The entire 38- mile route of this Poststrasse from Berlin to Hamburg runs 23 miles on Prussian territory. In Lenzen, the milestone, restored in 2004 and re-erected at the original location, is located on the market square with the position “22 miles to Berlin”. Since the postal route from Berlin to Hamburg is combined with the postal route from Magdeburg in Lenzen, this milestone also marks the position “18 miles to Magdeburg”. The course of the "Alte Hamburger Poststraße" in Prussian territory is hardly identical in a section to the traffic connections that are important today. This route was finally abandoned in 1830 after the "Neue Hamburger Chaussee", today's B 5, was completed.

From Stuttgart to Bad Urach

Since 1598 , the postal service maintained Stuttgart - Bad Urach in Neckartailfingen a coaching inn .

Directory of postal rates

Postal rates 1711

In the 18th and especially in the 19th century - before the development of the railway network and automobile construction - the post office in Central Europe did not only carry letters (and similar items), but above all people and travelers. The routes of the Post were called Postkurs or Postcours. In the "Directory of the Postcourse" - comparable to a timetable or course book - the departure times, journey times, stops, distances and prices were published.

The example of a postal rate directory is taken from the “Berlin calendar for the leap year 1836”, published by the royal Prussian calendar deputation.

1. On the first page , general information was given under the heading " Directory of the Postcourse, as it is available in Julius 1835 ":

The following lists contain the entire course of the driving, riding and express posts. - You can find the departure time of the posts before each post-course. The arrival time at the end of the course is also indicated. The prices of the places on the diligences and express posts are not consistently the same according to the different interior arrangement of the car, however the postage to be paid for each person is usually not more than 7½ to 10 Sgr. for every mile , for which 10 to 30 pounds of travel effects can be taken along freely. The printed receipt to be given to each traveler upon payment of the personal money contains the individual provisions relating to this. On all ordinary three and four-horse driving posts, only 6 Sgr. paid for one mile per person, including postillion tip. Every traveler at the ordinary post office, on the other hand, has only the authority to take 10 pounds of things with him, not counting the coat, for small travel needs, for which no guarantee is given and which therefore only remain under the supervision of the traveler. - Letters and parcels must be posted at least 1 hour before the items leave, and if the items leave in the morning, the evening before. The arrival time of the posts is set according to the usual course of the same; At the driving posts one can count on every mile with a good road 1 ½, with bad and in winter probably up to 2 hours, if the distance of the place is namely great; In the case of riding and express posts, however, including the expedition time and the rest of the stay, one can assume 3/4 to a maximum of 1 hour for each mile. - Only letters up to a weight of 2 Loth are sent with the Reit-Posten, but if letters of 2 or more sheets and enclosures are to go away, this must be noted on the address with the addition: with the Reit-Post, and will be noted then a higher postage paid than with the Fahr-Post. "

2. From the second page onwards , under the heading “ The Prussian Schnellpost-, Reitpost- und Fahrpost-Course and the foreign Post-Courses directly connected with them. “The individual routes are listed.

The directory comprises 87 pages with a total of 472 routes.

The first route, the "first course", is listed as an example:

No. 1. From Aachen to Cologne

a) Schnellpost: goes daily from 6 a.m. and 7 1/2 a.m. from Jülich 3 1/2 sts, Bergheim 2 3/4 sts, Cöln 3 sts (9 1/4 sts) , comes every day at 2 pm and 3 ½ hours; back from Cöln daily 6 ½ hours fr. u. 8 u. Ab., In Aachen daily 2 ½ u. P.m. u. 4 ½ hours; Personal allowance pr. Mile 10 Sgr., 30 lbs. Luggage free.

b) Fahrpost: goes from Monday, Wednesday, Saturday. 8 U. Ab., Arrives at service., Thursday, Sundays, 8 U. fr .; back from Cöln Mont., Wed., Friday. 5 U. Ab., In Aachen service., Thursday, Saturday. 6 U. fr .; Personal allowance pr. M. 8 ½ Sgr.

c) Riding post: no post from Aachen to Cologne. From Cologne daily 2½ p.m., via Bergheim etc., which arrives in Aachen at 11 p.m.

3. At the end of the register is entered: “Revised and corrected by the Cours-Bureau des Königl. General Post Office, July 1835 ” .

Philatelic

On May 7, 2020, the first day of issue, Deutsche Post AG issued a special postage stamp in the Europa series as a block edition of historic postal routes with a face value of 80 euro cents. The design comes from the graphic artist Michael Kunter from Berlin.

See also

Web links

Commons : Post roads in Germany  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Postkurs  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Postlinie  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Postroute  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Prince Thurn and Taxis Central Archives, FZA Postakten 2347, documents on the postal robbery of 1561.
  2. Giovanni da l'Herba's travel book, see also Ernst-Otto Simon: The postal course from Rheinhausen to Brussels over the centuries. In: Archive for German Postal History. H. 1, 1990, pp. 14-41, here p. 17.
  3. ^ A b Olaf Grell, Rolf Zimmermann: Prussian Post Roads and Prussian Post Milestones in Brandenburg. In: Brandenburg surveying. Issue 1, 2009, pp. 51–61, online ( Memento from December 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. Berlin calendar on the switching year 1836. ZDB -ID 520034-9 , digitized .
  5. ↑ Postage stamps May 2020