Postal checks
The main task of postal check traffic was to promote and spread cashless payments as widely as possible. The processes used are a model for today's direct banks .
Postal check
The first suggestion for the introduction of a transfer and check traffic easily accessible to the general public by the Reichspost dates back to the year 1876, but met with resistance from the Postmaster General Heinrich von Stephan . Only after the introduction of a postal check procedure in Austria in 1884 and its positive results did the Reich government pursue the introduction of such traffic in the Reich territory. There were since 1876 current accounts at the Reichsbank , they had provisionally the need for cashless services cover. However, the services of the Reichsbank were not available to everyone.
After the press, trade and industry spoke out more and more urgently for an introduction, the Reichstag was dealt with the subject again. Representatives of the banks and savings banks feared competition from the state institution. It has been claimed that interest on the assets could damage the German savings bank system . For this reason, business activities in the postal check service should be restricted to pure payment transactions.
Post office
Nine post office checkpoints (PschÄ) were set up in the Reichspostgebiet as well as three more in Bavaria and one in Württemberg . The postal administrations of Bavaria and Württemberg had issued identical ordinances. The highest number was reached in 1940, when a total of 25 PschÄ were incorporated into the Imperial German postal check traffic.
The number of accounts rose from 43,000 (1909) to 622,343 (1929). The million mark was exceeded in 1935 with 1,067,469 and by 1943 the number of accounts had increased to 1,743,000. After the war there were already 1,012,893 accounts in the Federal Republic of Germany again in 1951.
Postal check regulations
Postal checks were introduced in the German Reich on January 1, 1909 . Section 1 of the postal check regulations states:
“Any private person, trading company, public authority, legal entity or other association or institution is permitted to participate in postal transfers and check traffic. […] The account is usually opened at the post office in whose district the applicant's place of residence is located, and on request at another post office or at several post offices. "
The capital contribution was 100 marks (reduced to 50 marks in 1914, increased to 10 million marks during the period of inflation and reduced to 5 Reichsmark in 1923). There was no upper limit on the deposit. Payments could be made by payment card , by postal order or by transfer from another postal check account. The payment modalities were presented in detail. The account holder was able to have incoming postal orders, postal order or cash on delivery amounts credited to his account immediately at his post office.
These postal check regulations have been changed and supplemented several times. So could z. B. since April 1, 1910, the amounts collected by mail order or cash on delivery are transferred directly to the postal check account. The postal check system was only legally regulated by the Postal Check Act of March 26, 1914. The text was written by Johannes Weiland (June 23, 1871 - December 5, 1928), who was chief postal inspector in the Reich Post Office and head of the Berlin postal check office (later Postrat, promoted to Chief Post Director on April 16, 1924). As the “founder of the modern postal check system”, he received a still existing grave of honor with a memorial plaque in the Karlshorster cemetery, maintained by the Interest Group Historic Cemeteries Berlin .
The use changed over time due to experiences, extensions and simplifications, through the introduction of collective orders, the production of check forms in card form, supplementation and appropriate arrangement of the forms. The revisions of the Postal Check Act of March 22, 1921, the Postal Check Regulations of April 7, 1921, December 16, 1927 and October 2, 1936 did not result in any significant changes. The postal check regulation published in 1921 was valid throughout the entire Reich including Bavaria and Württemberg.
Services
The account holder could freely dispose of his credit, which exceeded the main system. Forms in sheet form (for sending in letters) and giro postcards were issued for the transfers . When using the giro postcards, the amount was limited to 10,000 marks. A section of the form could be used for short messages; it was sent to the recipient.
Check forms were issued for payment. The maximum amount was set at 10,000 marks. If the recipient of a postal check did not have a postal checking account, the money could also be delivered to his house, in the local delivery district up to 3,000 marks, in the land order district up to 800 marks; order fees had to be paid for this , higher amounts had to be collected from the post office. Amounts of up to 800 marks, from 1914 to 3,000 marks and later unlimited, could also be transmitted by telegram.
Express payment cards and express transfers have been permitted since 1929 . Account overdrafts, the granting of credit and other banking transactions were not permitted.
fees
The following fees were charged: for cash payments by means of a payment card for 500 marks each or part of this sum, 5 pfennigs, for cash repayment through the cash desk of the post office or through a post office a fixed fee of 5 pfennigs and also 1/10 of the thousand of the amount to be paid out . The transfer from postal checking account to postal checking account cost 3 pfennigs.
Postal check letter
Letters from postal check participants to their postal check office were subject to normal postage since 1900 , the fee for local letters from 1914 and were free of charge from 1918. From August 1, 1927, postage was 5 pfennigs when using special check letter envelopes, was free between December 1, 1941 and March 1, 1946 (in the US zone until January 15, 1947) and then cost until August 1, 1948 temporarily 10 Pfennig, only to be forwarded postage free again. Shipments between the postal check offices and the postal services as well as among each other were postage free.
After 1945
Due to the lack of a central administration, the postal check service was initially only resumed regionally. In the French zone, new post office checkpoints were set up in Freiburg and Reutlingen.
The postal check law of March 26, 1914 (RGBl. P. 85) in the version of the notice of March 22, 1921 (RGBl. P. 247) and the postal check regulations of April 7, 1921 (RGBl. P. 519) remained the legal basis of the postal check service ) in the version of the announcement of December 16, 1927 (RGBl. p. 519) in force.
On January 1, 1947, the postal check service between the three western zones started. The 12 post office checkpoints Dortmund, Essen, Frankfurt (Main), Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Freiburg and Reutlingen were available.
The Saarbrücken postal check office was subject to the French economic and financial system. On April 1, 1956, payment card traffic between the federal territory and Saarland began in both directions. In 1957 Saarbrücken became the 13th postal check office for the Deutsche Bundespost.
After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, the operational management was brought into line with that of the United Economic Area . Freiburg and Reutlingen were closed. The Stuttgart postal check office took over the accounts of Reutlingen and Karlsruhe, those of Freiburg.
The first change in the postal check service came with the introduction of the standing order service on October 1, 1950. On April 1, 1952, the fees for wire transfers were reduced. On January 1, 1969, the obligation to pay fees was restricted to payment orders. A collective giro procedure gave the financial institutions participating in the postal check service the opportunity to transfer certain bank loads from their customers to the postal check network.
Since July 1, 1954, the postal check fees were no longer set by the postal check regulations, but by the ordinance on postal fees (Federal Gazette No. 110). A change came into force on August 1, 1964 with the postal check fee regulations (Federal Law Gazette p. 466).
For the first time in 1961, the PSchA Hamburg carried out the standing order service with the help of the IBM 1401 computer system . In 1963, Munich took over the process. After successful parallel operation, on April 7, 1964, the first 400 postal check accounts, again in Hamburg, were executed with IBM. More PschÄ followed, initially on a trial basis. A plain text reading process was tested at the PSchA Hamburg and used from July 1, 1966.
In 1969, the postal check procedure was introduced, with which the customer was given the opportunity to withdraw amounts of up to 20,000 marks with a postal check at a certain post office of his choice.
The Postal Check Act was repealed in the course of the postal law reform by the new law on the postal system (Federal Law Gazette p. 1006) with effect from January 1, 1970. At the same time, a new postal check regulation (Federal Law Gazette p. 1059) and the postal check fee regulation (Federal Law Gazette p. 1057) appeared. With it the compulsory deposit of 5 DM was abolished and the possibility of electronic data processing (with magnetic tapes and punch cards) was introduced.
For further developments see Postbank .
See also
literature
- Federal Ministry for the Post and Telecommunications System (ed.): Handwortbuch des Postwesens , Frankfurt (Main) 1953
- Sautter, Karl: History of the German Post, Part 3: History of the German Reich Post 1871 to 1945 , Frankfurt (Main) 1951, Bundesdruckerei
- Steimetz / Elias: History of the Deutsche Post Volume 4, 1945 to 1978, published on behalf of the Federal Minister for Post and Telecommunications, Bonn 1979
- J. Weiland: The Postal Check Act of March 26, 1914 , text edition with introduction, notes and subject index, Guttentagsche Collection of German Reich Laws No. 113, Berlin 1914
- Reichspostministerium (Hrsg.): Memorandum on the occasion of the ten-year existence of the postal check traffic. 1909–1919 (= Archive for Post and Telegraphy . Supplement to the Official Gazette of the Reich Ministry of Post Office No. 11), Berlin, November 1919
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Postscheckordnung (RGBl. P. 587) of November 6, 1908