Post station Lieser
The wine-growing village of Lieser on the Middle Moselle, near Bernkastel-Kues , housed an early post office in the 16th and 17th centuries , the Lieser post office on the Dutch postal route from Brussels via Augsburg to Innsbruck and Italy . The importance of this post office can be found , for example, in the oldest repertory from 1689 in the Fürst Thurn und Taxis central archive in Regensburg , where the post office (Office) Lieser and the correspondence with the Lieserer postmaster ( clerk ) Philipp Umbescheiden are specifically mentioned.
The Lieser post office owes such a position to its favorable location on the Reichsstrasse from Mainz to Trier and the ferry across the Moselle. Lieser was therefore valid from 1615 at the latest, during the time of the Imperial Post Office, as a border station and end point of the Brussels - Lieser section and Augsburg - Rheinhausen - Lieser. At the end of the Thirty Years' War a diversion route branched off from Lieser via Alf , Karden and Dietkirchen / Lahn to Frankfurt , Nuremberg and Augsburg, in 1672/3 a war-related route to Roermond via Daun and Gerolstein , and from 1672 a riding post between Koblenz and Trier , which only got its own post office in 1672.
Up until this point in time, the Lieser post office was the post office for the city of Trier, the Trier prince-bishop , the electorate and the county of Veldenz .
Establishment date
The founding date of the Lieser Post Station is unknown because the route of the Dutch Post Route changed several times in the early 16th century. The postal contract of 1516 as well as an undated riding plan for postal travelers, which is most likely to be set in 1522, are indications of an early date . In this plan, the horse later occupied post and horse exchange stations are called, including Arzfeld in the West Eifel , Nattenheim and Lieser, together with the Moselfähre. Indirect evidence of the continuation of the postal service via Lieser is the documentary mention of the Arzfeld post office in 1537.
Second half of the 16th century
Only from the middle of the 16th century did the scanty sources change. Then the postal course ran via Flamisoul near Bastogne , the Eifel with Arzfeld, Nattenheim, (from 1596 Bickendorf ), Binsfeld , Lieser and the Hunsrück via Laufersweiler , Eckweiler and Wöllstein to Rheinhausen, Augsburg and Innsbruck. Since 1555, the Lieser post office has been mentioned frequently in the Trier city renting bills, for the first time on April 25, when Trier city messengers in Lieser delivered a private letter to the south.
The Lieser Poststation first became generally known in 1561 when the Imperial Court Postmaster Christoph von Taxis investigated and wrote a report on several robberies of the mail on horseback in the Lieserer post office on behalf of Emperor Ferdinand I. In 1563 Lieser was mentioned in Giovanni Da L'Herba's Handbook for Postal Travelers.
The names of the Lieserer post office keepers until 1586 are unknown, except that the family name was Ludwig. Catharina Binz / Binser or the like (prescribed for Binsaure), widow of the late post holder Ludwig in 1586, was a post holder. Her son Matthias Ludwig, who is documented until 1598, had already succeeded him in 1587. In 1596, after the post office had been reorganized, a new postal order was issued that all postal operators along the route had to sign. Exact time specifications were made there, which the Lieserer ferryman also had to adhere to. The general rule was that the travel time of 5 hours between the individual post stations could not be exceeded, except in the event of force majeure such as floods.
Early 17th century
Extensive renovation work was carried out in the early 17th century. A central building, which is imposing by village standards and comparable to the Augsburg post office around 1616, was built at the Posthof. On the eastern right side, seen from the Moselle, arcades were built to enable the post horses to be loaded in the dry. These construction measures also speak for the importance of Lieser as an electoral post office.
In 1615 at the latest, Lieser was the end point of the Rheinhausen-Lieser or Brussels-Lieser section. Payment to Lieser was made from Augsburg, while the postmaster between Brussels and Lieser continued to be paid from the Brussels headquarters.
From 1622 a postmaster Nikolaus Ludwig is documented, who died in 1635. The most important postmaster in Lieser, Philipp Umbescheiden, married his widow at the beginning of 1637, who was also the ferryman's daughter. In the Fürst Thurn und Taxis central archive in Regensburg, Umbescheiden's application letter as a clerk is available, initially on behalf of his ten-year-old stepson Matthias Ludwig, who was postmaster and clerk in Trier from 1672.
Highlight under Philipp Umbescheiden
From (Johann) Philipp Umbescheiden a detailed correspondence with Countess Alexandrine von Taxis and especially her successor Lamoral Claudius Franz von Thurn und Taxis has been preserved.
Umbescheiden, who came from a respected Maringer family, had an uncle named Johannes Umbescheiden, who was a lawyer and councilor in the service of Archbishop Philipp Christoph von Sötern of Trier . Philipp Umbescheiden was the one who, after the French occupation of the Hunsrück in 1646, organized a route shift via Alf, Karden, Lay, Dietkirchen, Frankfurt and Nuremberg to Augsburg. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the general inheritance postmaster commissioned him to restore the postal route across the Hunsrück. However, the relocation did not take place until January 1651. In the same year, the Commis Hausmann was appointed in Koblenz, so that the information in the postal history literature that Hausmann had restored the course together with amendments is incorrect. In 1672, when the Franco-Dutch War was raging and Trier was occupied by the French, Umbescheiden organized a war-related route shift to the Dutch States General via Daun and Gerolstein to Roermond.
The last year of his life was overshadowed by the heavy looting of the village and the Lieser post office when French mercenaries robbed the post office despite the imperial salvaguardia ; stole the horses, the bridles, and even the papers. Lamoral Claudius Franz von Thurn und Taxis immediately obtained an imperial decree that the sovereigns should better protect the post stations in the future. In response to the letter from Count von Thurn und Taxis to Louis XIV , he received the scornful reply from the French Minister of War and Post, Louvois , that something like this just happens in war. After Trier was recaptured in the summer of 1675 and the Trier post office was re-established, the Lieser post office was only responsible for the evangelical county of Veldenz and the northern post offices.
Decline after 1676
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After Philipp Umbescheiden's death on January 5, 1676, the Protestant Johannes Niclaß Schimper was appointed as clerk to look after the county of Veldenz. Subordinate to him was the postman Nicolaus Kauth. Schimper had a difficult time with the prince-bishop. On a window donated by him from the year 1680 he described himself as postmaster von Lieser. Since this window was later located in the Protestant Laufersweiler, it can be assumed that Schimper was transferred to the County of Veldenz in Laufersweiler.
Schimper's successor was Nicolaus Kauth. During his tenure, the Lieser post office began to decline. In 1681 the Dutch postal route was relocated via Luxembourg (city) , Wecker , Trier, Lieser and the Hunsrück. In 1698 the Dutch postal route was finally relocated via Luxembourg (City), Wecker, Trier, Büdlich , Haag and Laufersweiler, bypassing Lieser. Lieser was only a horse changing station on the Trier - Koblenz postal route. After the death of the postman Nicolaus Kauth on December 13, 1708, his son Johann Jacob Kauth succeeded him. He was the last Lieserer post holder.
The closure
From April 1725 there were negotiations between the Trier prince-bishop Franz Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg and Anselm Franz von Thurn und Taxis about a postal route through the Eifel suitable for postal vehicles. This was opened in 1725, as was a post office in Wittlich, a royal seat of the Prince-Bishop. When in 1727 the mail on horseback was also moved to the Eifel line, the Lieser post office closed in January 1728. The last postman from Lieser, Kauth, was unable to move to Wittlich for health reasons, but remained a postman (distributor) for the surrounding communities until his death in 1734. Immediately after his death, a post office was opened in Bernkastel. Since the end of the Lieser Poststation was foreseeable, the buildings in the Posthof were converted for residential purposes as early as 1725 and the arcades were bricked up.
Attempts at resuscitation
Even after the Lieser post station was closed, efforts were made to reopen a post office in Lieser, especially since a new post route from Brussels to Augsburg via Himmerod , Wittlich, Bernkastel and Morbach was planned, using the Lieser ferry again. The Trier postmaster from Pidoll prevented this, however, in 1751 with his letter to Prince Alexander Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis .
Only in 1883 was a post office reopened in Lieser on instructions from Heinrich von Stephan , which existed until December 31, 1994.
Todays situation
A large part of the post office from the 16th to 18th centuries remained in Lieser. Century preserved. The buildings in the “Alten Posthof” were rededicated as residential and farm buildings, but not demolished. Thanks to public and private initiatives, it was possible to reconstruct a large part of the existing building fabric from the early 16th to 18th centuries, so that the Lieser post office is now a relatively intact ensemble, with the post house built around 1600 as the central building. The remnants of the arcades from the early 17th century could be partially uncovered, but not restored because of too much later renovation. The Posthof is for several years under monument protection .
Individual evidence
- ↑ FZA HFS 790. See also Martin Dallmeier: Sources for the history of the European postal system 1501–1806, Part I, Sources - Literature - Introduction , Kallmünz 1977, p. 41.
- ↑ See also: Hermann Josef Becker, in: PgB Saarbrücken, 5/1962, Heft 2, p. 5.
- ↑ Archives of the Katharinenspital Regensburg, Warschitz estate, cf. also Adolf Korzendorfer, in: Archive for Postal History in Bavaria 3/1927, p. 72, as well as the verification .
Literature (selection)
- Hermann-Josef Becker: The post course Brussels - Innsbruck in the Eifel, Moselle and Hunsrück area , in: Postgeschichtliche Blätter (PgB) Saarbrücken 1962/1, p. 12–17, 1962/2, p. 4–10
- Wolfgang Behringer: Thurn and Taxis , Munich 1990
- Leon Bodé: The relocation of the Italian-Dutch postal course in the Hunsrück, Eifel and Ardennes area , in: Archive for German Postal History 1/1994, pp. 8-19
- Martin Dallmeier: Sources for the history of the European postal system , Vol. I and II, Kallmünz 1977
- Leo M. Gard , in: PgB Trier, 1966, p. 27f.
- Adolf Korzendorfer, in: Archives for Postal History in Bavaria 3/1927, p. 72.
- Gudrun Meyer, in: Yearbook 2003, Bernkastel - Wittlich district, p. 97ff. ISBN 3-924182-42-6
- Fritz Ohmann: The beginnings of the postal system and the taxis , Leipzig 1909
- Ernst-Otto Simon: The postal course from Rheinhausen to Brussels over the centuries , in: Archive for German Postal History (AfdPg) 1/1990, pp. 14–41, with further literature
- Franz Schmitt: Chronicle Weindorf Lieser , Trier 1988
- Eugène Vaillé: Histoire générale des postes françaises, Volume IV , Paris 1951.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 55 ′ 1.1 ″ N , 7 ° 1 ′ 21.4 ″ E