Mail delivery by Deutsche Post

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Back of an envelope containing an opened letter; Above: Note from the Mail Delivery Service Center of the Deutsche Post in Marburg, below: "Don't forget it next time: With sender and zip code."

The mail delivery center of Deutsche Post AG (current name: Service Center Briefermittlung ) has been located in Marburg since 1978 .

An average of 16,000 letters per day are sent to the mail dispatch center for identification. In every second case, the sender or recipient can be identified. About a third of the items that have fallen out can be sent to the owners.

Legal basis

The secrecy of mail , letters and telecommunications in accordance with Article 10 of the Basic Law is interfered with by Section 39 (4) of the Postal Act , according to which unacceptable items may be opened to determine who is entitled to receive them.

history

Return letter opening commission

Until 1850, the senders of undeliverable items at the General Post Office (GPA) were determined by the "Return Letter Opening Commission". When the Oberpostdirektion (OPD) was set up on January 1, 1850, this business was transferred to the OPD, and now these departments are still called "Return Letter Opening Commissions". Even then, the officials were particularly obliged to conduct their business and had to refrain from any knowledge of the content of the broadcasts when determining the name of the sender. The name of the agency has been changed several times:

  • 1863 "Commission for the opening of return letters that cannot be ordered"
  • 1886 "Committee for the Opening of Unorderable Mail"
  • 1909 "Committee on Unorderable Mail"
  • The "return letter" was introduced on March 6, 1925.

Letter back office

The return post office had to identify the senders of the undeliverable items or items that were banned from postage and to store and further treat the items that were definitely not applicable. It consisted of every Oberpostdirektion (OPD) and consisted of at least two members who were appointed by the President. At least one of the members must have been employed by the OPD as planned. A postal council was responsible for overseeing the agency. The officers to be employed by her were, with reference to the oath of service by handshake, obligated to negotiate their duties as members of the return post according to the "business instructions for the return post" and the provisions of the General Service Instructions for Post and Telegraphy (ADA), but especially the To identify the sender with confidentiality and faithful to the confidentiality of the letter.

Letter intelligence center in Berlin

Letter intelligence was the name of the special service set up at the letter post office in Berlin C2 to determine the recipients of undeliverable items. Until March 18, 1925, it was called the "return post office of the letter post office". The designation “letter reconnaissance center” had become necessary due to the renaming of the committee for undeliverable items at every OPD as a return letter. The old "return letter of the post office" is mentioned in the chronicle of this office for the first time around 1880. It says:

“The letter-back facility has expanded into a department with significant business scope. Your work has proven to be of particular benefit, because with the overwhelming majority of all letters that have incorrectly or illegibly written labels, the investigations by the examining officers lead to the right track of the recipient. "

You have been transferred:

  1. the Berlin location letters without details of the apartment, which the Berlin posting agency was unable to identify;
  2. All ordinary letters sent by Reich, state, local authorities or bailiffs to physical persons (officers only) for which a request from the Berlin destination post office to the police was unsuccessful. The letter intelligence center then continues the investigation at the residents' registration office;
  3. all mailings to high-ranking and well-known persons, to authorities, companies, societies, associations, newspapers, magazines, officers of the standing army and to other persons whose identification is to be hoped for by the reference works of the letter intelligence agency, e.g. B. civil servants, doctors, engineers, scholars, students, teachers and members of parliament.

In addition, the mail reconciliation center treats the items without any labels or content. From the position of the letter post office as the main post office, especially in foreign relations, a number of works finally emerge which mainly concern the following:

  1. Storage and further treatment of return receipts received from abroad, on which the issuing postal service is not or inaccurately designated. If the placement is unsuccessful, the letter intelligence center will contact the foreign post office. The defective copy will be reported to the post office after investigation.
  2. Treatment of international mail without specifying the home.
  3. Inscriptions in foreign languages ​​are translated through the intermediary of the main telegraph office, the foreign office of the Reich Ministry of Post or the consulates.

The letter intelligence agency used green ink .

Express couriers, pneumatic post deliveries, letters with a delivery certificate and cards for goods handling were processed on the day of arrival. First of all, the delivery report was checked for all shipments and then the determination was made on the basis of the reference works. Insignificant deviations in the spelling of the name do not constitute a reason for undeliverable items in the case of normal items if other sufficient information is available to determine the recipient. Items with street information that differ from others only by adding an addition or where the accommodation could be assumed were sent to the delivery post office with a letter of inquiry. In the event that the addresses of newspapers and magazines could not be found, which were not recorded in the address book or in the newspaper price list, an inquiry was made with the Post Office. Shipments to representatives of the Reichsrat were delivered to the post office in the Reichstag ( special post office in the Reichstag ), those to attorneys at the bar, to court officials in the courts, to writers and editors to the German Writers' Association. Items that were stored in the post office and without details of the post office were sent by the letter investigation center to the depository of the letter post office. The items that were finally undeliverable were sent to the post office of the Oberpostdirektion Berlin to determine the sender. Ordinary open letters that were finally unserviceable, as well as undeliverable, worthless printed matter were destroyed. On average, the agency received around 2,000 items a day, of which 65 to 70% could be identified (as of 1927).

Works used for investigation

The letter intelligence agency used the following works for investigations (status: 1927):

Berlin address book, official telephone book for Berlin, directories of companies registered in the commercial court, companies registered out of court, registered associations, newspapers published in Berlin, newspaper price lists, German university calendar, German literature calendar (Kürschner) , directories of commercial professional associations, insurance companies , Professional associations, health insurance companies, foundations, Gothaischer Genealogischer Hofkalender , Gothaisches genealogisches Grafisches Taschenbuch, Gothaisches genealogisches Freiherrliches Taschenbuch ( Gothaischer Hofkalender , Genealogisches Handbuch des Nobility ), manual for the German Reich, book of congresses, directory of postal check customers, directory of the university, the agricultural and technical university, ranking list of the higher Reich postal and telegraph officials.

Investigation center for letters

Until 1850, the senders of the bad mail at the General Post Office (GPA) were determined by the "Return Letter Opening Commission". When the upper post offices were set up on January 1, 1850, these businesses were transferred to the upper post offices. The departments continued to use the name "Return Letter Opening Commissions". The name of this department was changed in 1863 to "Commission for the opening of return letters that cannot be ordered", in 1886 to "Committee for the opening of non-orderable mail", in 1909 to "Committee for mail that cannot be ordered", in 1925 to "return office" and in 1969 to "investigation office for letters".

The task of the investigation center for mail items is to open the mail items sent in by the postal services that are irrelevant or that have been banned from the mail in order to determine the sender or recipient from the content of the items . This operational measure does not violate postal secrecy.

If, after opening a shipment, an authorized recipient is determined from the content, the shipment is forwarded to the latter. If an authorized recipient cannot be identified, the shipment will be kept for research purposes ( research and replacement procedures ) and destroyed after a certain period of time. Do letters contain official documents, such as B. Passports, ID cards, driver's licenses, vehicle registration documents, vehicle documents, pension insurance cards, certificates, these documents are not destroyed but sent to the issuing authority or institution. Furthermore, items from unsuitable letters that are suitable for sale will be auctioned in compliance with the statutory provisions. The auction proceeds and cash on hand from unsuitable letters will go to the Post Support Fund. If a person entitled to receive reports subsequently, the amount received from the Post Support Fund will be sent to him free of charge without interest. Each Oberpostdirektion had an investigation center for letters. Only civil servants who, with reference to their oath of service, were particularly obliged to observe the confidentiality of mail and letters were allowed to be employed in this position . The supervision of the investigation center for letters was carried out by a department of the Oberpostdirektion. The service operation was carried out according to the regulations of the service instructions for the investigation and replacement procedure (DA NE).

literature

  • Handheld dictionary of postal services
    • 1st edition; “Briefaufklärungsstelle”, pp. 145–146 (article by Berthold Brandt, Postrat in Düsseldorf) and “Rückbriefstelle”, p. 559
    • 2nd Edition; “Return letter”, p. 637
    • 3. Edition; “Investigation center for letters” and “Investigation center for parcels”, pp. 641–642
  • Heinrich von Stephan : “History of the Prussian Post from its origins to the present”. According to official sources by H. Stephan, Royal Prussian Post Council. Publishing house of the Royal Secret Upper Hofbuchdruckerei (R. Decker), Berlin 1859; P. 714
  • General service instructions for the postal and telecommunications system XI, 1 § 13 and Appendix 5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gesa Coordes: Mail mediation in Marburg detectives from the post on fr-online.de from January 2, 2009
  2. ↑ Where the secrecy of letters is just a word by Hubert Wolf on derwesten.de of February 22, 2013
  3. ↑ Marburg, find out! on the website of the Federal Association of German Postal Service Providers from June 23, 2008
  4. ↑ Deutsche Post: The hunters of the lost letters by Maria Panagiotidou / DPA on stern.de from 23 August 2008
  5. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system; 1st edition; P. 559
  6. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system; 1st edition; P. 559
  7. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system; 1st edition; P. 146
  8. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system; 1st edition; P. 146
  9. ↑ Concise dictionary of the postal system; 3. Edition; P. 641