Rayon stamp
The rayon stamps owe their introduction to a postal convention between Thurn und Taxis and France of December 14, 1801. It was the reason for the creation of the first official postage stamps of the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post , which then became models for the postmarks of many old German postal administrations . There were already postmarks before , "what had previously been practiced by individual post offices purely for practical reasons, has now been determined by an official order," said a contemporary.
history
France had occupied and annexed parts of northern Europe during the coalition wars. In the Basel Treaty (April 5, 1795), Prussia had to temporarily cede its areas on the left bank of the Rhine to France. After losing the war, Emperor Franz II had to recognize all German land on the other side of the Rhine as French territory in the Peace of Campo Formio (October 19, 1797). On November 4, 1797, it was legally incorporated into French territory. Napoléon Bonaparte officially took possession of the left bank of the Rhine on March 9, 1801. The Treaty of Lunéville (January 9, 1801) gave the French laws, which were formally published in the annexed areas , constitutional validity.
In the course of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1802/03 Thurn und Taxis was guaranteed the maintenance of the previous postal connections, whereby Prussia did not adhere to this regulation and immediately took over the postal sovereignty in the areas that fell to Prussia in 1803.
The establishment of the Rhine Confederation on July 12, 1806 actually meant the end of the Holy Roman Empire and thus also the end of the Imperial Postal Service, including the Post Generalate of Thurn and Taxis. On August 6, 1806, Franz II laid down the German imperial crown. The Imperial Post Office , organized and directed by the Thurn und Taxis, no longer existed, and the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post continued to exist as a private company. On December 13, 1810, the following countries were annexed to France: the free Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck, Duchy of Oldenburg except for the Principality of Lübeck, Duchy of Arenberg, principalities of Salm-Salm, Salm Kyburg, various parts of the Kingdom of Westphalia and of the Grand Duchy of Berg and a part of the Duchy of Lauenburg received department mail. In May 1811 there were 16 or, if the taxic state posts count individually, 31 different postal areas in Germany, 24 of them in the area of the Rhenish states.
For occupied German territories, from 1798 until about the end of 1814, depending on the advance of the French, two- or three-line departmental postmarks of the French Post, mostly in black, were introduced.
These stamps were withdrawn after the French were driven out. First, the Thurn and Taxis postal administration took over the postal service in the Rhenish lands (1814-1816). It often removed the numbers from the department or rayon stamps or introduced new line stamps without a date.
Postal history
The Prince of Thurn and Taxis wanted to save as much of his postal kingdom as possible. The conditions were favorable. France had to be interested in the regular postal operation of the Reichspost, with its trained officials and proven postal lines, in the occupied country. The Thurn and Taxis administration was responsible for the postal system for the whole of western Germany from the Elbe to the North Sea, with the exception of the regions of Braunschweig , Saxony and Oldenburg , which were initially postally independent , and also the southern German, Hessian , Baden , Württemberg and Bavarian states, as far as the Postal operations came into question, given into the hands.
The imperial post territory was divided into 4 rayons, France into 5 rayons. This resulted in a postal rate that could be calculated according to distance and weight. There was no compulsory postage for letters to and from France. Both the Reich postage on this side up to one of the border post offices and the French postage from the border post office to the destination could be franked. There were special regulations for letters sent directly to the border post office. There were border post offices on the French side in Strasbourg, Worms, Mainz, Koblenz, Cologne and Neuss, and on the German side in Kehl, Mannheim, Kassel, Thal-Ehrenbreitstein, Deutz and Düsseldorf.
Items marked “Chargé” had to be franked and cost twice as much as the franked letters to France. In return, the post paid 50 francs in both directions for every registered letter lost.
Every letter, every package, every product sample, every newspaper or printed matter had to be stamped. In the case of registered letters, the stamp PP = Porte payé was added to the location stamp with the addition of the associated rayon. The rayon location stamp was sufficient for items that were not prepaid. The few already existing one-liner stamps with the place name were probably made at the instigation of the postmasters of larger places on the post lines since about 1740 in order to facilitate the handling. The Thurn and Taxis postal administration first took up this stamp form, the one-liner, and added the prescribed rayon designation either before or after it, creating a completely new, but practical stamp image that met all the requirements of the contract.
The workflow was as follows: Before the mail left (usually 3 hours before) no more letters were accepted. The letters were sorted, numbered and, according to their class, each entered separately on the card, ie name and place of the recipient (not also the sender), postage, postage paid, postage paid for display, number of the letter. This chart was written twice (even three times in the Prussian one). One copy stayed at the post office, the other was placed in the letter package for the post office that had to open it. When the parcel arrived, the letters contained in it had to be compared with the enclosed directory only after the numbers and addresses. At least three people were required at the main post offices. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klüber: ‟ The postal system in Germany as it was, is and could be ”, Erlangen, 1811.
See also
- Postal history of the Kingdom of Westphalia # Postmark - as more detailed about the French department stamps using the example of the Kingdom of Westphalia.
literature
- Friedrich Wilh. Thalmann: “The German rayon stamps from 1802 and their creation”, in the magazine “GERMANIA-BERICHTE”, 1928/29