BERLIN CITY POST 1886
Today (26.11.2021) I started to put together the Berlin City Post 1886 - One of the World’s shortest-lived mail services - exhibition collection
I used to live in Berlin a short time a long time ago, and I loved the city. Hence I have long wanted to build an exhibition collection on this rather rare subject, a rather advanced but only a few months-long postal system. My goal is to create a comprehensive and complete collection - approximately 32 A4 exhibition pages/ two frames. It has taken a surprisingly long time to find and obtain the material - which, of course, is understandable in the case of a postal system that lasted only a few months almost 140 years ago.
The city posts of Germany were formed because of the wording of the postal acts of the North German Confederation in 1867 and the federal act passed in 1871. This latter act established the Reichspost at the time of the federation of the German States. The acts provided a monopoly for the state on the delivery of mail between towns with post offices if it was sealed. The Reichspost was not initially concerned with inner city deliveries, nor with the delivery of parcels, printed papers, unsealed letters, and postcards.
Such a vacuum allowed private enterprise to step in and provide a service, which became increasingly necessary as the industrial cities expanded at the end of the 19th century. The postcard was accepted as a means of communication only from 1872 in Germany and the postal authorities did not foresee the extent to which it would be used. A total of 250 private postal companies operated in 164 towns and cities in Germany before they were closed by the government in 1900.
The private posts were initially slow to rise to the challenge and the first company to form a service in Berlin was J.J. Schreiber’s Brief und Druckschriften-Expedition, which started in May 1873.
Commercial development began to increase again around 1880, when Berlin’s population began to expand. In 1884 the very successful company Berliner Packetfahrt-Gesellschaft was formed. By September 1885, in co-operation with other firms, an inter-city parcel delivery service had been formed with the name Express-Packet-Verkehr. It expanded rapidly, even offering overseas delivery.
In 1886 the name was changed to Neue Berliner Omnibus und Packetfahrt Actiengesellschaft. Stamps were used on parcels from the outset, but it was not until June 1886 that stamps were produced for use on letters and postcards. This move coincided with the opening of a delivery service by a new competing firm Hansa I.
This collection, as said, is one of my new collection and the one I am building at the moment, it includes Hansa I and Hansa II from the year 1886. My target is 2 frames/ 32 A4 pages. I will add them here, one at the time, as soon as I am able to create them. Before the actual exhibition, I will finalize the informations and lay-outs.
On first appearance, It received Silver Medal (9.9.2022)
