History

As early as 1490 had been founded in the Holy Roman Empire Maximilian I by postal stations. The declaration of the postal shelf by Emperor Rudolf II in 1597 was the most important event in the following period, which resonates in part to this day. Thus, the letter is delivered to a royal prerogative, which was soon given to the family feud as taxis.

After the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War of 1648, in the various German states their own country's post offices were under royal national sovereignty, even if the families were Thurn und Taxis as Imperial postmaster-general of the emperor repeatedly confirmed. However, until the middle of the 19th Century has been taken against the small states in the postal system, which disabled the ever-increasing mail traffic. By and by, above all occurred in the southern German states the German-Austrian Postal Union, the uniform tariff system in 1850 came into force. The construction of the railways meant that now was the train post as a new tool for the rapid dispatch of mail. A single national postal administration was then created by Bismarck, the Prussian Post Office yet integrated and thus created in 1872 the first German Reich Post Office, which was also responsible for the telegraph service.

In 1922 the new German Post Regulation came into force, which had almost unchanged until 1964 inventory. The increasing demands of the postal service was attempted during the Third Reich by laying down a total of 24 Leitgebieten each with its own Leitunummern taken into account, from which eventually developed into the postal codes. The 1947 newly founded German post office was renamed the Western occupation zones after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in German Bundespost. From it finally went out in 1995 by privatizing the German Post AG.

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