Reichsposts

The Reichspost, officially the Deutsche Reichspost, was the state postal service of the German Empire, responsible for the delivery of mail and, as technology advanced, telegraph and later telephone communications across the realm. It emerged with German unification to provide a standardized, nationwide postal network.

Administratively, the Reichspost was organized under the imperial Generalpostverwaltung, which united the diverse regional post systems into a central authority. It operated a broad network of post offices and routes, established uniform postage rates, and issued standardized postage stamps bearing the empire’s insignia. In addition to domestic mail, the Reichspost handled international correspondence through consular networks and pressed forward with the expansion of its telegraph and, later, telephone services.

During its existence, the Reichspost played a central role in administration and commerce by enabling rapid, reliable communication across the country. It supported military and civil operations, particularly during periods of conflict, and its infrastructure laid the groundwork for later developments in German communications.

Following the end of the German Empire, the Reichspost persisted in various forms under the Weimar Republic and subsequent regimes, though it underwent reorganizations and renamings as political structures changed. After World War II, the Reichspost ceased to exist as a single unified agency; its functions were absorbed by successor postal administrations in East and West Germany. The modern German postal system traces its lineage to these postwar institutions, ultimately leading to Deutsche Post AG, established in the privatization of the state-owned Deutsche Bundespost in the 1990s.