On January 12, 1990 five postal entities (Austria,Belgium,Berlin,DDR, and Germany) issued stamps featuring a detail of Albrecht Duerer's (1471-1528) engraving
The Young Post Rider.
These stamps commemorate the 500th anniversary of Europe's first supra-regional mail route using the relay system. The first day card shown here contains the Germany (Mi #1445) and Berlin (Mi #860) issues. The card depicts the route, from Mechelen, Belgium to Vienna, Austria.
Inscription on the back of the card says, "At the beginning of modern postal service in 1490, the organization of message transport from Innsbruck to Mechelen was based on a relay system at fixed times. There are three sources for this. The Memminger Chronicle contains an entry for the year 1490 a report on the establishment of a postal route that led from Austria to the Netherlands. A letter from the later Maximilian I to the council of the city of Speyer with the request to build a post office within the walls of the imperial city and to order a horse and footman, dated July 14, 1490. In addition, entries for 1490 in the Tyrolean rait books (accounting books) of the Upper Austrian Chamber in Innsbruck are a fiscal indicator for the establishment of the first supra-regional mail route in the relay system."
Posted 09/09/2020 12:39 pm
