Emanuel Herrmann
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Emanuel Alexander Herrmann (24 June 1839 in
Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...
, Austria13 July 1902 in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
) was an Austrian national economist. He is considered the decisive last in an international line of inventors of the
postal card Postal cards are postal stationery with an imprinted stamp or indicium signifying the prepayment of postage. They are sold by postal authorities. On January 26, 1869, Dr. Emanuel Herrmann of Austria described the advantages of a ''Correspon ...
.


Life and work

After graduating with a law doctorate from the
University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
, Emanuel Herrmann, the son of the Bezirkshauptmann (district administrator) of
Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...
,R. Zimmerl: ''126 Jahre Postkarte''. In: Die Briefmarke Nr. 10/1994; ebenfalls erschienen in: Manfred Stippich (Redaktion): ''Die Postkarte. Dr. Emanuel Herrmann – eine österreichische Erfindung erobert die Welt'', Ausstellungskatalog, Klagenfurt 1995, S. 10–15. entered the civil service in the Austrian ministry of commerce and qualified for a university career as a "
Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualific ...
" in the field of national economics. He was also a professor at the renowned
Theresian Military Academy The Theresian Military Academy (german: Theresianische Militärakademie, TherMilAk) is a military academy in Austria, where the Austrian Armed Forces train their officers. Founded in 1751, the academy is located in the castle of Wiener Neustadt ...
in
Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...
and from 1882 for twenty years professor of national economics at Vienna's Institute of Technology.


Birth of the postal card

On 26 January 1869 he published an article in Austria's leading paper ''
Neue Freie Presse ''Neue Freie Presse'' ("New Free Press") was a Viennese newspaper founded by Adolf Werthner together with the journalists Max Friedländer and Michael Etienne on 1 September 1864 after the staff had split from the newspaper ''Die Presse''. It ex ...
'' "''Über eine neue Art des Korrespondenzmittels der Post''", (i.e. "About a novel means of postal correspondence"), proposing that all envelope-size cards, whether written, produced by copying machine or printed, ought to be admitted as mail if they contained not more than 20 words including address and sender's signature and showed a 2-
Kreuzer The Kreuzer (), in English usually kreutzer ( ), was a coin and unit of currency in the southern German states prior to the introduction of the German gold mark in 1871/73, and in Austria and Switzerland. After 1760 it was made of copper. In s ...
postage stamp. Regular letter postage was 5 Kreuzers.
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
's Postmaster General Vincenz Baron Maly von Vevanovič took up the idea, and in September 1869 the "Correspondence Card" was officially introduced in Austria by ministerial order. From 1 Oktober 1869 Austria's General Post Office was to issue postal cards for very brief messages, which, at a prize of two "Neukreuzers" (new Kreuzers), were to be delivered to any place within the dual monarchy, irrespective of the distance involved. The 20-word maximum was dropped. The front of the "correspondence card" showed the address, the rear was reserved for the message; apart from the two-headed eagle of Austria on the address side, or the Hungarian coat of arms in the Hungarian half of the dual monarchy, there were no pictures of any kind.


An international success with forerunners

Herrmann's novelty caused quite a stir abroad: Two British magazines wrote in the same year:
''The Austrian government has introduced a novelty in postage, which might be introduced with great benefit in all countries. The object is to enable persons to send off; with the least possible trouble, messages of small importance, without the trouble of obtaining paper, pens, and envelopes. Cards of a fixed size are sold at all the post-offices for two kreutzers, one side being for the address and the other for this note, which may be written either with ink or with any kind of pencil. It is thrown into the box, and delivered without envelopes. A halfpenny post of this kind would certainly be very convenient, especially in large towns, and a man of business carrying a few such cards in his pocket-book would find them very useful. There is an additional advantage attaching to the card, namely, that of having the address and postmark inseparably fixed to the note.''
Britain in fact very soon followed the Austrian example and introduced the postcard just a year later, and so did the
North German Federation The North German Confederation (german: Norddeutscher Bund) was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated st ...
, together with the states of
Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
and
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden is ...
; in 1871 Switzerland, Luxemburg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada followed; 1871-74 Rumania, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, Spain, Japan, Itay, Chile and France followed whereas early as 1777 ''"L’Almanach de la Petite Poste"'' had reported about an early and short-lived forerunner(in translation):
''"Nowadays, cards which are decorated with engravings are sent by post as compliments or best wishes upon the most diverse occasions, with messages that anyone can read. This new invention is by copperplate engraver Demaison and is much discussed."''
And so did the USA, where on 12 Mai 1873 the first official postcards appeared with a postage of 1 cent regardless of distance. However, as early as on 27 February 1861 US Congress had permitted the mailing of privately printed cards with a weight of one ounce or less, with a postage of one cent for delivery distances of up to 1500 miles, and of two cents for addresses further away, which was world-wide the very first official authorization of the use of postcards. This was taken advantage of by John P. Charlton of
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, who had his postcards copyrighted on 17 December 1861, yet none of his printed-message cards is known to have been used. Charlton allowed Hymen L. Lipman to print a second series of cards, which carried the name "Lipman's Postal Card". The earliest known postmark on these cards is of 25 October 1870; the patent that Lipman applied for was never granted. At first, only domestic use of the "correspondence cards" was possible, but with the formation of the
Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, french: link=no, Union postale universelle), established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to t ...
in 1874, international delivery became soon possible.


Development

Postcards with imprinted postage stamp (better named ''postal cards'') were sold without any pictures, but soon private individuals began adding pictures of their own. From 1872 privately produced postcards were permitted in European countries, which the sender had to equip with postage stamps of differing values according to differing address regions. This offered the opportunity to print pictures on the card, at first some monochromes, from the late 1890s on in colour, and in huge quantities.


Controversy

The realization of his proposal through the Austro-Hungarian post office made Herrmann a well-known personality in Europe, but later his authorship of the postcard was contested. In the German Reichstag parliament, a government speaker declared that the
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n post director Heinrich Stephan (later raised to "von Stephan") had voiced this idea already in 1865. At the 5th German postal conference in
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
in November 1865 Stephan had indeed distributed a private memorandum with a similar suggestion. ''"The present letter form does not provide the sufficient simplicity and shortness for a considerable number of messages"''. Stephan, however, had not actually proposed the postcard, but a postal sheet the size of a money transfer form, stiffer than letter paper and slightly larger than the usual envelope, with an imprinted duty stamp and available at all post offices. The prepaid postage was to be one silver
groschen Groschen (; from la, grossus "thick", via Old Czech ') a (sometimes colloquial) name for various coins, especially a silver coin used in various states of the Holy Roman Empire and other parts of Europe. The word is borrowed from the late Lat ...
, which was the regular German postage fee. As this would have meant no reduction in postage, it would have been no actual innovation, but would only have simplified postal handling. In fact, Germany later introduced not Stephan's postal sheet due to its lack of privacy but a post card on precisely the Austrian model. It is, however, quite possible that Herrmann developed his model upon Stephan's suggestion. Heinrich von Stephan himself never claimed the authorship of the postcard idea.


Folksong collector

Herrmann‘s quite different area of interest lay in the field of ethnology: He was an important collector of the folksongs of
Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
, the Austrian state where he had come from.Hermann Th. Schneider'', Die Straßen und Plätze von Klagenfurt'', Klagenfurt, no date, p. 79 The City of Vienna dedicated a grave of honour to Herrmann at the
Meidling Meidling () is the 12th district of Vienna (german: 12. Bezirk, Meidling). It is located just southwest of the central districts, south of the Wienfluss, west of the Gürtel belt, and east and southeast of Schönbrunn palace. Meidling is a heav ...
cemetery. The tombstone says: "Der Erfinder der Postkarte", that is: "The Inventor of the Postal Card." The official name was ''Correspondenz-Karte''.


Publications

* ''Die Theorie der Versicherung vom wirthschaftlichen Standpunkte'', Graz 1868 * ''Leitfaden der Wirthschaftslehre'', Graz 1870 * ''Miniaturbilder aus dem Gebiete der Wirthschaft'', Halle a. S.( Nebert) 1872 * ''Naturgeschichte der Kleidung'', Vienna (Waldheim) 1878 * ''Cultur und Natur. Studien auf dem Gebiete der Wirthschaft'', Berlin 1887 * ''Technische Fragen und Probleme der modernen Volkswirtschaft'', 1891 * ''Das Geheimnis der Macht. '', 2nd edition, Berlin 1896


References


Literature

* Franz Kalckhoff: ''Die Erfindung der Postkarte und die Korrespondenz-Karten der Norddeutschen Bundespost''.(i.e. "The Invention of the Post Card and the Correspondence Card of the North German Federal Postal Service"), Leipzig 1911. * Paul Noēl Armand and Paul Yvon Armand, ''Dictionnaire de la Cartophilie Francophone'', Herblay 1990. * Wolfgang Till, ''Alte Postkarten'', Collector's Catalogue, Augsburg 1994.


External links


Austrian Chamber of Trade and Commerce:
''History of the Postcard'' (German)

History (German)

lecture in Bruchmühlbach-Miesau (Switzerland), on 11 November 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Herrmann, Emanuel 1839 births 1902 deaths Writers from Klagenfurt People from the Duchy of Carinthia Austrian economists Austrian inventors Postcards Postal history Academics of TU Wien University of Vienna alumni