Gese Wechel (born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, died in

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

1645), was the managing director of the

Swedish Post Office Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, ''Postverket'' from 1637 until 1642. She was the second director of the Swedish Post Office, and the first female postmaster in Sweden, entitled ''Sveriges rikes postmästarinna'' (Postmistress of the Swedish Realm).

Life

Gese Wechel was originally a domestic servant in the household of the Swedish envoy in Hamburg in Germany. In the 1630s, she married

Anders Wechel Anders is a male name in Scandinavian languages and Fering North Frisian, an equivalent of the Greek Andreas ("manly") and the English Andrew. It originated from Andres via metathesis. In Sweden, Anders has been one of the most common names fo ...

, a German in Swedish service who managed the Swedish postoffice in Hamburg. In 1636, the Swedish Post Office was founded, and she followed her husband to Sweden, where he received the position as its first managing director. Anders Wechel was in bad health, and she was in reality forced to manage his work as director. In 1637, she became a widow and continued to manage the post office, and 25 October 1638 she was officially confirmed in her position as director with the acknowledgement that she had already functioned as such for two years. She worked alongside

Steen von Steenhausen The Dutch word Steen means "stone", and is used for "castle" or "fortress", as in the Gravensteen in Ghent, Belgium. It is also an alternative spelling of the Swedish and Danish word ''sten'' with the same meaning. It may refer to: *Steen (given n ...

, who tended to the juridical matters of the office, and all orders were to be signed by them jointly. In 1642, Wechel was fired from her post with reference to her gender. She moved to Lübeck, where she died. Gese Wechel was the first example of the female postmasters in Sweden who took over their profession from their late spouses: from 1637 until 1722, eight percent (or 40) of the postmasters in Sweden were female, and

Margareta Beijer Margareta Beijer (1625–1675), was the managing director of the Swedish Post Office, ''Postverket'' from 1669 until 1673.Mansdominans i förändring: om ledningsgrupper och styrelser : betänkande Av Sverige Utredningen om kvinnor på ledande pos ...

had the same position as Wechel in 1669-1673. Women were excluded from service in the new regulation of 1722, and allowed again in 1863.

References

* Ingemar Lundkvist, Cirkeln är sluten för brevet, Under Strecket, SvD, 16 maj 2007. * Forssell, Nils: Svenska Postverkets Historia, Stockholm, 1936. * Mansdominans i förändring: om ledningsgrupper och styrelser : betänkande Av Sverige Utredningen om kvinnor på ledande poster i näringslivet, Stockholm, 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wechel, Gese 1645 deaths 17th-century Swedish people 17th-century German people Postmasters-General Year of birth unknown 17th-century Swedish women People of the Swedish Empire 17th-century German women 17th-century civil servants

Life

See also

References