The story
Created in 1947 in the Trizone as a successor to the Deutsche Reichspost (German Imperial Post), until 1950 the enterprise was called Deutsche Post (German Post). Until 1989, the Deutsche Bundespost was a state-owned operation.
Organization
The Bundespost was developed according to a three-tier principle common in public administration in the Federal Republic of Germany. The upper stage consisted of the Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. The middle stage consisted of regional directorates (Bundespostdirektionen) and the state post office management (Landespostdirektion) under western Allied authority in West Berlin (see Deutsche Bundespost Berlin) as of 1949/1955). The post office technical central office, telecommunication engineering central office, postal administration social office, and post offices) were on an equal level with the directorates. The lower stage consisted of post office branches, postal giro (akin to a checking account) savings bank offices and telecommunications office branches.
Legal basis
The legal basis for the administrative activity of the Bundespost was the postal administration act (Postverwaltungsgesetz, abbreviated PostVwG). A central goal of public administrative policy after 1924 was financial self-sufficiency. Political goals, however, often superseded this goal. According to the PostVwG, the federal postal system was to be administered "according to the principles of the policy of the FRG, in particular trade, economic, financial and social policies" and "the interests of the German national economy."
The Deutsche Bundespost was the largest employer in the Federal Republic, employing some 543,200 people as of 1985.
Reforms
In the first post office reform implemented on 1 July 1989, the Bundespost was divided into three divisions (also called public enterprises):
Deutsche Bundespost Postdienst – postal service
Deutsche Bundespost Telekom – communications service
Deutsche Bundespost Postbank – postal bank
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The central authorities remained as described above. The divisions were privatized on 1 January 1995 in a second round of reforms, resulting in:
Deutsche Post AG from the postal service
Deutsche Telekom AG from the communications service
Deutsche Postbank AG from the postal bank
The federal ministry for post office and telecommunications (Bundesministerium für Post und Telekommunikation) retained oversight responsibility for postal services and telecommunications. After the dissolution of that ministry on 1 January 1998, those tasks were taken over by a new federal network regulatory agency (Bundesnetzagentur, formerly RegTP) under the federal ministry for economics and technology. Other functions (such as the issuance of postage stamps) were taken over by the federal ministry of finance. Some telecommunications functions (including BOS radio) were turned over to the federal ministry of the interior.
For certain official and legal purposes (including certain financial, medical and other services for former postal civil servants), a "federal institution for post and telecommunication" (Bundesanstalt für Post und Telekommunikation) was created.
From Wikipedia’s article on Deutsche Bundespost, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4