SHOOTING UNDERGROUND: BERLIN'S PNEUMATIC TUBE POST GOES LIVE
Today in Berlin: 18 November, 1865
“Coffee arrived at half past three. The letter to Marcell, a pneumatic tube letter that Schmidt, after some hesitation, had decided to send had been gone for at least half an hour, and if all went well and Marcell was at home, he might already be reading the three succinct lines from which he could deduce his victory (…) A few cryptic references to Corinna had also been woven into the letter, and all in all, one could assume that Marcell would appear within the shortest possible time to express his gratitude.
And indeed, it was not yet five o’clock when the doorbell rang and Marcell entered. He warmly thanked his uncle for his protection, and when the latter dismissed it all with the remark that, if such things could be mentioned at all, any thanks were due to Distelkamp, Marcell said: “Well, Distelkamp it is, then. But I must thank you for writing to me right away. And by Rohrpost, no less!”
“Yes, Marcell, the Rohrpost might, indeed, deserve our thanks. Before we, old folks, get around to trying something new - something that also costs thirty pfennigs, no less! - a lot of water can flow down the Spree. But what say you about Corinna?”
In 1892, when freshly printed copies of Theodor Fontane’s novel “Frau Jenny Treibel” reached their first readers, Berlin’s Rohrpost - pneumatic tube postal service - so eagerly tested by Professor Wilibald Schmidt, was a fast-expanding, almost organic system. Its subterranean tentacles moved steadily forward under the streets and the pavements, providing what was to become one of the most efficient pneumatic tube postal services worldwide.
A network which Professor Schmidt and his devious daughter Corinna might have even heard work as they went promenading through the centre of Berlin: with tiny wagons conveying telegrams, letters and postcards rushed under their feet towards their clearly marked destination.
Exactly 160 years ago today first telegraph messages shot through the underground tubes of the new city Rohrpost, Berlin’s first pneumatic post line. Unlike anything at the street level above them, they travelled at the breakneck speed of 35 kilometres per hour!
The line, inspired by London pneumatic tube postal system, was built between the Main Telegraph Office and the Stock Exchange. Mostly to make sure that buyers and sellers got the news fast. But soon its usefulness went far beyond that. From 15 stations in 1875 it expanded to 95 before the Second World War.
The war left it, like the rest of the city, in ruins. But not for long. Rebuilt after the war, only in West Berlin it would stretch over 193 kilometres of postal tubes with powerful pneumatic machines at each end. The East Berlin system was equally impressive.
With letter traffic booming, first large-scale pneumatic post wagons were tested in special labs in Berlin: can-like wagons (also referred to as Büchsen, tins, and - perhaps a tad unluckily - as “bombs” or “bullets”) to carry up to 6,000 letters at once.
Pity it didn’t last. In 1963 West Berlin authorities decided to, pardon the pun, snip the tubes. East Berlin followed 14 years later.
But not all is lost! Smaller Rohrpostanlagen are alive and sucking at nearly all big Berlin hospitals (I can confirm the one at Unfallkrankenhaus Marzahn works beautifully: I watched and listened to it work for quite a while), most large administration buildings as well as many industry sites. We are also told that even the Federal Chancellery has one but we might never know.
So here is a lovely film made by a Berlin TV station in 1965 to celebrate the Rohrpost‘s centennial. It might be time to make another one.
Perhaps we should send a letter to the men and women in power? I hear that Rohrpost delivers fast.
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Astonishing.
A charming newsletter, thankyou.