The Friedensau Post

In the past, perhaps more than today, the post had a special, elementary significance for people. Newspapers, letters, postcards and, above all, picture postcards conveyed information at a time when there were no cell phones and no digital media, without which we can no longer imagine our lives today. Letter carriers – until 1945 probably exclusively men - were usually the much-wanted and welcome bearers of mail and newspapers, money orders or telegrams and, of course, parcels and packages.

Initially the Stegelitz post office was responsible, then Grabow

Since 1896, the mail for the Klappermühle was delivered from Stegelitz and transported to Friedensau by bicycle. It was not unusual for the letter carrier to have to cycle twice on sandy paths or push his bike to deliver all the parcels. This only changed in 1936, when the Grabow post office, which was located in the Karpenkiel restaurant, became responsible for the Friedensau post. The letter carrier Otto Meseberg often came several times a day to deliver the mail. The afternoon mail from Friedensau was taken to the post office in Grabow.

Friedensau post office with its own postmark from 1955

The great hour struck on October 20, 1955 – one could speak of a turning point: The opening of a Friedensau post office with its own postmark in the Wilhelm-Krumm-Haus, the former office building in which the German Association for Health Care (DVG) had its office. From then on, a postal van came every day to deliver or pick up the mail. The lively public traffic made it necessary for the post office to become independent of the administration office. The new location was now in the same building, just on the other side of the entrance. Soon the few opening hours were no longer sufficient for the volume of work, including the distribution of mail to the individual houses. On January 1, 1967, Deutsche Post Friedensau approved a full-time position. The much-loved and eagerly awaited post office administrator was Elisabeth Günther, who performed this service until her retirement at the end of February 1983.

Relocation of the post office to the canteen building

Her successor, Maria Donat, saw the post office move to the completed canteen building in 1992. However, shortly afterwards she fell under the early retirement scheme as part of the general job cuts at the post office. From then on, as before 1967, there were only individual counter hours. From 1995, post and letters were delivered directly by Postbus. One year later, the Friedensau post office was closed.

 The post office moves again

At the same time, Volker Taraba took over the postal services in his store in the mill building. After the store café was opened in the converted former fire station building in 2004 – operated by Veronika Feyer until summer 2023 – all postal services were also available here.

But 20 years later, the next change was due: Sandra and Marcus Krugel from the Ladencafé handed over the postal license. Since May 2024, there has been a small post office, which also sells Friedensau souvenirs, in a room of the library (the former reading café). The new "postman" is Franz Stuhrmann, a newcomer to Friedensau, who operates the post office on an hourly basis in the afternoon from Monday to Friday and maintains the postal tradition in Friedensau.

Text (Copyright): Dr. Johannes Hartlapp, Historian at theFriedensau Adventist University