Today I am presenting a copy of a letter from the pre-phila era, which was provided to me by a collector friend. It is a folded letter dated March 12, 1832, which was sent from Chur (Switzerland) to Vaduz (Liechtenstein) to the local land registrar Johann Vetter. The delivery took place at the Balzers letter collection point and was forwarded from there to Vaduz by messenger. The red cross indicates that the fee for the transportation of this letter has already been paid by the sender. In Balzers, where the letter was handed over to the messenger, it was canceled with a black one-liner BALZERS in italics. This rare postmark was used between 1827 and 1869 and is not yet known on letters with stamps, so it can only be found on pre-philatelic letters and later as a postmark on official forms.
A look at the history of Balzers post office
200 years of the Lindauer (Fussacher) Bote: this was worth a stamp to 4 countries (note, however, that the cardinal points on the old map (Austria) are reversed and the private company never used stagecoaches, but only transported mail by water or on horse or muleback. It was not until the Austro-Hungarian Post Office was installed that stagecoaches were used.)
The first postal service in Liechtenstein was the “private” “Fussacher, Lindauer or Mailänder Bote”, which operated between Lindau and Milan from the beginning of the 14th century. From 1613 at the latest, this messenger service was carried out at weekly intervals. The “Fussacher Bote” was authorized to transport travellers as well as collect letters, parcels and money consignments en route and transport them for a fee. Letters were distributed to or accepted by regional messengers in inns. The “Rössle” or “Post” inn in Balzers, run by the Wolfinger family, had already been such a distribution point for two generations around 1800.
There was a lively exchange between Feldkirch and Chur – and not just of letters. This is why there was and still is a Chur Gate in Feldkirch.
From 1770, the Austrian state took over the organization of the postal system in Vorarlberg and Tyrol, as – as a sign of sovereignty – it no longer wanted to leave the postal regulations to private companies. From the early 18th century until 1817, Austria and Bavaria maintained a letter collector in Chur, who met twice a week with the Feldkirch letter collector to hand over letters in Balzers.
The establishment of the letter collection point in Balzers was a significant event for the Principality of Liechtenstein, which is why it was commemorated 200 years later (2017) with a stamp block.
In 1817, the k.k. Postal Administration established the first state letter collection point in Liechtenstein in Balzers, run by the “k.k. letter collector and mail carrier” Josef Ferdinand Wolfinger. Liechtenstein thus became a domestic territory of the Imperial-Royal Post Office, with Austria simultaneously confirming the sovereignty of Prince Johann I. Post.
The “Fussacher Bote”, on the other hand, was no longer allowed to collect mail in Vorarlberg, which brought great popularity to the state post office. However, this ban was lifted in 1819, which led to a massive decline in sales at the Balzner letter collection point and caused its closure in the same year. However, faster and better developed state postal connections in Switzerland and Austria put pressure on the “Fussacher Botendienst”, which had to be discontinued in 1826. But the family business reoriented itself and still exists today as a leading global transport and logistics company run by the descendants of the owners of the Fussacher Boten, the Weiss brothers.
Stagecoach around 1895 in front of the Hotel Post, the former post office in Balzers (maxi card 2017).
The discontinuation of the messenger service was a stroke of luck for Balzers. Since 1824, the “Post” inn in Balzers had again been integrated as an official relay station on the new postal wagon route via the newly built Splügen road. The inn served as a horse-changing station and catered for travelers and postilions of the Imperial-Royal express mail between Milan and Bregenz. It was therefore logical that on January 1, 1827, the k.k. Postal Administration reopened the letter collection in Balzers. This became so important that it was given the status of a post office in 1839, making it the first post office in Liechtenstein.