History of the Czech Postal Service
The beginning of an organised and state-controlled transmission of messages in the Czech lands dates back to 1526 when the Arch-Duke Ferdinand was elected King of Bohemia. Soon after his election Ferdinand I ordered that a first regular postal route be set up between Prague and Vienna. He relied on the Taxis family already operating postal service in the Austrian lands. The service consisted in the establishing and operating of a network of routes connecting major political, administrative and business centres of the Habsburg empire. The routes linked stations, placed at regular intervals, offering fresh horses to postal couriers who could continue on their journey without delay.
In the early stage the network of relay stations served the exclusive purposes of the state administration. As such it was administered by the chief court postmaster who was controlled by the chief court chancellor. Clear evidence of the state authorities trying to secure the control over the developing postal business appeared at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. The key moment came in 1722 when the hereditary chief postmaster of the Paar family had to give up a part of the monopoly securing him the control over and administration of the Austrian postal service. The final step in the process of gaining complete control over the postal service was taken by Maria Theresa in 1743, at the very beginning of her rule.
This was a key milestone on the way to development of the postal service. As a state-controlled service, it was soon reorganised to improve its efficiency. The state postal monopoly, created by a number of decrees, covered also passenger transportation which had been facing competition from private operators. Further improvements came in the area of roads building, larger scope of services, and a higher density of postal routes and relay stations.
The unprecedented economic boom of the early 19th century, caused by the industrial revolution in Europe, led to a massive building of new roads. The roads improved the speed of travelling with the subsequent gradual improvement in quality of transportation of both mail and passengers by the state post. A significant role in these changes was played by the chief postal administrator in Vienna, Maximilian Otto von Ottenfeld. He was the author of the new passenger transportation system (1823) and the main co-author of the Postal Act 1837. The act defined the legal relationship between the state administration and the postal service for a long time and laid the foundations of the modern postal service.
The new technical inventions were key for further improvement in the quality of postal services. Building of railways as well as the development of telegraph and telephone services increased the speed of communication. Transportation by railway had a major impact on mail services. In the 2nd half of the 1930s the Austrian state launched construction works on a large network of railways with a parallel telegraph network whose building started in 1847. The first travelling post cars appeared in 1850 on the Vienna-Bohumín route. Mail was sorted by the crew while travelling. The first Austrian postage stamps came out in the same year. They helped to spread the use of correspondence.
Telephone was the most important invention which marked the second stage of the industrial revolution in communications. It was first introduced in the Czech lands in 1881. In 1893 telephone service came under the state control.
The final stage of the 19th century industrial revolution brought radiotelegraphy, or the wireless transmission of messages by radio. It was first presented to the Czech public at the 1908 Jubilee Exhibition in Prague.
The formation of the Czechoslovak state in the late 1918 led to changes of not only political and legal but also economic and administration nature. The latter directly affected the way of organising and controlling of postal services. All communication services - postal, telegraph, telephone and radio - formerly making a part of the Austrian trade ministry were transferred under the Czechoslovak Ministry of Post and Telegraph Offices. The establishment of an independent ministry for communication services was intended to underline their growing social and economic importance and improve their quality.
The state-owned enterprise Czechoslovak Post, set up in the early 1925, followed similar economic rules to those used by private businesses. The efforts to reform the postal service soon made the enterprise profitable. It managed to survive the harsh global economic crisis in the 1930s. During the Nazi occupation the post was entirely dependant on the protectorate government and the German ministry of post.
In May 1945, after the end of the occupation, the ministry of post offices was reestablished, the postal act reenacted and the state-owned enterprise Czechoslovak Post was formed again. In the early 1950s, after the communist regime came to power, the Czechoslovak Post became a 'national enterprise' and the ministry of post offices became the 'ministry of communications' after the Soviet model. The change brought a large reorganisation of the ministry and its activities. Postal service was gradually moved aside and replaced by telecommunications and radio as an effective propaganda tool. Despite the negative development the post managed to introduce some new services and technologies securing at least its core operations.
The revolutionary changes, coming with the fall of the communist regime in the late 1989, led to the splitting of the combined ministry of postal and telecommunications services.
On January 1st, 1993 the Czech Post became a state-owned enterprise with independent financing.