History of the Czech Post

Czechoslovak Post during the First Republic

The establishment of the Czechoslovak state at the turn of October and November 1918 brought about not only political and legal changes, but also economic and administrative changes that directly affected the organization and management of postal operations. On November 13, 1918, the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs became the basis of the Czechoslovak postal administration, which was responsible for postal, telegraph, telephone, and radio communications. The creation of a separate department for sectors that had previously fallen under the Austrian (Pre-War) Ministry of Trade was intended to emphasize their growing social and economic importance and at the same time improve the quality of services provided.

The Ministry of Post and Telegraphs was not only an independent authority for the administration of postal and telecommunications matters in the public interest, but also fulfilled the role of an entrepreneur from the outset. The growing share of business activities soon led to the organizational separation of the state-owned enterprise Czechoslovak Post. It was established on January 1, 1925, with its management governed by rules similar to those applicable to private companies. The reform soon yielded favorable economic results, which were only disrupted by the global economic crisis.

Protectorate Post Office Bohemia and Moravia

However, the Munich Agreement, the cession of border territories to Germany, and the establishment of the so-called Second Republic had a much more serious impact on the successful development of the Czechoslovak Post. Events then took a rapid turn. On October 13, 1938, the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs' jurisdiction over Slovak affairs was transferred to the Minister of Transport for Slovakia in Bratislava, and on November 4, the independent Czechoslovak Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs was abolished and merged with the Ministry of Railways to form the Ministry of Transport. The final curtain fell on the history of the First Republic enterprise Czechoslovak Post on January 1, 1939, when the postal administrations of the individual autonomous units began to operate independently and on their own account. On this day, the Czechoslovak State Railways and the Czechoslovak Post for Bohemia and Moravia were merged within the Ministry of Transport into a single enterprise called the Czechoslovak Railways and Post in the Czech Lands. The complete economic, political, and military subordination of the postal service to German interests occurred after the occupation of the rest of the republic on March 15, 1939. Postal matters remained on the agenda of the Protectorate Ministry of Transport until November 1942, when they were transferred to the newly established Ministry of Transport and Technology.

The postal service during the Third Republic

At the end of the war, the so-called Košice government established a Ministry of Post, which more or less continued the pre-war activities of the Ministry of Post and Telegraphs, but the conditions in which it operated were completely different. From an organizational point of view, this mainly concerned the definition of its territorial jurisdiction, because at the same time, the so-called poverenictvo pošt (Postal Authority) was established in Slovakia, which, however, had no counterpart in the Czech lands. This unsystematic and illogical measure lasted until 1960, when it was abolished as part of constitutional changes. Shortly after liberation, the state-owned enterprise Československá pošta (Czechoslovak Post) was also restored, but due to external and internal circumstances, it did not last long.

The Post Office after the February Revolution

February 1948 became a fundamental milestone for the future direction of the postal administration. The following year (July 1, 1949), the state-owned enterprise Československá pošta (Czechoslovak Post) was nationalized, followed by a reorganization of the Ministry of Posts. However, this was only a temporary solution. In connection with the establishment of the Ministry of Communications and the Communications Commission on May 1, 1952, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia decided to abolish the national enterprise Czechoslovak Post. This measure was intended to give the impression that the ministry and its apparatus had regained the function it had had after 1925. In reality, the existing business entity became a state office run according to the Soviet model, with all the negative consequences that this entailed.

Czechoslovakian connections in the 1960s

Sovietization was completed in 1960, when the highest authorities of the postal service, telecommunications, and transport were centralized. This meant not only the abolition of the Communications Commission in Bratislava, but also the merger of the previously separate ministries of communications and transport into a single Ministry of Transport and Communications. However, the merger of the ministries soon proved to be dysfunctional, and so in 1963 the communications sector became independent under the Central Communications Administration, which was replaced on January 1, 1969, by the Federal Committee for Post and Telecommunications. At the republic level, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was established in Prague and the Ministry of Transport, Post and Telecommunications of the Slovak Socialist Republic in Bratislava. At the same time, the names of the individual communications organizations were changed to post and telecommunications organizations.

The postal service during the period of so-called normalization

Under the influence of the onset of normalization, further constitutional changes took place, which in the case of the postal and telecommunications sector led to the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Communications of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic on January 1, 1971. This resulted in the dissolution of not only the Federal Committee for Post and Telecommunications, but also both republic ministries. In 1988, communications were again merged with the transport sector in the Federal Ministry of Transport and Communications, and the system eventually returned to the corporate principle with the establishment of the state-owned enterprise Správa pošt a telekomunikací Praha (Prague Postal and Telecommunications Administration) in July 1989.

The postal service after the Velvet Revolution

A fundamental change took place only at the beginning of the 1990s as a result of the collapse of the communist regime. Already in July 1990, in connection with the reconstruction of the state administration, communications in the Czech Republic became the responsibility of the newly established Ministry of Economic Policy and Development. In October 1992, the entire communications sector was transferred from the abolished Ministry of Communications to the Ministry of Economy of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic and the Ministry of Economy of the Czech Republic. The first clear step towards the independence of the postal part of the company was the establishment of the Czech Post division on January 1, 1992, followed by the separation of the postal and telecommunications accounting departments and the establishment of its own management. Negotiations on the future form of the postal service continued in the following months.

Establishment of the independent state-owned enterprise Česká pošta (Czech Post)

The final decision was made in the highest government circles, and on January 1, 1993, at the same time as the Czech Republic became independent, Česká pošta became a state-owned enterprise. After many decades, it was thus able to continue the best traditions of the First Republic state-owned enterprise Československá pošta (Czechoslovak Post) and prove its viability and usefulness in a market economy.

Prepared by: PhDr. Jan Kramář