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Johannes
11th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1926 - 1990)
knew about the Cremerie from his grandfather Albert.

Albert was always telling his young grandchildren
Johannes, Anselm and Gabriel
about the fascinating postal adventures of their ancestors.
The picture was taken around 1936.



Johannes, Mafalda and Clotilde Thurn & Taxis with their parents
Karl August and Ana Maria Braganza

1952
Albert died in 1952, Margarethe died in 1955
The oldest son Franz Josef became the 9th Prince of Thurn & Taxis
followed in 1971
by the second son Karl August, 10th Prince of Thurn & Taxis.



Johannes later 11th Prince of Thurn & Taxis No20
came in charge of the Thurn & Taxis fortune.
The older grandson Gabriel had died in the war.





26min30 Inteview with Johannes Thurn & Taxis by Alan Whicker (1970)



wedding of Johannes and Gloria Thurn & Taxis in 1980
with the royal French tiara.


Maria Theresia (1980), Elisabeth (1982) and Albert (1983)
children of Johannes Thurn & Taxis and Gloria Schoenburg



1986
1986 January Johannes Thurn und Taxis
came to Paris for the fashion week.
The editor of this article, (No21)
had some student jobs in fashion shows and trade exhibitions .
This is how he had the chance to meet
the 6 x great grandson
of the old postmasters.

Johannes was like a "figure from a fairy tale"
He had crazy stories about people he had met
Princess Soraya of Iran, Marilyn Monroe, Elisabeth 2,
Coco Chanel
Franz Josef Strauss or Fidel Castro ...

But the most fascinating about him
were increadible stories he knew from his grandfather
about his ancestor's adventures
inventing Postal services
all around Europe ...

Thurn & Taxis loved the contact with young people
and he liked to use the possibiltes he had
to boost them for their own future.

Nobody knew such stories,
even though they sounded
almost unbeleivable ...
for a student used to the "PTT"
beeing a State owned Monopoly.


Sometimes Johannes said,
"you know
when the horses of my great great grandfather
were carrying letters,
they were faster
and more reliable than the PTTs of today ..."

1986 May Johannes Thurn & Taxis returned to Paris
He invited the young student for a drink
at the Cafe Costes in Paris Les Halles.
The conversation was about the old postmasters.

"Let me show you a place where my 7 x great-grandfather
Anselm Franz
came a long long time ago.
It was the place where mail to France
transited during the times of Louis XIV":



Entrance of the Paris Postal Center
as Johannes Thurn & Taxis knew it
in the late 1960ies while the Paris foodmarket was still in activity.
The Postal center had become a warehouse for the Les Halles foddmarket.

1986 Cremerie de Paris / Emmental
was in worse condition being abandonded
and locked by wooden planks.
(in case you should have a picture from 1986 please email us b@vb.com)

VB, the former Hotel de Villeroy Bourbon,
also called Hotel de la Poste in Paris
as it looked in 1720 and
300 years later in 2020.

VB was the French Mail hotspot of the 17th and 18th century
and the only still exisitin Telecom center
completely unchanged,
even the water fountain for the post horses are still in place.


The Thurn & Taxis Postal Palaces
no longer exited

This is how Cremerie de Paris and Phone Book of the World came alive ...



1986 June end ot the month
the student had the key of the little Boutique
in the heart of Paris,
50 m from the old Postal Building ...
This was like jumping into water ...

Knowing nothing about nothing
the Boutique took a bit of time to open.
An idea needed to be found
and the shop needed to be renovated ...



Well when you are 20 and you open a Boutique
on a Telecom hotspot in the center of Paris
a lot of adventures are waiting for you ....

Electrica for Sony, a little Boutique in Paris

1987
The idea for the little Boutique
was to sell Sony Phones.
The phones could not be found anywhere in Europe
They were revolutionnary for their times:
Beautiful Phones includng an Answering Machines
or Cordless House Phones.

The only problem when the shippment
arrived from New York
1987 September
it was bloked by the customes authorities
at the Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Desaster,
un "douanier" explained that there was a French Law
forbidding import of phones that were not "agree PTT".
In fact the local PTT had a monopoly over the market
and only French manufactures were able to the "agree PTT" label.

The Boutique could not be open
and there was no money left.


what to do now ?

Johannes Thurn & Taxis:
"I could send you another Thaler
but this is not a good solution ...
It would turn you into a "spoiled kid"
getting used to be helped all the time
and in the end
you will never be able to succeed anything on your own.

Think about all the difficulties the old postmasters had to handle
try to use this problem to find an idea"

The student realised it would be impossible
to sell Sony phones.
at the French State owned PTT had a Monopoly.

Thurn & Taxis suggested to create a "Service Center"
for these iconic phones.
There was no law forbidding to sell 220v power adaptors,
batteries, phone connectors, acessories and repair service.



1989


The Sony power adaptors AC 930 A turned into little cash cows.
The were the only adaptors working on 9V power compatible for
Sony Cordless phones SPP 110 / SPP 150,
Sony Answering Machines IT A 500 / IT A 600
but also the Sony Discman.

People from Paris liked to bring the phones
from a trip to New York like a "trophy" they had to smuggle
through customs.

The power adapters existed in France,
but annoyed by consumers
buying Sony products in the US
the officilal Sony Representation, Sony France
rationated distribution.
Consumers had to wait for weeks and weeks to have their orders honered.

Sony Retailers could buy the adaptors for 200 Francs.
The official retail price was 240 France.

Our little Boutique found a way to order them in Germany.
Buying them by 1.000 units we were able to get them for 41.74 DM (140 Francs)
In Paris we cruised all the major electonic stores
and bought AC 930 A adaptors whenever one or two should be in stock.

Sony consumers were desperately looking for them
going from one shop to another
and when they arrived at our little Boutique
they were amazed to see a hughe pile of the adaptors decorate the window.
A lovely Japaneese girl was there to help selling them for 380 Francs.
Little cash cows creating the foundations
of todays Cremerie de Paris real estate.

Soon Paris Match started to cover the store.
Telephone Lovers came from everywhere,
one of them was Lady Diana.
Soon there was enough monet tob open another Sony Boutique accross the street.

Thanks to Diana the aura of the young Boutique
came to the ears of Akio Morita
inventor of the Walkman and cofounder of the brand.
Morita started to used us as a "Sony test Lab" to check out how
"PARIS" was reacting to his latest ideas.
Time to learn some Japaneese ...




Thurn & Taxis was watching everything we did.

He came to Paris many times and
told us never ending crazy and funny telecom stories,
in the cafes of Les Halles,
at the Ritz and in his Regensburg castle.

Most of the stories came over the phone.
Suffering from insomania Thurn & Taxis had the original habit
to call in the middle of the night
to talk about the old postmasters when he couldn't sleep.

The student had a friend in Seattle,
mixing up the time difference she also used to call
in the middle of the night
inciting Thurn & Taxis to do the same.

Half asleep it was really amusing to get this late hour attention.
Too bad the student did not record the phone calls,
they would be historic documents today.



1990


1990 January 12 Deutsche Bundespost issues a stamp
to commemorate the 500 years of Postal History

1990 January 19 reception of the German Government
in Beethoven Halle Bonn to commemorate the anniversary
Chancelor Helmut Kohl
and Christian Schwarz Schilling,
Minister of Post and Telecommunications gave a speech.


1990 August preparing a third Sony Boutique,
today Cremerie de Paris No6
12 rue de la Ferronnerie
Thurn & Taxis was impatient to come see it ...

Johannes Thurn & Taxis
"I love these little Sony phone adaptors
they have financed another shop that fast,
without that you needed some more TT Thalers

The next step is to buy Cremerie de Paris No1
right in the old Postal Building
to bring your young company on a higher level.

I love the idea
I feel the energy of the old postmasters
I want to come back to Paris
If ever you should have a chance to get the historic Cremerie de Paris
I will boost the project."


But he could not come ...

Johannes had many avant-garde ideas
of investing in the awakening Internet and Telecom Industry.
Buying Microsoft or Apple shares,
have the TT logo in America.

A lot of stress at home in Regensburg.
over his vision to organise the future.


1990 December 19
Johannes
Thurn & Taxis died
from heart failure
but the projet
had to be continued ...













Very quickly the old Telecom genes of our walls in Paris
were reactivated
and the little Boutique took off.
Still alive Thurn & Taxis could see
the T&T Thalers he had given to us
beeing multiplied over and over again ....


There have been so many changes in the Telecom Industry,
one technology replacing another
sometimes people are surprised we are still there.

But when you have had the chance to get
a T&T Thaler
with centuries of history
coming directly from the old postmasters
you have the obligation to do everyting you can
to face turbulances
finding new ideas all the time ...



Aimee de Heeren

<
Thurn & Taxis not only left us
his spirit of Telecommunications and some Thalers.
He also left us a wonderful friend,
Aimee de Heeren No21

Aimee was Brazilian, full of energy
she facinated everybody by her joy of life.
Daughter of a school teacher
she grew up in a small town of Brazil.
Still very young Aimee and her sister Vera wanted to discover the world
and moved to Rio de Janeiro ...
She was much older everybody beleived.

They were so beautiful every door opend
and soon destiny made her cross the path
of another inventors
in the filed of Telecommunications (continue the article ...)

Every december she came to Regensburg
to stay with Thurn & Taxis for 3 weeks.
We do not know she met Johannes,
probably in the early 1950s at a NY cocktail party.

The rest of the year Aimee lived between
Paris, Biarritz, New York and Palm Beach.
Nobody knew her age ....

Another friend inherited from Thurn & Taxis
is Andre Dunstetter, a Franco American business consultant.


From Innsbruck, Austria Aja Sachsen
(cousin of Johannes, daughter of Elisabeth Helene Thurn & Taxis / Sachsen)
was also watching over us.
She could not travel any more
but ishe became another "telephone friend"
following every Expo at the Postal Mansion
and telling us wonderfull stories about her grandfather Albert Thurn & Taxis
"He was my darling ! " .



screenshots our first website created in 1991

1991
Working around Sony was a chance
as the Japaneese company was extremely creative.
Soon we discovered a new tool
to attract more clients to our shops.
Minitel, a French ancester of the Internet.
Our prehistoric 100 page website
just pulled Sony Lovers into the stores.

At that time it was one of the very first 100 pages website,
some screenshots still exist.