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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.



1952
Albert died in 1952, Margarethe 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 N°20
came in charge of the Thurn & Taxis fortune.
The older grandson Gabriel had died in the war.


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 Schönburg



1986
1986 January Johannes Thurn und Taxis
came to Paris during the fashion week.
The editor of this article,
at the time a young student N°21
was making some extra money working in fashion shows.
This is how he happened to meet
the 6 x great grandson
of the old postmasters.

Johannes was like a "figure from a fairy tale movie"
He had met wild people
like Princess Soraya of Iran, Marilyn Monroe,
Coco Chanel
Franz Josef Strauss or Fidel Castro ...
But the most his fascinating
about him were increadible stories he knew from his grandfather
about his ancestor's adventures
operating Postal services ...

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 amazing 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 today ..."



1986 May Thurn & Taxis returned to Paris
After a drink at the Cafe Costes in Paris Les Halles
in showed the student
a fascinating building:
The old Hôtel de Villeroy Bourbon,
the place where his ancestors Anselm Franz
and Alexander Ferdinand
had been 300 years earlier.

It was one of the Telecom hotspots of the 17th and 18th century
and the only still exisiting major Telecom building
completely unchanged,
even the water fountain for the post horses are still in place.


Thurn & Taxis was amused
the young student also knew about the exact same building,
but what the student knew were different stories
linked to the Les Halles foodmarket.



The stories came from his great aunt
who had been the student's baby sitter.
The great aunt had some cousins in Russia
who loved the Cremerie de Paris.
Back in 1910s when the great aunt was a young girl
the children liked to talk about the old postal mansion
they considered a fairy tale castle in the heart of Paris.

The stories were from long times ago
when back in 1646 Louis XIV and his brother Philippe
- still very young - used to come to the house.


It's only in 1671 the Pajot Rouillé Postmasters
had bought the mansion
The stories of the student
had nothing to do with Telecom ...



50 meters away from the old postal building
was a little Boutique with a sign "for sale" ...

Thurn & Taxis wrote down the number.
He wanted to call it right away so we went to the next cafe
(mobil phones did not exit yet)
Hanging up the phone
he told the young student:

"The price of this Boutique is not even half
of what my wife spends on a cocktail dress ...

I really enjoy Telecom adventures
of my ancestors interest you so much.

I should give you a few thalers
we received for our Thurn & Taxis Post
and you start
a new Telecom business.

Our Telecom buildings from Brussels
and Francfort have been destroyed
but in Paris everything is still there.
There is so much history and so much energy
in this place

Spirit of Telecommunications
is still there
... right in the walls of the old Postal mansion.
All we have to is to wake it up.


Telecom has been blocked by State monopolies,
one of these days these monopolies will fall
you will see the business my family once has invented
has a lot of future ...
At age 20 you have a lot of energy
and people will be surprised that you are still so young
this little Boutique will help you ...
Find an idea
I will enjoy to follow  the adventure ...

In two weeks there will be a party for my birthday ...
You should come ... "

Johannes Thurn & Taxis
liked to be around young people.

Most of the times he met them out of the blue,
in a cafe, a nightclub, waiting for a plane.
Whenever someone had an entrepreneurial spirit
he liked to give out a
"lottery ticket with a high chance to win".

One, two, three thalers from the old Postmasters
and his connections
someone in his early 20ies
would never have be able to get by himself.

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 once 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 importation of phones that were not "agrée PTT".
In fact the local PTT had a control over the market
and only French manufactures were able to the "agrée 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 never be able to succed something 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.
The 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 were little cash cows.
The were the only adaptor working on the 9V power
Sony Cordless phones SPP 110 / SPP 150,
the 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 1000 units we were able to get them for 41.74 DM (140 Francs)
We constantly cruised all the major electonic stores in Paris
and bought the AC 930 A adaptors whenever one or two should hbe in stock.

Sony consumers were going from one shop to another to find them
and when they arrived at our little Boutique
they were amazed to see a hughe pile of the adaptor decorate the window.
A lovely Japaneese girl was there to help seling 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 poored into the store,
one of them was Lady Diana.
Another Sony Boutique opened accross the street.

Thanks to Diana the aura of the young Boutique came to the ears of Akio Morita
who 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 ...






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 500th anniverssary of Postal Services
Chancelor Helmut Kohl
and Christian Schwarz Schilling,
Minister of Post and Telecommunications give a speech.


1990 August preparing a third Sony Boutique, today Cremerie de Paris N°6
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 Thalers

The next step is to buy Cremerie de Paris N°1
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 have a chance to get the historic Cremerie de Paris
I will boost the project."



But he could not come ...

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

Johannes had very avant-garde ideas
of investing in the Internet and Telecom Industry
His ideas of buying Microsoft or Apple shares
would have made the family a fortune.




During the last five years of his life
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.









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 ...


Thurn & Taxis not only left us
his spirit of Telecommunications and some Thalers.
He also left us a wonderful friend,
Aimee de Heeren N°21

Aimée 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 Aimée and her sister Vera wanted to discover the world
and moved to Rio de Janeiro ...
They were so beautiful every door opend
and soon destiny made her cross the path of a major inventor
also in the filed of Telecommunications.

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

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

Another friend inherited from Thurn & Taxis
is André 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 in the years 2010 she 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.