Thurn & Taxis invented Telecom industry
730 years later the story continues ...
a long long time ago ...
There are several direct links
between the old T&T Postmasters and
Phone Book of the World
& Cremerie de Paris
Sorry this article is a little long
but it covers a very long time period.
Transmitting the spirit from the very beginning in the Italian Alps
to today's center of Paris... 21 people are connected.
![]() Franz von Taxis / Francesco de Tasso (1459 - 1517) N°6 is considered to be the founder of the European Postal system. The official foundation date is 1490. ![]() ![]() Born in Italy in a small village, Camerata Cornello near Bergamo 60 km north of Milan he worked with his brother Jeannetto (1450 - 1518) and his nephew Johann Baptista (1470 - 1541) ![]() A museum has been created in the still existing village, Museo dei Tasso For the Holy Roman Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I (1459 - 1519) Taxis organised a horse transport system from Innsbruck to Brussels. Horses were exchanged every 28 km, mail from Innsbruck to Brussels took 5 and 1/2 days. 1516 Brussels becomes the seat of the young organisation. Mail from Brussels to Blois 60 hours from Brussels to Rome 250 hours Franz von Taxis only child Augustin de Taxis entered the church, The son of his brother Jeanetto, Johann Baptista became his successor in the postal service. |
![]() signature of Louis Leon Pajot on a letter from 1725. Louis Leon Pajot was also called Comt Donsenbray (Ons-en-Bray) He has married to Princess de Galiffat Martigue. |
![]() Maximilian Karl 6th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1802 - 1871) N°17 was the last Thurn & Taxis to be a Postmaster. He became had of the postal operations in 1827 ![]() This letter send from Lübeck to Paris in 1844 took 6 days to travel. The letter send to the Rothschilds is in the collection of Didier Lebouc, website histoire postale ![]() ![]() 1852 Maximilian Karl introduced stamps the picture shows Thurn & Taxis stamps for 1 and 2 Groschen Stamps were issued from 1852 to 1866 There are 54 different items ![]() Maximiian Karl was married twice and had 17 children among them Maximilian Anton from his first marriage and Paul (boyfriend of King Ludwig II of Bavaria) from his second marriage 1867 july 1 the state of Prussia nationalized the Thurn & Taxis Post. The year before the same people from Prussia had already forced the independant Kingdom of Bavaria, the Grand Duchy of Hessen and the free city of Frankfurt, seat of the postal operations, into an alliance. Occupying the free city of Frankfurt where was located the Thurn & Taxis post Maximilian Karl had to transfer his century old postal company. 1870 Prussia's desire to annex Alsace Lorraine also provoked war with France resulting in the abdication of Napoléon III and the end of the French Second Empire. ![]() ![]() Napoleon's wife Empress Eugenie with her diademe crown jewel of France. Eugenie also has links with the Cremeries de Paris as she was the creative mind of the construction of rue des Halles at the corner of the historic postal building ... |
![]() Albert 8th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1867 - 1952) N°19 was the second son of Maximilian Anton. He succeded his 5 year older brother Maximilian Maria who died in 1885. Due to the real estate investments of his mother Helene using the 3 million thaler compensation payments for the Postal Services Albert was one of Germany's richest man. ![]() As a wedding present to his wife Margarete of Austria he went to Paris to buy something unbeleivable, the Diademe of Empress Eugenie, crown jewel of France. The jewel made by Alexandre Gabriel Lemmonier was sold by Julius Jacoby who had acuired it for 78.100 Francs in a 1887 sale of the French Royal Crown jewels. ![]() 1890 july 15 he married married in Budapest. Margarete of Austria (1870 - 1955) According to their granddaughter Mathilde von Sachsen N°20 the greek word for perls was "Margarita" this was the reason why Albert had the idea to buy this wedding present. The perls had been mounted in previous jewels of the Bourbons, Kings of France and is one of the world's most significant jewel. ![]() Albert and Margarethe had eight children, seven sons and one daughter Franz Josef (1893-1971), Joseph Albert (1895-1895), Karl August (1898-1982), Ludwig Philipp (1901-1933), Max Emmanuel (1902-1994, Elisabeth Helene (1903-1976), Raphael Rainer (1906-1993) and Philipp Ernst (1908-1964) 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. |
![]() 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. ![]() 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 great great great great great great grandson of the old postmasters. ![]() Johannes had met wild people like Princess Soraya of Iran, Marilyn Monroe, Coco Chanel Franz Josef Strauss or Fidel Castro but his most captivating stories were the ones about his ancestor's adventures operating Postal services ... 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 in Paris again Thurn & Taxis 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 a little astonished 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 Russian children were all killed in 1918. 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 that the 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. This would be fun for me to follow ... 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 ... " ![]() 1986 June 6 the student was invited to an extraordinary birthday party in Regensburg, Bavaria at a castle bigger than Buckingham palace. 1986 July 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 ... The Telecom project was so captivating, the student was no longer interested in studying ... 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 .... |
1992
An unbeleivable opportunity came up. The historic Cremerie N°1 was for rent. The place was right in the postal building, not next door, not opposit, right on the spot. We tried to get it but the owner was scared to leave such a big place to people that were still so young. Preference was given to a large established furniture company which did not work. 1993 Again Cremerie N°1 came on the market Again the owner was scared to rent us the historic building but Aimée de Heeren had an idea. "You should ask the landlord to buy the place so that he has no risk with rent payments" Sony adaptors, batteries, plugs, connectors were little cashcows but not enough to get a bank loan for such a big space. Our young company had no financial background. Thurn & Taxis who would have bought the place immediately was not there any more ... His friend Aimée watched what we were doing ... She knew our place since a long long time not from the Postal stories of her friend Thurn & Taxis but from someone elso. 1938 Arriving in Paris as a secret agent for her country Brazil she had fascinated the fashion designer Coco Chanel. Chanel loved our staircase with a mysterious N°5 logo forged into the railings. She knew it since 1920 taken there for the first time by her old boyfriend Dmitri Romanov. In the 1960s old Coco Chanel and Aimée de Heeren used to do nightwalks through Paris. The staircase of the old postal building was their destination. Before leaving this world Chanel left Aimée a little jewel she had once received from her Russian boyfriend. Aimée who had watched our Telecom Boutique adventures from the very beginning knew that both her friends Thurn & Taxis and Chanel would have told her to "take action". She decided to use the little jewel (more than a cocktail dress) so that a bank would finance the acquisition. Cremerie de Paris N°1 boosted our Sony activities The store worked from the day it opened but soon new unexpected turbulances were on the way . |
![]() Cremerie N° in the old Postal Building reinvented as an iconic Pop Up Store Location 2011 No more need for Cybercafes, the old Postal Building has to be reinvented, once again. The idea was to convert it an expo center to show new products and inventions. Again the start is a little difficult, but havn't the old postmasters left us the lesson that difficulties are there to find new ideas ... ? 2012 - 2017 ![]() building a new subway exit facing the Cremeries de Paris and connecting them to Paris largest subway station Chatelet les Halles 2017 - 2018 ![]() redesigning our old rue des Halles / rue Déchargeurs the picture shows the last big construction night 2018 july 12 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() While taking these pictures around our old postal gate thinking about the crazy and funny stories of the Post horses that were leaving from our old gate 300 years ago to carry mail to hundreds of Pajot & Rouillet or Thurn & Taxis post relais. According to Johannes Thurn & Taxis everything was extremely well organised. The horse coaches had a timetable that was the same every week. Every monday 7 am mail left for Brussels Every thuesday 7 am mail left for Frankfurt Every wednesday 7 am mail left for Venice ... no phone, no electricity, no computer
|
Feeling grateful for having had the chance to "pick up"
a bit ot the T&T Spirit of Telecommunications.
Thurn & Taxis was known for making jokes at wealthy and snobbish hi society Ladies.
What is less known is that he
was very generous with those that did not have much
He
loved to give to young people
"lottery tickets with hi winning chances"
He met them out of the blue in cafes, nighclubs, fashion events
or in the lobby of a Grand Hotel
...
Johannes Thurn & Taxis in the late 1950s, early 1960s
with his friend Soraya Esfandiary who ten years after his death
came to Cremerie de Paris in 2000 / 2001 to get internet lessons.
2017
Returning to the castle in Regensburg with one of our web developers N°22.
A picture sitting on the lion after a legendary june 1986 birthday party
might still exists (and needs to be found again)
The above web developer with the sunglasses was asking:
"what would have happened if you had not met Thurn & Taxis N°20
when you were a student ?"
The answer is simple
"there would be no Cremeries de Paris
and no Phone Book of the World"
Sometimes some crazy and funny stories
and
the equivalant of half a fancy cocktail dress
is all you need ...