Omodeo / Amadeo / Omedeus Tasso No1
(1245 estimated - 1309)
organised a courrier service (compagnia dei corrieri)
connecting Venice Milan and Rome.
He had the Spirit of Telecommunications.
Mail transport strated around 1290
and was asumed by Post riders.
His family lived in Camerata Cornello
in the
Alps of Lombardy (northern Italy).
The family was first mentioned in 1117 with Reinerius Tasso This was about 554 years before
our Cremerie de Paris / Hotel de Villeroy Bourbon
became a Telecom Hotspot in 1671.
The courrier service was continued by his son Ruggero TassoNo2,
grand-son Benedetto TassoNo3,
great-grand-son Palazzo de TassisNo4,
great-great-grand-son Pasimo de Tassis (?-1496) No5.
The next generation are four brothers Jeannetto de Tassis (1450-1518) No6, Ruggero de Tassis (145?-1515) No6, Pietro de Tassis (145?-1515) No6,
and Francesco / Franz (1459-1517) No6
The official founder Francesco Tasso / Franz Taxis 1490
invention of the postal service
181 years before the Hotel de Villeroy & Bourbon (home of the Phone Book of the World)
became the Postal Company of the Pajot & Rouille family
Franz von Taxis / Francesco de Tasso (1459 - 1517) No6
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.
Johann Baptista von Taxis / Jean Baptise de Taxis (1470 - 1541) N?7
is the nephew of Franz von Taxis.
who further developed the postal connections
in the Holy Roman Empire (including Germany).
The family controls the totaly of European Postal
connections with the exception of France.
1517
Emperor Charles Quint / Karl V (1500 - 1558)
nominates Johan Baptista
as General Postmaster.
The Habsburgs need the realibility and efficiency
of the Thurn & Taxis service.
Johann Baptista was married to
Christina von Wachtendonk
They
had 16 children.
He was succeded
by
Franz II von Taxis (1514 - 1543)
and by Lamoral
I von Taxis.
In France at the same time
the Pajot & Rouille Postal family
operating from the Hotel de Villeroy & Bourbon / Cremerie de Paris,
(today of the Phone Book of the World) ...
1671 January 21 two postal entrepreneurs from Tours
Leon Pajot (1625est - 1668) and Louis Rouille
(1630 - 1694)
buy from Nicolas V de Villeroy, once tutor of King Louis XIV,
the old Hotel de Villeroy Bourbon / VB mansion in the heart of Paris.
Following King Louis XIV the Villeroy family
has moved to St Germain en Laye
and was planning to live at the future Chateau de Versailles.
Pajot & Rouille set up a postal operation which they call "La Poste"
It will become the Royal French Postal Services.
The father of Leon Pajot, Nicolas Pajot (1580est - 1640)
and the father of Louis Rouille, Pierre Rouille (1593-1657)
were already in the Postal business in Tours
The map shows the still existing Postal Building
on rue des Dechargeurs in Paris.
The son of Louis Pajot I, Louis Pajot II (1647 - 1708)
and the daughter of Leon Rouille, Marie Anne Rouille (1659-1694)
get married
and continue the Postal Business.
"Royal French Postal Services" by Pajot & Rouille,
are an ancestor the French PTT,
now seperated into "La Poste" and "France Telecom (Orange)".
The common grandson Louis Leon Pajot (1678 - 1754) No14
continued to develop the business
His brothers Alexandre, Jean Baptiste, Francois, Antoine
and his sisters Anne Marie and Marie Anne
are also part of the Postal family.
Louis Leon Pajot needed Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis
and Thurn & Taxis needed Pajot
as mail exchange partners.
Their postal networks were not the same.
The were rivals.
They disliked each other and at the same time
they had a mutual fascination.
Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis and Louis Leon Pajot
were using
horses
and their post relais to carry mail through their respective
postal networks in
Europe. Cremerie de Paris No1, the home of the Phone Book of the World
was their connection point.
The Pajot & Rouille family owned 900 post relais,
the most southern ones were located in Venice and Rome.
The "technology heart"
was the Cremerie de Paris
on the rue des Dechargeurs side
of
the Hotel de Villeroy Bourbon.
This was the journey between Paris and Brussels.
Horses were changed at the 18 below mentioned
Relais de Poste
Without sleeping it was
a
33 hour trip in the summer
(39 hours in the winter).
departure
Cremerie de Paris / VB Mansion
9 rue des Dechargeurs Paris
Bourget
Chenneviere les Louvres
Senlis
Pont Sainte Maxence
Villaroye
Gournay sur Aronde
Tilloloy
Liancourt-Fosse
Marcheleport
Peronne
Fresne-Mazancourt
Cambrai
Haspres
Valenciennes
Qui?vran
Quaregnon
Casteau
Braine le Compte
Tubize
arrival
Palais Thurn & Taxis Brussels Sabons
(no longer exists)
signature of Louis Leon Pajot
on a letter from 1725.
Louis Leon Pajot was also called
Comte / Count Donsenbray (Ons-en-Bray)
A Story that left ...
End of the French Pajot & Rouille Post
The postal service was so successful
the two families Pajot & Rouille became very wealthy.
Hotel de Villeroy & Bourbon
or Hotel de la Poste
was one of the most elegant houses in Paris.
Postal building (VB mansion) around 1736,
drawing from plan Turgot
King Louis XV became more and more jealous
of the succes of "La Poste".
He had no control over the Thurn & Taxis
but being the King of France
with absolute powers
he had control over
the Pajot et Rouille family.
1738
May 21 Louis XIV withdraw the post license.
Under orders from the cardinal Fleury,
the prefet de police came in the early morning of that day
to make an end to the Pagot & Rouille postal empire.
Unlike Nicolas Fouquet who also created feelings of jealousy
because of his chateau Vaux le Vicomte
the Pajot et Rouille were not imprisonned.
They only lost their company probably without any compensation payment.
With the French Revolution trace of the family were lost
but Louis Leon's collection
of instruments can be found in many museums, it's only that for most of them nobody knows
that these little treasure come from Pajot .
Nethertheless the
destiny of the Hotel Villeroy Bourbon
was to remain a Telecom Hotspot ....
The links with the Thurn & Taxis continued through time ....
Remembering the Story
after the 1738 end of
the French Pajot Rouille Post
Alexander Ferdinand
3rd Prince of
Thurn & Taxis (1704 - 1773) No14
also knew the Pajot Rouille Poste
at the VB mansion / Cremerie de Paris.
This snapshot shows Alexander Ferdinand
with three of his
great great great great great great grandchildren
and two people that work in the postal building in Paris
he used to
visit 290 years ago.
1748
Alexander Ferdinand established a familiy residence
in Regensburg, Bavaria
The Perpetual Imperial Diet had moved
from Frankfurt to Regensburg
and Emperor Franz I of the Holy Roman Empire
had nominated him
as principal commissioner.
Frankurt remained the secondary
and than again main residence of the family.
The family first rented a house in Regensburg.
Alexander Ferdinand was married 3 times
and had eleven children.
He was succeded by his oldest son Karl Anselm.
His youngest son Maximilian Joseph (1769 - 1831)
founded the Czech branch of the family.
married to Eleonore Lobkowicz
father of Karl Anselm Thurn und Taxis (1792 - 1844)
grandfather of Hugo Maximilian von Thurn und Taxis (1817 - 1889)
great-grandfather of Alexander (1851 -1939)
married to Marie Hohenlohe / Thurn und Taxis (1855 - 1934)
The couple were patrons of the Arts.
Marie was a
friend of Rainer Maria Rilke
2 x great-grandfather of Erich Lamoral Thurn und Taxis (1876 - 1952)
married to Gabrielle Kinsky
(1883 - 1970)
Karl Anselm
4th Prince of
Thurn & Taxis (1733 - 1805) No15
always remembered how Louis XV
has just taken the Pajot & Rouille Post in Paris.
Under no means we wanted another king
to be able to seize his Thurn & Taxis postal empire.
Karl Anselm operated the postal company during
time of decline due to loss of many territories.
The loss was a result o the French Revolution wars
and
wars by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Karl Anselm had nine children.
Maria Theresia Thurn und Taxis / Oettingen-Wallerstein (1757 - 1776)
Sophie
Thurn und Taxis / Raziwill (1758 - 1800)
Franz Johann (Thurn und Taxis (
1759 - 1760)
Henrica Thurn und Taxis / Oettingen-Spielberg (1762 - 1784)
Alexander Karl (1763 - 1763)
Friederika (1764 - 1764)
Karl Alexander (1770 - 1827)
Friedrich (1772 - 1805)
Nikolaus (1787 - 1854)
Karl Alexander
5th Prince of
Thurn & Taxis (1770 - 1827) No16
was born in Regensburg.
1806 with the end of the Holy Roman Empire
Imperial Reichspost
and the hereditary office of Postmaster General
held by the Thurn and Taxis ceased to exist.
Karl Alexander's wife Therese of Mecklenburg (1773 - 1839)
took part in the management of the postal organisation
and negociated with Napoleon
and the States of the Confederation of the Rhine.
At some moment the family
was even considering moving
their headquarter to Paris
but the project was abandoned.
The result of the negociations was that
Thurn & Taxis could continue
it's postal operations
as a private company called Thurn & Taxis Post
first based in Regensburg,
relocated 1810 back to the free city of Frankfurt.
1812 Karl Alexander lost the postal operations in Bavaria
and
received the St Emmeran Castle in Regensburg
as a compensation.
They had seven children:
Charlotte Luise Thurn & Taxis (1790 - 1790)
George Karl Thurn & Taxis (1792 - 1795)
Maria Theresia Thurn & Taxis / Maria Theresia Esterhazy Galantha (1794 - 1874)
Friederike Thurn & Taxis (1798 -1798)
Maria Sophia Thurn & Taxis / Maria Sophia Wuerttemberg (1800 -1870) Maximilian Karl Thurn & Taxis (1802 - 1871)
Friedrich Wilhelm Thurn & Taxis (1805 - 1825)
Letter sent from Frankfurt to Rheims (today Reims) in 1825.
A Story that left ...
End of the German Thurn & Taxis Post
Maximilian Karl
6th Prince
of Thurn & Taxis (1802 - 1871) No17
was the last Thurn & Taxis to be a Postmaster.
He became head of the postal operations in 1827
This letter from Luebeck to Paris in 1844
took 6 days to travel. The letter sent to the Rothschild Brothers
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, the last Postmaster
was married twice and had seventeen children
from his first marriage
with Wilhelmine von Doernberg
Karl Wilhelm Thurn & Taxis (1829 - 1829)
Therese Thurn & Taxis / von Pirch (1830 - 1881) Maximilian Anton Thurn & Taxis (1831 - 1867)
Egon MaximilianThurn & Taxis (1832 - 1892)
Theodor Georg Thurn & Taxis (1834 - 1876)
from his second marriage
with Mathilde zu Oettingen
Otto Johann Thurn & Taxis (1840 - 1878)
Georg Maximilian Thurn & Taxis (1841 - 1884)
Paul (1843 - 1879 Cannes)
(boyfriend of King Ludwig II of Bavaria)
renamed as Paul von Fels
married to singer Elise Kreuzer
son Heinrich von Fels (1867 -
1955)
Amalie Thurn & Taxis / Amalie Rechberg (1844 - 1867)
Hugo Thurn & Taxis (1845 - 1873)
Gustav Thurn & Taxis (1848 - 1914)
Wilhelm Thurn & Taxis (1849 - 1849)
Adolf Maximilian Thurn & Taxis (1850 - 1890)
Franz Maximilian
Thurn & Taxis (1852 - 1897)
Nikolaus Thurn & Taxis (1853 - 1874)
Alfred Thurn & Taxis (1856 - 1886)
Marie Thurn & Taxis / Marie Waldburg Zeil (1857 - 1909)
1863 This letter was sent from the village of Dillenburg in Hessen
via Giessen, Bremen, Hamburg
to Louis Gaie, 103 Maiden Lane, New York / USA
It is one of the early transatlantik letters.
The postage fee was 22 Kreuzer
Kreuzer were a currency in use before the unification of Germany
Does anybody know how much the postage fee was in Thaler
or even in todays Euros / Dollars
?
Letter on auction with Heinrich Koehler via Stamp Circuit
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.
Unlike Pajot & Rouille 132 years earlier
Thurn & Taxis had the possibility
to negociate significant
compensation
for their company 3.000.000 Thalers.
(Prussian Vereinsthaler)
Market value was estimated to be
10.000.000 Thalers ...
1 Thaler was divided into
24 Groschen or 288 Pfennige
1871 Thalers were replaced by Goldmarks
1 Thaler became 3 Goldmarks
The familiy had
the equivalent of 9 million Goldmarks
for new investments. Does anybody know how much this would be
in today's Euros ?
1895 April 1
28 years after the nationalisation of the T&T Post
Albert Thurn & Taxis sells the Frankfurt T&T Palace
for 1.500.000 Marks
to the German Reichspost.
The originial palace was destroyed during world war 2
2004 -2009 a reduced version has been reconstructed.
Interesting Books about Thurn & Taxis history
by Wolfgang Behringer, Martin Dallmeier + Martha Schad
and Vincent Schouberechts
1870
Prussia's desire to annex Alsace Lorraine
also provoked war with France
resulting in the abdication of Napoleon 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
...
Maximilian Anton
Heriditary Prince
of Thurn & Taxis (1831 - 1867)
was the oldest son of Maximilian Karl. 1856 august 24 he married Helene in Bavaria(1834 - 1890)No18
The marriage was celebrated at Schloss Possenhofen
on the lake of Starnberg.
Maximilian Anton Thurn & Taxis with his wife Helene in Bavaria
and their daughters
Louise T&T / Hohenzollern (1859 - 1948)
Elisabeth T&T / Braganca (1860 - 1881)
mother of Maria Theresia T&T/T&T (1881 -
1945)
grandmother of
Maximilian Albert T&T (1913 - 1928)
missing in the picture
Maximilian Maria 7th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1862 - 1885) Albert 8th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1867 - 1952)
Helene in Bavaria (1834 - 1890) No18
was the older sister of Sissi, Elisabeth
of Austria (1837 - 1898) No19.
They were cousins of King Louis II of Bavaria
(1845 - 1886)
Helene in Bavaria / Thurn & Taxis
had the nickname "Nene"
Sissi was was the younger sistyer of Helene in Bavaria / Thurn & Taxis
1867 / 1871
After the early death of her husband Maximilian Karl
and the death of her father in law
Maximilian Karl, the last Postmaster
Helene managed the Thurn & Taxis fortune.
Helene was acting on behalf of her minor son
Maximilian Maria 7th Prince of Thurn & Taxis (1862 - 1885)
When Maximilan Maria turned 20
the fortune was transmitted to him,
but as he died 3 years later
Helene continued to have the responsability
of the fortune for another 3 years
until it was transmitted it to her next son Albert.
She was assisted by Franz Josef von Gruben (1829 - 1888)
and used the 3.000.000 Thaler received from the state of Prussia
in compensation
of the Thurn & Taxis Post
to make a multitude of real estate investments.
Many smart investments were made
buying as much real estate as possible.
This way the family avoided losing their cash assets
through
the many devaluation that took place in Germany
in the following decades.
Albert von Thurn & Taxis
Buying the ultimate French Crown Jewel
Transmitting the Telecom Story
Albert
8th Prince
of Thurn & Taxis (1867 - 1952) No19
was the second son of Maximilian Anton and Helene in Bavaria.
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 Albert bought ithe tiara using a a certain amount
of the 3.000.000 thalers his grandfather Maximilian Karl had received
as
compensation payment
for the Thurn & Taxis Postal Services two decades earlier.
1890 July 15 he married married in Budapest.
Margarete of Austria (1870 - 1955)
was a descendend of the Bourbons.
Louis XIII, the father of Louis XIV has her ancestor.
Once Johannes Thurn & Taxis (grandson of Margarethe)
showed the editor of this article
a statue on the Paris Place de la Concorde.
The statue for the city of Lille represents Clementine of Orleans (1817 - 1907)
the grandmother of Margarethe
and daughter of King Louis Philippe of the French
(1773 - 1850)
According to their granddaughter Mathilde von Sachsen No20
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.
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)
seven sons and one daughter
of Albert and Margarethe of Austria
The only daughter Elisabeth Helene
(mother of Aja Sachsen, grandmother of Memo Sachsen)
and her brother Karl August (father of Johannes Thurn & Taxis)
1920s.
next generation
Gabriel (1922-1942), Michaele (1922-1922), Helene (1924-1991),
Maria Theresia (1925-1997), Maria Ferdinande (1927-2018)
children of Franz Josef
and Isabel Maria of Braganza
Mafalda (1924-1989), Clothilde (1922- 2009) and Johannes (1926-1990)
children of Karl August
and Maria Anna of Braganza
Iniga (1924-1989) and Anselm (1924-1944)
children of Ludwig Philipp and Elisabeth of Luxembourg
Maria Emmanuel (1920-2000), Maria Josepha (1928-2018), Maria Anna (1929-2012),
Albert (1934-2012) and Mathilde / Aja (1936-2018)
children of Elisabeth Helene
and Friedrich Christian von Sachsen
The picture taken around 1941 shows the 3 girls with their mother.
Max Emmanuel (1935-2020)
son of Raphael Rainer
and Margarethe Thurn & Taxis
Albrecht (1930), Margarete / Daisy (1933-2019), Antonia
children of Philipp Ernst
and Eulalia Thurn & Taxis
Return of a Telecom Story ...
Johannes von Thurn & Taxis
Transmitting the Story
Reactivating the Cremerie's
Spirit of Telecommunications
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,
at the time a young student (No21)
worked in fashion shows to make some money.
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"
He
had met wild people 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 ..."
Visiting VB, the old Paris Hotel de la Poste
the only place
completely changed from the times
of the old Postmasters
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
1872 The Thurn & Taxis Palace in Brussels
was removed when King Leopold I of Belgium
and Joseph Poelaert decided to build the Palais de Justice.
All what is left if a comemorative plate
and a Chapel in the church of Notre Dame au Sablon
1945 The Thurn & Taxis Postal Palace in Frankfurt
was destroyed after WW2
In Paris the magic of the past
was still there ...
Walking down the road ...
50 meters away from the old postal building 11 rue des Halles
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
(mobile phones did not exit yet)
Hanging up the phone of the cafe
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 want to give you a few thalers
my ancestors made with the Thurn & Taxis Post
and you start a new Telecom PTT 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
All you have to do
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 follow the adventure ...
In two weeks there will be a party for my birthday ...
I want You to come ...
"
1986 June 6, about two weeks after visiting the old postal mansion in Paris
the student went to Germany
to go to the birthday party in Regensburg, Bavaria.
Quite a long drive from Paris.
In the picture Johannes Thurn & Taxis,
with his friend Aimee de Heeren
during the first of several receptions.
Some years later both of them would have an impact
on the invention of the Phone Book of the World.
June 7 in the morning, boat trip on the Danube river.
Johannes Thurn & Taxis with the Begum Aga Khan.
In the background the editor of this website with hardly visible Sao Schlumberger.
June 7 at night, Don Giovanni costume Ball,
Johannes Thurn & Taxis in a costume, his wife Gloria
wearing the tiara of Empress Eugenie.
In the second picture the editor of this article in a red circle.
The photographer Clarisse Grumbach Palme
made
a portrait of many of the party guests.
Above picture with Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall.
A little thank you to the photographer
for sending this image 2021 August
Return of a Story ...
Using the Thurn & Taxis Thalers
to start a new Telecom Adventure
Pushing young People
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 a bit 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.
Thurn & Taxis was very generous
and it was his passion to use his power and money
to be a springboard for the career of young people
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.
Return of a Story ...
Buying the historic Cremerie
at the old Postal Building in Paris
1992
An unbeleivable opportunity came up.
The historic Cremerie No1 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 rent 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 No1 came on the market
Again the owner was scared to rent us the historic building
but Aimee de Heeren had an idea. "You should ask the landlord to sell you 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 breal estate loan for such a big space.
Our young company had no financial background.
Thurn & Taxis
who would have more Thalers to make the aquisition
was not there any more ...
His friend Aimee 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.
flashback 1938
Aimee had arrived in Paris back in 1938
as a fashionista shopping clothes and attending parties.
But her real mission was something else ...
a secret service agent for her country Brazil.
Everybody in Paris society was fascinated
including the fashion designer Coco Chanel.
Chanel loved our staircase
with a mysterious No5 logo forged into the railings.
She knew it since 1920 taken there for the first time
by her glamorous boyfriend Dmitri Romanov.
In the 1960s old Coco Chanel and Aimee de Heeren
used to do nightwalks through Paris.
The staircase of the old postal building
was their
destination.
Before leaving this World
Chanel had left Aimee a little jewel
she had once received from her Romanov.
Aimee 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".
So she
decided to use the little jewel
to strenghten our finances
so that a bank would finance the acquisition.
Cremerie de Paris No1 boosted our Sony activities
The store worked from the day it opened
but soon new unexpected turbulances were on the way.
Return of a Story ...
Opening the first Internet Cafe in Paris
Inventing the Phone Book of the World
Getting a Two Letter Domain
Cremerie No1 in the old Postal Building
reinvented as the first Internet Cafe in Paris
1994
The fortunes of Sony did not last,
Akio Morita the founder of the Japaneese company
stepped down from the company board
folling a heart attack.
Almost overnight everything changed
and very quickly new
revenues needed to be found.
Thurn & Taxis was not there any more to backup the desaster
but we remembered his lesson
of the difficulties the old postmasters had to face always leading to new ideas.
The first idea was to sell American Phonelines
via a Callback system.
Before the liberalisation of the European voice phone markets
it was possible to bypass the expensive local phone rates
using a phonesignal coming from California.
Receiving a commision on phone bills new income was building up.
Facing turbulances
Remembering the T&T Stories
Dawn of the Internet
1997
Soon was added an Internet cafe.
The first times of the cafe were difficult ...
not enough people were using internet,
American travellers
were the only clients
not enough customers at the cafe.
Phone commission from California took time to build up.
Before beeing able to stabilise from the Sony changes
a retirement pension fund send his "huissiers"
to collect delayed payments for social security charges.
As we could not pay fast enough
all the computers in the cafe were taken.
Things are not always easy in France ... What would the old Postmasters have done ?
All clients had to leave the cafe,
among them someone from California
that was a friend of our dog "Electrica".
Electrica loved him probably because
he had some biscuts for her while surfing the web.
Our dog connected us to the man.
He was fascinated by our stories from the
Villeroys and the Bourbons living at the house
and by the old Postmasters organise mail transport
at a time computers, electricity, phones did not exist yet.
After closing the Cremerie for 3 days
we rembered how Thurn & Taxis had always told us
how important it was to be resistant
when turbulances arrive ...
We realised it was possible to get a personal shopping card
from Fnac, a French store for consumer electronics
making it possible to buy two new computers payable in 24 payments.
Mum send the money for a third one.
Another one was found in front of a "poubelle" (trash can)
It was not working, but with four computers
the cybercafe
looked less poor than with three.
The wild looking customer from California
returned and he was happy the web cafe had reopened.
"You know I'm from a hi-tech background
and I have seen turbulances happen many times.
What is important is to keep going ...
"
I would love do something to help you.
Too bad I did not meet you a few years earlier.
At the time it was possible to register really spectaculer Internet Adresses
like one of the 676 Two Letter Domains.
They are the shortest and most glamorous addresses on the web.
VB.com for Villeroy & Bourbon or
PR.com for Pajot & Rouille or
TT.com for Thurn & Taxis
is the kind of domain
I would think about,
but all the Two Letters had already been registered."
Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments and General Electric
were the very first ones
to get their matching acronyms as a Two Letter domain. HP.com, TI.com or GE.com
These Two Letter dot coms were registered back in 1986,
the year of the Birthday Party,
at the dawn of the Internet.
When did you go online for the first time ?
Video about Jon Postel
It is only years later we realised
the man that had been to the cafe
was the personal assistant of the scientist Dr Jon Postel.
He had passed Postel to us over the phone
so we should
tell him a little bit about the funny and crazy stories
Johannes Thurn & Taxis had told us
about his ancestors,
the old
postmasters.
Postel is considered to be the inventor of the domain system.
He was captivated by the Postal Stories,
as Post Horses were the ancestors of Email.
Jon Postel couldn't beleive a Cybercafe
had reopened in the exact same location
where 300 years earlier the letters for Louis XIV
passed through.
The cafe attracted more American pioneers
desperately looking for web acces
while travelling through Paris.
Most were young,
very young and nobody knew who they were or who they were going to become,
They might not have known it themselves.
Others were a little older
One had been on the first flight to the moon
The most fascinating one had been a friend of the inventer of the phone.
When we first met her we had not realised
that she had
had almost walked through the entire century.
It was the same Aimee de Heeren
Johannes Thurn & Taxis made us meet at his birthday party.
1999
The cafe started to boom,
more and more tourists looking for a web connection
and rather quickly all overdue payments from the Sony times
were paid off.
The internet domains phonebookoftheworld.com and thurnundtaxis.com
were both registered the same moment
at the old postal building now an internet cafe 2000 January 25
The price was 70$ each
for a two years period.
The Phone Book of the World project
was entirely financed by the revenues of the internet cafe.
2004
A little more about the friend of the inventer of the phone.
The already mentioned Aimee de Heeren.
She now came for web lessons.
Aimee was amused to tell people that were thirty years younger
and that were scared to get a computer,
that "of course" she was online.
At the time we still did not know her real age.
The web lessons with Aimee resulted in a new Telecom project,
very much in relation with the Phone Book of the World:
register the expression Whitepages
used in many english speaking countries
in those countries where the national PTT had not thought about it France or Brazil were the first ones ...
Aimee liked to be with young people.
When she was young she had met an inventor who had told her. "To stay young, you need to have young friends."
2006
We always wanted to know the name of the inventor
but we had to wait until 2006 August,
the last days of her life, Lenox Hill Hospital in New York
so she would tell us her secret: Alexander Bell
Releasing Bell's name
would have betrayed the secret of her age.
Oh the invention of the phone, that was a long long time ago
now we knew she was much older
than we ever beleived. Quite an age difference.
Well it's a little original to have had a friend in common with
someone that was born in 1847 and that invented the telephone.
Aimee had walked through the entire century.
Everybody was fascinated by her beauty charisma,
Bell, Edison, Kennedy, Chanel, Thurn & Taxis
and of course us.
2006 / 2007 Spirit of Telecommunications
Getting a Two Letter Domain
Summer 2006 the phone rings ...
On the display
+1 310
a number that looked like California.
"Hi there do you remember me ?
A few years ago we met at your Internet Cafe in Paris
and you told me all these fascinating stories
about the Villeroys and the Bourbons
and about the Thurn & Taxis.
I was happy your cafe reopened
after the little troubles.
You cannot imagine how fascinating it was for me
to come to a place with such a hi-technology background.
I always thought your place
should have a spectecular web adress
but as you might remember all the domains
had already been taken.
Listen there is a company in New York,
They own 3 of the
Two Letter Domains
It looks like as if they are not going to renew them
TT.com is not among them,
but VB.com is one of them
The domain might eclipse in a month,
you need to watch it."
We were on our computer all the time,
but unfortunately David Warmuz from Trellian,
a domain Investing company from Australia
must have had a special software,
also following the deletion process
of the domain.
He was faster to get it.
Trellian tried to sell to a famous brewery in Australia
but apparently the beer people did not understand
the marketing impact of a unique web address.
2007 june we were able to buy it,
a purchase we would not have made
if the Spirit of Telecommunications
of the old postmasters
had not remained in the walls
of our old mansion
....
Webdesigner Louis Henri Schlumberger No22 came in 2012
We hired him because his aunt Sao Schlumberger
was a friend of Johannes Thurn & Taxis.
Luckily Louis is less exuberant than Sao ...
The picture shows him with the first Paris Phone Book
published in 1889.
The website continues to be created from the exact same place.
Sometimes when programming webpages
we are watching
the water fountain of the post horses.
It's
as if the spirit of Telecommunication
has never left ....
In this image showing our audience
you also have two pictures of our courtyard,
one is from 1699,
At the time
Louis Leon Pajot was 21
Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis 19,
The other one is from 2018, 319 years later.
Phone Book of the World visitors come from eveywhere,
and there are more visitors from New York,
Melbourne, Sydney and London than from Paris.
The Thurn & Taxis Thaler and Chanel's little jewel
have financed a global business.
Return of a Story ...
Becoming a Meeting Place
for the World's most famous Brands
Cremerie No1 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 Dechargeurs
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
Amazon is shipping more parcels than anybody else.
The brand was fascinated by all this massive amount of history
linked to our Cremeries de Paris.
They decided to reinvent our Cremeries
not as a shipping center
but as a Pop Up Store for Santa Claus.
The magic of the Thurn & Taxis
contributes to make
Cremerie de Paris
a "Meeting Place of the World's most famous Brands".
Hi Tech Companies like Amazon, Konami, Microsoft, Pokemon, Siemens, Warner Bros
get the world's best expo designers like Francois Linh Hoang or Julie Joie
to set up Pop Up Stores at the Cremeries de Paris.
The old postmasters would be surprised to see them ...
Return of a Story ...
Activating / Modernising White Pages
registered during the times of the Cybercafe
2020
March 5 Memo von Sachsen is coming to Paris.
His cousine Mairie de France
married to the son of Clothilde Thurn & Taxis
had invited Memo for the occasion
of a Painting expo of her family.
Before the expo Memo came to Cremerie de Paris for a coffee.
The idea comes up to go to the Louvre (800 m from Cremerie de Paris).
The editor of this article wanted to show him the magical diademe
he had the chance to hold in his hands when he was a student.
Before Memo's uncle Johannes von Thurn & Taxis
the jewel was owned by his great-grand parents Albert and Margarethe von Thurn & Taxis.
The salons Napoleon III where the diademe of Empress Eugenie
and the Crown of Napoleon III used to be shown iare closed ...
Walking in the direction of the Mona Lisa
a sign "Galerie d'Apollon reouvert"
Galerie d'Apollon is the place where the Louvre shows the Crown Jewels of France.
And who has just arrived there ... ?? Le Diademe
1853 it was created by
Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier for Eugenie the wife of Napoleon III. 1890 Albert bought it.
1992 Sadly for legacy of the Thurn & Taxis the Tiara was sold.
1993 The only nice thing about the sale of the tiara is
that you can now travel to Paris
and
admire the jewel at the Louvre.
When at Cremerie de Paris we need some energy
we
walk there for a break.
Maybe this article gives you more info
about the history behind the magical jewel.
Whitepages
2020
March 17 12h00 start of the first Corona lockdown in France What to do now ?
Time to remember the fascinating
Thurn & Taxis postal stories.
Wasn't this a opportunity to work on the Spirit of Telecommunications
we have inherited from the Thurn and Taxis ?
Looking at our Google Analytics stats account
we notice lots of traffic connecting to some
almost forgotten domain names registered a long time ago
like our Whitepages.in
which were a very basic website ...
During the following weeks
and old painting made by Petr Brandl (1688 - 1735)
gets a few photoshop enhancements
fixing a half cut Posthorn.
Anselm Franz von Thurn & Taxis is added into the logo.
Anselm's great x 7 grandson Memo von Sachsen uses his artistic eye
to advise on different versions of the logo.
2021
March 3
a litte favicon is created for all our Whitepages
A tiny image of Anselm Franz von Thurn und Taxis,
called a "favicon"
now appering in computer browsers
and smart phones all around the globe
try it out and search for
"white pages argentina" or "white pages japan"
2021
The magic of the old Thurn & Taxis continues ...
Famous Brands keep coming to Cremerie de Paris
The lockdowns of the Corona Pandemic come to an end.
Brands want to return to Paris to create events.
2021 august A call with a number from London ... "We want to make an event for a video game linked to a lot of magic
whe read your crazy and funny stories on the internet
can we come and meet you."
We do not realise yet that the person on the phone
is Sonny Borg from Collider.
The World's No1 Video game producer
had asked him to find 7 magical locations around the globe
to launch the Arcane x League of Legends arrival on Netflix.
And while the events is getting prepared we realise that even though
we are not blood related to the old postmasters
the fact that they were here 350 years ago
has something magical
maybe also the fact that
three centuries later, 35 years ago
we run into one of their great great sons
while working in a fashion show
giving as some thalers earned 700 years ago
to restart the story.
The sleeping Telecommunication genes have woken up
and turned our old Postal Mansion into
a Meeting place for the World's most famous Brands.
2021 November 1
Netflix and League of Legends are there to launch Arcane
VB / Cremerie de Paris N°1 and the Burj Khalif are among the selected locations.
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 / Princess of Iran
who 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 No22.
2021 visiting the church Notre Dame au Sabon
where the old postmasters are buried
The above web developer with the sunglasses was asking: "what would have happened if you had not met Johannes Thurn & Taxis No20
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 ...
If you have some information
or
pictures we can add to this article,
please email them
b "at" vb.com
or instagram
@cremeriedeparis
