With the groundbreaking ceremony for Hamburg's large pneumatic tube on September 13, 1960, the construction of a facility that is unique in the world begins. But already in 1976 the end comes. Some traces still bear witness to the project.
by Marc-Oliver Rehrmann, NDR.de
Anyone who carefully strolls through Hamburg's city center will notice small cast-iron lids here and there that are embedded in the sidewalks - "Post" is engraved. An underground post office in the middle of Hamburg? The covers are some of the few remains of Hamburg's large tube post that are still visible. What only a few Hamburgers know:Under the pavement in the city center there are still pipes through which the Bundespost sent "letter bombs" from post office to post office from 1962 onwards. On September 13, 1960, the groundbreaking ceremony for the ambitious project took place:A system that was unique in the world was tested in the Hanseatic city and was later to be used in all cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants. But things turned out differently.
Hamburg's large tube post was born out of necessity. The Bundespost puzzled over how to transport hundreds of thousands of letters in the inner cities every day. "The narrow streets and the flood of traffic are forcing new solutions," was the verdict of the Federal Postal Ministry at the end of the 1950s. "Most of the time, there isn't enough space for helicopters and tunnel trains, and a 'normal pneumatic tube' doesn't do much." So the idea of the large tube mail came up. The experienced Hamburg-based company Carl August Schmidt &Söhne, which among other things set up a city pneumatic tube system in Buenos Aires in the 1920s, gets to work on the development.
Pneumatic tube test track starts in 1962
On September 13, 1960, the groundbreaking ceremony takes place. Two months later, the first tests are carried out on a section of around 450 meters. The official starting signal for the 1,800 meter long test route is on February 8, 1962. Federal Post Minister Richard Stücklen presses the "red button" at the time. Post office 11 near the Rödingsmarkt is now connected underground to the main post office at the main train station. The Tagesschau also reports in the evening.
1962:The storm surge damages the machines
But the large pneumatic tube is initially under a bad star. Hamburg's chief postal director Georg Heck speaks of an "infinite and extremely difficult construction of the route". Sometimes the remains of a bunker or a railway embankment stand in the way, sometimes the stinking contents of an old sewage system pour into the excavation pit. And only nine days after the official start in the spring of 1962, the devastating storm surge hit the city - and also caused serious damage to the large pneumatic tube system. At the terminus in post office 11, the basement rooms with all the machines are two meters under water. However, the driving tubes under the ground do not fill up. "An almost unbelievable luck," says Heck. And yet it takes half a year for the system to function again after the storm surge disaster.
Long sleeve allows transport of 600,000 letters per hour
The short rifle will soon be too small - with the successor model, the transport capacity can be doubled.After all:Technically, there are no nasty surprises. Everything is going as planned. The euphoria is great. In the early days, Heck raved about the "almost fantastically good driving results". Soon, transport cans that are twice as long will be sent on their journey. Theoretically, up to 600,000 letters per hour can now be sent from post office to post office. Post experts are also following the project, which is unique in the world, abroad. Guests arrive from Israel, the USA, South Korea, Canada and the Soviet Union.
Pneumatic mail much faster than the postal vehicles
Initially, there is only one tube through which the letters are sent back and forth. From post office 11, the letterboxes are pushed through the pipes by compressed air and sucked in in the opposite direction. The maximum speed is 58 kilometers per hour. A ride takes two and a half minutes. A postal vehicle sometimes needed more than 20 minutes for the same route during rush hour.
It should be 49 kilometers of route network
The last line plan from 1967 provides for a network of around 15 kilometers.In October 1965, the opposite line is also put into operation. The cans can now be dispatched in ring traffic. The two routes now total 4,000 meters. From December 1, 1965, real mail was finally sent with the large tubular mail. Further plans envisage expanding the network to 15 and then to more than 49 kilometers - among other things to connect the airport with airmail. Post offices in Wilhelmsburg and Harburg should also be able to benefit from large tube mail.
Disruptions and high costs herald the end
But the Bundespost is reluctant to put more money into the large tube mail. Operating costs are high - too high. As early as 1968 Oberpostdirektor Heck had to concede that the costs "are still about twice as high as the existing car traffic". In addition, the system becomes more and more prone to failure over the years. Again and again, cans get stuck in the tubes.
The Hamburg author Ulrich Alexis Christiansen has researched the history of Hamburg's underground for years - including that of the large pneumatic tube. In his opinion, the fact that the pipes are becoming more and more vulnerable over time is due to the vibrations caused by road traffic and the many construction sites of the time. The pipes are often only just below the surface, are uncovered during line work and subway construction and sometimes damaged. There is also another point that speaks against the large tube mail:the volume of letters has not increased as much as expected.
On a large pneumatic tube tour with Hamburg's underworld
The two dark tubes under the Graskeller Bridge still bear witness to the large tube mail in Hamburg. Dominic Bauer from the Hamburger Unterwelten association takes you past them on his guided tours of discovery.The plans for the expansion are on hold for a few years, and in 1976 the end comes. The machines in the post offices are completely dismantled and the pipes are filled with earth. In one place, however, you can still see the tubes of the large pneumatic post:under the Graskeller Bridge near the Rödingsmarkt. The Bundespost had already had casing pipes laid there for the planned further construction, the driving pipes were to be let in there later - but were never used. This is where anyone who goes on an exploratory tour with the Hamburger Unterwelten e.V. association comes by:On guided city walks, the association members share their wealth of knowledge about the history of the large pneumatic tube and illustrate the former modernity using numerous relics and historical photos.