Zwolle was and still lies at a crossroads. As a result, various important postal routes used to run from this city.
One of the oldest postal connections in the Netherlands is that between the German Hanseatic cities on the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Already in the first half of the 14th century, merchant messengers were mentioned who traveled from the Netherlands to the Hanseatic cities. Zwolle was also a Hanseatic city. The city traded with Germany in the last quarter of the 13th century. Possibly it was already a member of the Hanse in 1272, but evidence for it was not found. On June 9, 1407, Zwolle again joined the Hanse. Then the Hensestede in Lubeck decided that the people of Zwolle were authorized "des copmans recht to bruken, also se eer gedan hebben." (to use the merchants right, as they had done earlier).
Letter from Stettin 3 April 1582 by bid via Hamburg - Bremen - Lingen - Zwolle - Amsterdam - Antwerp - Brussels - Namur - Flamisool -Lieser (Moselle) - Eckweiler - Wöllstein - Bobenheim to Speyer (Spire). Arrival on 9 May 1582. It is doubted whether this is indeed the route followed.
In the Hamburger Botenordnung der Hanse of 1580 and in a Hamburg ordinance of 28 February 1607 a regular mail connection from Hamburg via Bremen, Groningen, Friesland via the Zuiderzee to Amsterdam and back is described. That bodeloop (on foot) then took about six to seven days.
From 1634 the Hamburger Rit was followed all over land, now from Hamburg via Bremen, Wildeshausen, Lingen, Hardenberg, Zwolle and Amersfoort to Amsterdam. This trip lasted 2½ days and was the most important postal route for the Zwolle economy. From 1659 the service was carried out with postiljons (postriders). In Lingen the mailbag was transferred by the German postiljon to his Dutch colleague. The letters for Zwolle and the north of the Netherlands were issued in Zwolle. Conversely, the letters to Lingen and Hamburg were added to the mail from Amsterdam. A part of the mail was destined for the postmaster in Zwolle.
10 March 1753 the commissioners of the Hollandse Statenpost decided that all mailbags of the Hamburger Rit first had to go to Amsterdam. Mail for other places in the Netherlands, including Zwolle, was then forwarded from Amsterdam. The mailbag was therefore no longer opened for the local mail in Zwolle. This also applied in the opposite direction: all mail for Hamburg had to go to Amsterdam first. There it was difficult to find that important trade and shipping reports were known in Utrecht and Zwolle earlier than in the capital.
The Hamburger Rit was no longer via Zwolle from 1810, but via Deventer to Almelo, Lingen and beyond.
The connection between The Hague, Utrecht and Zwolle was called the Zwolse Rit. The trip was under the management of the Hague postmasters. After the death of the Hague postmaster E.J. van Hoboken in 1783, the city of Zwolle took this ride under its own management.
For the connection between Groningen and the west of the country, the city of Groningen maintained a biweekly mail connection with Zwolle since 1669: the Groninger Rit. From here there was connection to the Zwolse Rit to the west of the country. In 1628 this ride was performed weekly. In 1663 the route was done by four messengers.
Notification announcing that from May 29, 1703 a mail coach will run between Zwolle and Groningen, in Zwolle from the house of Klaas Kannegieter on the Grote Markt, called "De Zeven Provinciën" with stopover in De Wijk, Anhalt, Beilen and Assen. (HCO Zwolle)
In 1669 a Post Office was opened in Zwolle, the Gronings Postkantoor. The Groningen-based factor, worked independently from the postmaster in Zwolle. He was only competent for the transit mail between Groningen and The Hague. He had to hand over the letters he received from Zwolle to the postmaster in Zwolle.
On May 29, 1703 a mail coach started to run from Groningen to Zwolle. This mail coach departed "from the house of Klaas Kannegieter, called De Zeven Provinciën on the Grote Markt".
The correspondence from Friesland to Holland was made before 1663 on the Zuiderzee. In that year they decided to establish the landpost, the so-called Friese Rit, from Leeuwarden to Zwolle, where they had connections to Utrecht, The Hague, etc.
Letter from Goes to een goede friendt tot Zwol (a food friend at Zwolle), 1632. Sent "met frient".
In 1696 a mail coach ride was set up between Münster and Zwolle. This gave the German Post a connection with the northern provinces of the Netherlands. Münster previously had an office in Zwolle, the Münsters Posthuis, located at the current Thorbeckegracht 10. The route ran through Goor, Enschede, Gronau and Steinfurt. On 8 September 1715 Joost Berent Meese was appointed postmaster at Münster.
Notification from 1712 in which is announced that there will be a stagecoach between Zwolle and Amersfoort. In Zwolle from inn "De Witte Wan" on the Grote Markt. There is connection with the sstagecoaches from Münster and Groningen (HCO Zwolle).
There were also a few more regional postal connections. For example, there was a connection with Kampen by barge, there were mail coaches to Almelo (1795), Ootmarsum and Lingen / Bielefeld (1756) and to Deventer with a connection to Zutphen and Arnhem. The stagecoach from Amersfoort arrived in the Grote Markt at De Witte Wan once a week in 1712. This had connections with the stagecoaches on Groningen and Münster. In 1762, the De Haan family had taken the Amersfoort-Zwolle-Lingen ride for NLG 3.200 per year. In addition, a driving wage and NLG 3.000 bonus were stipulated.
The province of Overijssel countryside was further left to the village's messengers and the passing coaches. Several places received their letters through the ride from Zwolle to Lingen.
Zwolse Schryfkalender from 1828 in which various postal services are mentioned, with a picture of Zwolle (HCO Zwolle)
A daily post connection between the Post Offices in the Netherlands was established on 1 October 1817. They were no longer bound to the dates of departure of the various postal services.
Advertisement in the newspaper Zwolsche Courant, 12 April 1870
Last update 10.09.2024 7:31 PM
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G.L. van Welie FRPSL
Secretary of the Nederlandse Academie voor Filatelie
Representative of the Royal Philatelic Society London for the Netherlands
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