After the abolition of the old Prussian Schriften- und Aktentaxe[520] in 1861, neither the North German Bund nor
the Imperial administration granted a special rate for wholly or partly handwritten communications which were not of the nature of personal and individual correspondence. Either letter or parcel rate must be paid on such packets. In the international service the rate for such was the same as the rate for printed matter, and the unfavourable position in the inland service in this respect gave rise to public complaints. In 1900, therefore, a special class of packets, named Geschäftspapiere, was introduced in the internal service of the German Imperial administration. Papers partly or wholly written, but not of the nature of private or personal communications, were admissible at a reduced rate of postage.[521] Except for local traffic the new rates were:—
| Not exceeding 250 grammes | 10 pf. |
| 250-500 grammes | 20 pf. |
| 500 grammes to 1 kilogramme (maximum) | 30 pf. |
Compared with the total postal traffic the number of packets passing at the reduced rate is quite small, but it is increasing, and is sufficiently large to indicate that the privilege affords a considerable advantage to the public.
The number of packets of Geschäftspapiere was:—
| 1904 | 10,793,620 |
| 1907 | 16,789,260 |
| 1910 | 23,632,220 |
| 1913 | 34,328,950 |
(IV) POSTCARDS
The idea of postcards originated with Dr. H. von Stephan, who submitted a proposal for their introduction at the meeting of the delegates of the German Postal Union at Karlsruhe in
1865. Dr. von Stephan had realized that the ordinary form of the letter missive, although most suitable in many ways for many kinds of correspondence, was not always convenient. Much commercial correspondence might be conducted with briefer and less formal communications, and for such short and urgent messages a simple and less costly means would be welcomed.