Since 1948 the Universal Postal Union has been a specialised agency of the UN.
Since 1948 the Universal Postal Union has been a specialised agency of the UN. Wikimedia

The story of the Universal Postal Union

On 9 October 1874, the Universal Postal Union was established in Bern, laying the foundation for modern communication. To this day, it allows the global exchange of letters and parcels and is a cornerstone of global postal traffic.

Madeleine Herren

Madeleine Herren

Professor emeritus Madeleine Herren is former director of the Institute of European Global Studies at the University of Basel and emeritus professor of modern history.

In the plush Empire room of Bern’s former guild hall, the delegates of the International Postal Congress convened for the last meeting on 9 October 1874 to sign the Treaty of Bern establishing the General Postal Union (later renamed the Universal Postal Union). In attracting another international organisation to Bern (following the International Telecommunication Union), Switzerland as a host state had therefore pulled off a politically significant move for a second time. Once again – and not for the last time – Switzerland was to be the ‘depositary’ of an international treaty and to assume overall control of an international organisation. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) is one of the key institutions of Switzerland’s foreign policy, as the country was entrusted with a growing number of new international organisations in the second half of the 19th century, pursuing a policy of multilateralism before the concept even existed. The UPU unified its member states into a single postal territory. The mutual recognition of charges and transit dues made it instantly possible for letters, postcards and parcels to be delivered across borders, and soon for money to be transferred, too – worldwide and with a steadily growing membership spanning all continents. Even the founding congress went well beyond the customary diplomatic conferences of the ‘Concert of Europe’. The founding members who gathered in Bern hailed from no fewer than 22 countries, with representatives even travelling from the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and the United States. The Neuchâtel federal councillor Eugène Borel chaired the congress as head of the post department and was gifted a silver tea set at the last meeting by the conference participants as a thank you. The tea set attracted its fair share of press attention, and not only because of its hefty CHF 3,000 price tag. The attention was also due to the fact that the expectations of the new organisation were engraved on the silver platter, namely Libre échange postal (free movement of post) – Union générale des postes (general postal union) – Uniformité des taxes (uniformity of charges) and world peace no less through a Rapprochement des peuples (rapprochment of peoples).
Carte de visite of federal councillor Eugène Borel, circa 1870.
Carte de visite of federal councillor Eugène Borel, circa 1870. Swiss National Museum
The press and the diplomatic corps followed the founding congress in Bern with great interest. It should be noted, however, that the idea of an international union of national postal administrations was already over ten years old by the time the treaty was signed, and had not originated in Bern. The man who is actually considered the father of the Universal Postal Union is German postal official Heinrich von Stephan (1831–97), whom Eugène Borel visited in Berlin ahead of the conference. A portrait painted in 1897 shows Heinrich von Stephan, who was ennobled in 1885, in dress uniform with a huge globe turned to show the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Stephan is key to understanding the UPU and its significance in the history of international organisations. Evidently, the distribution of mail was not about state use of new technologies; the princely house of Thurn and Taxis had already made money from European mail transportation in the 16th century. For Stephan, it was about enforcing a state monopoly and in the case of Germany, this was done through sheer military might. Following the Austro-Prussian War, the Thurn and Taxis family were forced to give up the postal business and, when the German Reich was founded, a postal system was established for the new nation state.
Heinrich von Stephan, painted by Georg Barlösius, 1897.
Heinrich von Stephan, painted by Georg Barlösius, 1897. © CC BY SA 4.0 Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation
The subordination of former cross-border players and institutions to the modern nation state that emerged in the 19th century, characterises one of the central objectives of the first generation of international organisations, and at the same time indicates a structural dilemma. The assertion of state authority always had to be relativised when it came to exploiting the opening of a global market. In this grey zone, cross-border networks began to develop, building on very different ideas, and involving anarchists and state postal and colonial administrations as well as Swiss export firms and pacifist proponents of liberal internationalism. This broad spectrum was reflected in the Universal Postal Union of the 19th century – but the organisation was not only demanded by a very wide range of different actors. It also had an almost unavoidable influence on people’s lives, whether because they had started writing letters, or witnessed the explosive expansion of post offices in their local areas, or as merchants who had benefited from the establishment of parcel post and free postage for sample shipments. The UPU internationalised and globalised the postal system as a state monopoly. This key feature has become increasingly problematic in the 21st century, as private online and courier services now call into question the model and challenge the Universal Postal Union, which has been a UN specialised agency since 1948.

An international organisation for millions of people

Just 16 months after the founding congress, in 1876, a second international Postal Union conference was held in Bern, this time in the Chamber of the Council of States, and was chaired by Borel’s successor, federal councillor Joachim Heer. The conference had been called because the application for membership of British India entailed identical requirements for the European colonial powers. The Universal Postal Union had thus become an organisation with global reach. The next Postal Union Congress, held in Paris in 1878, took account of this, and from then on the organisation was renamed the Union Postale Universelle (Universal Postal Union) – and also consisted of colonial officials. At the conference in Paris, diplomat and Swiss delegate Johann Konrad Kern highlighted the vast scale of the Universal Postal Union, which had grown to 38 member states, and covered a population of 652 million people. He wanted to show that the organisation was continually growing, and therefore shaping people’s everyday lives. The global machinery of the UPU allowed millions of migrants to exchange letters with their families at home. People made use of the new medium of postcards that bore the logo of the Universal Postal Union. The postage stamps recognised by the UPU, which actually were only meant to regulate the transfer charges, became visual carriers of national identity and collectors’ items for philatelists the world over.
Postcard of the Universal Postal Union from 1905.
Postcard of the Universal Postal Union from 1905. Swiss National Museum
At the 1900 World Postal Congress, again held in Bern, delegates decided to erect a monument to mark the organisation’s 25th anniversary, leading to a high-profile contest. The winner, French sculptor René de St.Marceaux, created a work entitled ‘autour du monde’ featuring personified stereotypes of the five continents floating around a mighty globe. The monument, which was displayed in close proximity to the Federal Palace, was not a hit with everyone. But it provided the UPU with a recognisable symbol that became a part of Swiss cultural heritage before the First World War and is still used to this day. The cosmopolitan chocolatier and pacifist Theodor Tobler distributed poster stamps in the artificial language Ido with his company’s products, one of which featured the motif of the Universal Postal Union monument – but instead of letters, the continents were slipping each other milk chocolate bars.
The Universal Postal Union monument on a postcard from 1909.
The Universal Postal Union monument on a postcard from 1909. e-pics
At this point, the expansion of postal traffic and the coordination of post offices through an international agency seemed to fulfil more of an administrative than a foreign policy function. While in the early days, the agency in Bern was headed up by a former federal councillor, the office itself had fewer than ten members of staff. But the founding generation of these international organisations had one of the most powerful narratives of the 19th century at its disposal: statistics gleaned from global data. The information provided in this way was nowhere near as technical nor as neutral as its publishers claimed. The ‘Statistiques des services postaux’ (postal services statistics) published by the Bern agency were used to communicate the continuous enlargement of the single postal territory. But from the seemingly innocuous announcements on mail traffic, it was not difficult to gauge the international situation. For example, in 1878, the Universal Postal Union announced that postal traffic in the Russian Empire had significantly declined. This was not due to a political crisis but to the end of the Russo-Turkish war. The UPU interpreted it as far fewer letters being sent after the return of the Russian troops.
Although the agencies were small, they were a cost-effective investment for the host country entrusted with overall supervision as their administration was funded by membership fees. The same also applied to the prestigious post of director, which Eugène Borel took up after just two years on the Federal Council. In the late 19th century, it was considered inevitable, particularly in French diplomatic circles, that the international organisations in Bern were a golden parachute for outgoing federal councillors – considering the non-existent pension of federal councillors at the time, Borel’s annual salary of CHF 15,000 as reported in the press was indeed noteworthy.
In 1900, Eugène Ruffy, another former federal councillor, became director of the Universal Postal Union. Postcard to mark the 25th anniversary.
In 1900, Eugène Ruffy, another former federal councillor, became director of the Universal Postal Union. Postcard to mark the 25th anniversary. Swiss National Museum

Fragile freight for bee keepers

The Recueil de renseignements sur l’organisation des administrations de l’Union et sur leurs services internes, a publication by the Universal Postal Union released in 1911, is an example of how the UPU as part of the international history of transport and infrastructure can provide an insight into the micro history of global events. The influence of stakeholder groups is obvious, but is in no way limited to major enterprises – for example, bee keepers made sure that it was possible to send live queens. Key stakeholders such as the Basel Chamber of Commerce influenced the debate on delivery costs at Post Congresses and occasionally intervened directly via transnational channels to ensure that post from London would be delivered to Basel by 6am rather than 10am.
Title page from the publication Recueil de renseignements sur l’organisation des administrations de l’Union et sur leurs services internes, by the Universal Postal Union, 1911.
Title page from the publication Recueil de renseignements sur l’organisation des administrations de l’Union et sur leurs services internes, by the Universal Postal Union, 1911. gallica / Bibliothèque nationale de France

Postal accounts for women and discounts for ruling princes

Postal regulations may seem dry, but if we take a closer look, they reveal some unexpected discoveries. For example, women in some UPU member states could open their own accounts and withdraw money, even without a father or husband. Considering the political and legal discrimination against women at the time, such regulations are striking, especially as they not only applied in France, Belgium and Japan, but also in the British colonies in Africa and Uganda. At the same time, the regulations enforced prevalent privileges. For example, in the German Reich, the ruling princes, and their wives and widows, enjoyed unlimited free postage. And if you’ve ever wondered how the many animals, plants and geological artefacts were transported to the newly-built museums in major cities in the West in the 19th century, the Universal Postal Union also has the answers: for the British Empire, the acronym O.H.M.S (On Her/His Majesty’s Service) was used to transport ‘spécimens d’histoire naturelle’ (national history specimens) to museums free of charge.
OMG! OHMS (On Her/His Majesty’s Service), letter from England, late 1970s.
OMG! OHMS (On Her/His Majesty’s Service), letter from England, late 1970s. Wikimedia
The regulations compiled and published by the Universal Postal Union also contained substantial evidence of asymmetrical power relations. On the one hand, this involved extensive scope for censorship. In Japan, for example, nothing could be placed in the post that appeared to be “dangerous to public order”. Nearly all the regulations prohibited the sending of pornographic or indecent material in the broadest sense of the term. But on the other, the list of prohibited articles also reflected the state of scientific knowledge: for example, the sending of bacteria by post was not permitted. Besides such everyday examples, the membership of the Universal Postal Union, the rapid integration of the colonies, and the long-delayed admission of China also reflect the global power dynamics at the time. The late recognition of China as a member of the Universal Postal Union is a telling example of how the West and Japan covered the Chinese territory with post offices, thereby not only enjoying economic advantages but also asserting claims to political power primarily in the East Asian trading metropolises and the major ports.
Russian aristocrat Peter Kropotkin was a keen proponent of the idea of a universal postal union. But in Switzerland he was persona non grata. Portrait, circa 1880.
Russian aristocrat Peter Kropotkin was a keen proponent of the idea of a universal postal union. But in Switzerland he was persona non grata. Portrait, circa 1880. Wikimedia
The Universal Postal Union presents an interesting challenge to our understanding of global interconnectedness and multilateral decision-making. The organisation has been part of everyday life since 1874, is essential for accessing the global market, and is a key example of how Switzerland expanded its multilateral foreign policy in the shadow of technical cooperation. But in the founding phase, expectations went even further, with the Universal Postal Union held up as a means of peaceful conflict resolution. The founding treaty set out arbitration proceedings for the resolution of disputes in mail traffic that were even cited in the Hague Conventions. But the appeal of global interconnectedness also has its drawbacks besides the consolidation of asymmetrical power relations. The Federal Council probably didn’t much like the fact that anarchist aristocrat Peter Kropotkin, who was expelled from Switzerland in 1881, was also an ardent admirer of the Universal Postal Union.

Collaboration

This text was born of a collaboration between the Swiss National Museum and the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland research centre (Dodis). Madeleine Herren is Chair of the Dodis Commission and co-editor of the source edition Die Schweiz und die Konstruktion des Multilateralismus (‘Switzerland and the construction of multilateralism’) volume 1, published in 2023.

Further posts