Infrastructures, infrastructural cooperation and the continuity of European Integration: The European Postal and Telecommunication Union

• Applicants: Privatdozent Dr. Christian Franke; Professor Dr. Guido Thiemeyer
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 323111632

• Final Report Year: 2025

Final Report Abstract

The EUROPTT project focused on the European Postal and Telecommunications Union, which was founded in Vienna in 1942 under the leadership of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Two doctoral projects focused on postal services and telecommunications. Workshops were held to compare the union with other infrastructure projects, such as motorways, bridges and shipping. The aim was to shed light on a less researched aspect of the Second World War: cross-border cooperation during the Second World War. The project thus contradicts the view that the Second World War brought an end to international cooperation and fits into the research on fascist internationalism. Even though the two terms fascism and internationalism appear fundamentally contradictory at first glance, both the German Reich and Italy were aware of the importance of international platforms. In German circles, there was also talk of a ‘new order of Europe’. The establishment of the European Postal and Telecommunications Union was part of this. After its establishment in October 1942, it began its work in April 1943. The focus was on uniform charges for postal and telecommunications services and the elimination of additional costs for international postal services (transit charges) – based on the German model. In addition to Germany and Italy, 13 other countries were members, all of which were occupied by or dependent on the two Axis powers. With the surrender of Italy in September 1943, further efforts to standardise postal and telecommunications services in Europe according to German ideas effectively came to an end. The German side scheduled another congress of member states for October 1944, but this had to be cancelled. Hungary was the last country to officially leave the union at the beginning of 1946. Within the postal union, Germany was in a position of dominance, which led to significant conflicts with its Italian partners. In principle, the idea for the ‘new Europe’ of the postal system was to expand the German postal territory with its rules, which can be seen as imperialistic. Vienna (at that time a German city) became the headquarters of the association, the Reichsmark became the reference currency and German postage rates became the European standard. This power in Europe was also to be used in the post-war period to limit French and British power in the Universal Postal Union. Many similarities can be found when comparing the period before and after the Second World War. These relate to content, people and organisational forms – what changed above all were the political circumstances.

Publications

• Die Zentralkommission für die Rheinschifffahrt in der Zwischenkriegszeit und im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1919-1944, in: Jean Marie Woerling, Sylvain Schirmann, Martial Libera (Hrsg), 200 Jahre Zentralkommission für die Rheinschifffahrt, Straßburg 2015, S. 115- 155.
  Guido Thiemeyer
  
• Comparing Cultures of Expert Regulation: Governing Cross-Border Infrastructures. Contemporary European History, 27(2), 280-300.
  HENRICH-FRANKE, CHRISTIAN
  
• European Union for and by Communication Networks: Continuities and Discontinuities during the Second World War. Comparativ, 28(1), 82-100.
  Henrich-Franke, Christian & Laborie, Léonard
  
• 15th HEIRS Conference, 23-24.05.2019, Paris, Building a European Postal Area – The Runaway Technocrats?
  Sabrina Proschmann
  
• L’Union Européenne des Postes et des Télécommunications (1942-1945). Un ensemble d’asymétries complexes. Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains, N° 275(3), 43-54.
  Aldebert, Valentine & Proschmann, Sabrina
  
• “Europäische Utopien”, 19.01.2019, Düsseldorf, Europäische Utopien und die Post – Briefmarken als Botschafterinnen Europas?
  Sabrina Proschmann
  
• “The Onset of the New Order: Europe 1939–1940”, 17.-19.09.2019, Warsaw, A New Order for European communication: Ideology or technocratic necessity?
  Sabrina Proschmann
  
• 9 Technology Taking Over Diplomacy? The ‘Comité Consultatif International (for) Fernschreiben’ (CCIF) and Its Relationship to the ITU in the Early History of Telephone Standardization, 1923–1947. History of the International Telecommunication Union, 215-242. De Gruyter.
  Henrich-Franke, Christian & Laborie, Léonard
  
• Internationalism in the (Long) 20th Century, 20.10.2020 - 23.10.2020, Berlin, online, Technocratic internationalism and the „New Europe”
  Sabrina Proschmann
  
• Europäische Utopien und die Post – Briefmarken als Botschafterinnen Europas?. Europäische Utopien – Utopien Europas, 211-224. De Gruyter.
  Proschmann, Sabrina
  
• A New Order for European Com-munication: Ideology or Techno-cratic Necessity? The European Postal and Telecommunications Union (1942– 1945). Studia nad Totalitaryzmami i Wiekiem XX, 312.
  Aldebert, V. & Proschmann, S.
  
• Conference Report: Rethinking Practices and Notions of Fascist Internationalism 1919–1945. In H-Soz-Kult.
  Proschmann, S., Ørskov, F. F. & Hamre, M. K.
  
• Conflict in Cooperation. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
  Aldebert, Valentine; Henrich-Franke, Christian; Laborie, Léonard; Proschmann, Sabrina & Thiemeyer, Guido
  
• Creating the ‘New Europe’ through Postal Services. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
  Proschmann, Sabrina
  
• Infrastructures et construction de l’Europe nazie-fasciste. Bilan du projet ANR-DFG « Europtt », 2018-2021. Histoire, Europe et relations internationales, N° 1(1), 217-222.
  Laborie, Léonard
  
• Inland Navgation Infrastructures and the Second World War: The Example of the Rhine Region. Conflict in Cooperation, 125–144.
  Thiemeyer, Guido
  
• Personal continuties and discontinuties – the careers of the EPTU, in: Aldebert, Valentine/ Henrich-Franke, Christian/ Laborie, Leonard/ Proschmann, Sabrina/ Thiemeyer, Guido (Hg.), Conflict in Cooperation: Crossborder infrastructures in Europe facing the Cold War, Baden-Baden 2022, pp. 109-118.
  Henrich-Franke, Christian & Sabrina Proschmann
  
• ‚Objective Operations’ Under Swiss Neutrality? The International Broadcasting Union During WWII. Conflict in Cooperation, 71-80. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
  Henrich-Franke, Christian
  
• Les agents postaux de la Reichspost à l’étranger avant et pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Organiser les transferts pour dominer. Histoire, Europe et relations internationales, N° 3(1), 63-73.
  Proschmann, Sabrina
  
• Approaches to Transnational and International Fascism: Actors, Networks, and Ideas, 1919–1945, in: Fascism (2024, 13), Special Issue.
  Oerskov, F. F., Hamre, M. K. & Proschmann, S.
  
• Editorial Introduction. Fascism, 13(1), 1-12.
  Hamre, Martin Kristoffer; Proschmann, Sabrina & Ørskov, Frederik Forrai
  
• UPU HISTORIANS’ COLLOQUIUM. Achieving “a single postal territory”: a global promise – past and present, 01.-02.02.2024, Bern, A replacement for the Universal Postal Union? The European Postal and Telecommunications Union of 1942 and its relations to the UPU.
  Sabrina Proschmann