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Telecom
Pioneers by 
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there
is nobody
that can say about himself to be the inventor of the Internet, @ there are many that contributed: Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft), Vinton Cerf (co inventor du TCP Protocol), Steve Jobs (founder of Apple) Marc Andreessen (founder of Netscape) Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin opened a 'new frontier' making Satellites possible 
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 unlike any other family of the World the Thurn und Taxis contributed to our modern World of Communications by setting up the Postal Service in Europe 
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Alexander
Bell is the
Inventor of the Phone, he is also at the origin of the Phone system  the Thurn und Taxis are not only the inventors of the Post they run the Postal system for 355 year... over 500 years later they are still around  |
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from about I290 the early ancestors of the family, then called Tassis, had operated courier services in the Italian city-states |
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there
is also a |
Johannes
von Taxis (I470-I54I) Count
Lamoral von Taxis (I557-I624) Count
Leonard 2 von Taxis (I594-I628) Count
Lamoral Claudius von Thurn und Taxis
(I62I-I676) |
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 a receipt from the TT Post  the family employed 20 000 messangers not only to carry mail but also to deliver newspapers |
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for
the next 355 years |
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 a T&T travel coach in the courtyard of the Castle St Emmeran by the end of the I8th century it took about 40 hours to travel from Bruxelles at the same time the Thurn and Taxis managed to transport mail from Bruxelles to Vienna (4 times the distance) within 5 days only The family used a horse relay system horses riding a reasonable distance from one Thurn and Taxis station to another and once tired from the trip the mail was passed over to another horse waiting |
did you know that the word Taxi comes from the Taxis Post coaches ? 
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in I728 where he purchased
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Eugen-Alexander,
Ist Prince von Thurn und Taxis
(I652-I7I4) |
I789 |
 some Thurn und Taxis stamps |
in I852 the family issued postage stamps  
 the TT post empire attracted a lot of jealousy it was Napoleon Bonaparte that first attacked the Thurn and Taxis monopoly The last Thurn and Taxis postal system was purchased and nationalised by the Prussian (from Northern Germany) government in I867. The coiled post horn, (see inside the TT stamps) part of the family's coat of arms, remais a symbol of many European postal services later becoming government controled PTTs (Poste and Telecommunications et Telegraphs) recently most European PTTs were splitt up into usually still public Post and usually privatised Telephone companies l |
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 the Regensburg/Bavaria/Germany St Emmeran castle  |
having
build different buisnesses
and receiving state indemnations for the nationalised postal service the Thurn and Taxis remained one of Europe's wealthiest families living in various castles, including 500room large St Emmeran in Regensburg  Regensburg Castle St Emmeram (owned by the family since I822) |
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 Carl-Alexander, 5th Prince von Thurn und Taxis (I770-I827) Duchess Theresa of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (I773-I839) (related to King George III of Great Britain) IIth generation |
3 of their 7 children
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telephonecodes
postcodes did you know that Prince Max Karl was the person that set up the first postal codes ... the T&T 'Ringnummernstempel' went in service in I853 |
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I867 was a tragic year their son
Prince Max Karl
Helen in Bavaria
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children of Max
I T&T
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the
mother of the 7th and the 8th Prince
 picture taken in Korfu in I860 Princess Helen in Bavaria (now +49 8/9) was married to Prince Max I (that died in I867) I3th generation she had to bring up her four children alone the picture shows her with her sister Sissi in Bavaria, the emperess of Austria (now +43) and queen of Hungary (now +36) another sister, Sofie was engaged to their common cousin King Ludwig II of Bavaria |
and  in I885, at only age I8 Albert (I867-I952) became the 8th Prince of T&T I4th generation more on Prince Albert  'aunt' Sophie in Bavaria and 'oncle' King Ludwig II |
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Prince
Albert
was married to Archiduchess Margarete of Habsburg-Austria (now+43) Princess of Hungary (now+36) daughter of Archduke Joseph and Princess Clotilde Sachsen Coburg (now+49-3)  the family in I9I0 picture in large and more details in Germany's history Prince Albert is know as a personality having been very hostile to the Hitler regime |
the
8th and the IIth Prince
 picture taken in I938 Prince Albert (May 8 I867 - Jan 22 I952) 8th Prince of Thurn and Taxis with his grandsons Prince Johannes (I926-I99I) and Prince Anselm (I924-I944) |
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 Picture taken in Paris I955 by James Douglas in I952 the family fortune went directly to 26 years old Prince Johannes of Thurn and Taxis I6th generation that modernised and internationalised the fortune |
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Prince Johannes
had two sisters Princess Clotilde married to Prinz Moritz von and zu Liechtenstein (now+423) and Princess Mafalda married to a remote cousin Prince Franz von Thurn and Taxis |
 I982 wedding of Prince Johannes (IIth Prince of Thurn and Taxis) and Countess Gloria von Schönburg Glauchau |
american
Journalist Bob Colacello
(Andy Warhol's Interview/Vanity Fair) named very energetic Princess Gloria Princess TNT  more on the Tiara of France Princess Gloria is also famous for her husbands spectecular jewlery (the Tiara she is wearing once belonged to Napoleon III )   |
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very International, interested in what was going on, and open to the Modern World Prince Johannes loved to push young people 'Don't sleep don't study forever get going ....! the future will be in what my family started... "TELECOM" (if only he haddend died so soon...) |
picture taken a saturday morning in December I986 in Regensburg/Germany the late Prince Johannes with Aimée de Heeren from Brazil and the editor of the Ph  nebk
f
the Wrld |
 enlarge Prince Johannes adored his children but his sudden and tragic death dec I4th I99I didn't give him the chance to see them grow up |
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 the family today Princess Gloria and her children Princess Maria Theresia, Princess Elisabeth and young Prince Albert I6th and I7th generation visit the family website and the Thurn & Taxis Castle |
it is not a coincidence that Taxis (cabs)
and many Post offices around the World
have the same, yellow
colour .....
zoom
into the Posthorn
the same logo
seperated by 500 years
version one is shown in full next to Franz von Taxis
on top of this page
version two is logo of the Post of Germany, Deutsche
Post,
only recently, in I990, the national German PTT (Post, Telephone
and Telegraph) Deutsche Bundespost,
both postal and phoneservice got spitt up in the
today partly privatised Deutsche
Post AG, Deutsche Telekom AG
and Deutsche Postbank AG
but the Thurn and Taxis were not only Germans,
they were Europeans and you still find their logo around:
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 the Thurn und Taxis horn in today's logo of the Post of Belgium |
 the Thurn und Taxis horn in today's logo of the Post of Hungary |
the Thurn und Taxis horn in today's logo of the Post of Luxembourg |
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the Thurn und Taxis horn in today's logo of the Post of Sweden |
Phonebook of Europe.c
m