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Communication and State Construction: The Postal Service in German States, 1815–1866
- Journal of Interdisciplinary History
- The MIT Press
- Volume 44, Number 4, Spring 2014
- pp. 453-473
- Article
- Additional Information
A comparison between five nineteenth-century German states demonstrates the importance of postal systems for nation-building and nationalism. Prior to the formal unification of Germany under Emperor Wilhelm of Prussia in 1871, the various German states evinced scant political, administrative, social, or geographical cohesion until their postal systems created a communications infrastructure that gradually eroded traditional barriers.