German Mailbox

It is quite astonishing to have young students ask me what a mailbox is. This only happens when they realize I am not referring to their e-mail box. In our neighborhood, there are a couple of bright and yellow boxes, which they pass by every day.

Deutsche Post/ post horn

Not having any need to post letters via the old-fashioned way of communicating, their perception has become immune to this big yellow box sitting there near the sidewalk.

Alone talking about my mail box at home causes confusion. You know, the one which receives paper bills, paper junk mail,  paper ads, and even requires a manual key to open it. A few young expats even claim their moms do not even have the key for it as it is the dad’s job to clear it out once a month. Paying bills can wait, I’d suppose.

Anyway, I realize how technology is taking big steps towards the future. I find myself explaining the purpose of a telegram or how we learned how to use a typewriter. These words do not pop up from history books, only from outdated teaching material. Mentioning outdated products provides a fresh topic for a short history lesson in technological advances.

German mailbox

Mailboxes have been around since 1824. Originally blue, they became red in 1934. Since the end of World War II, they have been yellow. Currently, there are still more than 100,000 mailboxes throughout Germany.

If you are in need of locating a mailbox in a German city, then visit briefkasten-finden.de