Bergedorf's postal authority issued only five stamps between 1861 and 1867. Bergedorf is the smallest field of German stamp collecting. Historical development Due to its good geographic location, Bergedorf and environs (the Bi-Urban Condominium of the sovereign city states of Lübeck and Hamburg to be precise) had already received postal services from the Hanseatic league early on. The city's postal connections to neighbouring Hamburg were especially well developed at an early stage. Since the 1420 Treaty of Perleberg, Bergedorf with Geesthacht and the Vierlande municipalities (Altengamme, Curslack, Kirchwerder and Neuengamme) had belonged to both of the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, therefore named Beiderstädtischer Besitz (Bi-Urban Condominium). Because the condominium belonged to both cities, the curious condition arose where the condominium's post could not be administered by either Hamburg or Lübeck. Therefore, the condominium formed its own tiny autonomous postal jurisdiction. Several other principalities also established postal departments in the condominium's capital Bergedorf city. In 1746, Electoral Hanover set up its own postal department in Bergedorf city, which lasted as Royal Hanoverian post until 1846. In 1785, the dynasty of Thurn und Taxis succeeded Hanover and established its own postal department, which was not closed until 1851. In 1839, Prussia finally opened a postal department in Bergedorf city as well. From 1806 to 1813, the condominium was first occupied, and as of 1811 annexed by the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. During this time, the postal system was taken over by the Imperial French Post. Finally on 1 April 1847, the Beiderstädtisches Postamt (Bi-Urban Mail) or Lübeck-Hamburgisches Postamt (Postal Department of Lübeck and Hamburg) emerged from the Prussian postal department. In the following years, this arrangement was extended. In 1856, further departments opened in the condominial territory, namely in the Geesthacht exclave (since 1937 no part of the region any more) and in Kirchwerder. From 1855 to 1856, the Bi-Urban Mail signed several postal agreements modelled on the German-Austrian Postal Treaty, including agreements with Prussia and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. After Hamburg and Lübeck had already issued their first stamps in 1859, Bergedorf followed in 1861. However, Hamburg's stamps were officially sold beside those from the Bi-Urban Mail at the post office counters. Stamp issues by the Bergedorf Bi-Urban Mail On 1 November 1861, five definitive stamps with values of ½, 1, 1½, 3, and 4 Hamburg Schillings (16 schillings made up 1 Hamburg mark) were issued in Bergedorf. These