General Postal Union established by the Treaty of Bern

Background. Prior to the treaty, international mail exchange required bilateral negotiations between every pair of countries. The United States and France lacked a postal treaty, forcing mail bound for the United States to travel via British or Belgian ships. Heinrich von Stephan, Postmaster-General of the German Reichspost, drew up plans for an International Postal Congress, demanding that neutral Switzerland organize it in the context of the French-German war of 1870–1871. The conference in Bern produced the Treaty of Bern.

Treaty Provisions. The Treaty of Bern established the General Postal Union to unify postal services and regulations. It provided for the originating country to keep all postage revenue without compensating the destination country for delivery. The treaty was signed on 9 October 1874, following a conference convened by the Swiss Government on 15 September 1874.

Legacy and Renaming. The organization established by the Treaty of Bern was originally called the General Postal Union. Due to its rapidly growing membership, it was renamed the Universal Postal Union at the second Postal Union Congress in 1878. The treaty was later incorporated into the UPU Constitution on 10 July 1964.