A Saxon milepost (German: kursächsische Postmeilensäule, colloquially sächsische Postmeilensäule or Postsäule) was a milepost in the former Electorate of Saxony that gave distances expressed as journey times to the nearest eighth of an hour. With one hour being the equivalent of one league, this corresponds to a distance of about 566 m. The design of the mileposts varied according to the distance at which they were placed. They were hewn from natural stone into the shape of an obelisk, an ancient herma or a stele. Their prototype was the Roman milepost. From its German name römische Meilensäule the rather inaccurate German description of Säule (lit.: "column") was derived. The Saxon head postal director (Oberpostdirektor), Paul Vermehren, brought about their inception based on official distance surveys, whose results were given in leagues on the post mileposts. A league in Saxony at that time (1722 to 1840) was meant to be an hour's journey, equivalent to half a mile or 4.531 kilometres. Saxon postal mileposts were set up during the reign of August the Strong and his successor along all important postal and trading routes and in almost all towns in the Electorate of Saxony to indicate the official distances. This was intended to be the basis for the creation of a unified calculation of postal charges. Because the territory of the Electorate of Saxony was larger than that of the present-day German state of Saxony, these mileposts are nowadays also found in the states of Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, as well as in Poland. The locations and images of surviving or replaced Saxon mileposts may be seen in the Gallery of Saxon postal mileposts.
Forerunners
In 1695, the head of the Saxon post office, Oberpostmeister Ludwig Wilhelm, proposed a systematic survey of the road from Leipzig to Dresden with wooden, roadside posts at regular intervals. This prompted prince elector Augustus the Strong, on 18 June 1695, to order "that certain mileposts are to be erected". He charged the Kondukteur (building supervisor) Heinrich Niedhart with this task. The Electoral Saxon forestry superintendents were instructed to provide the wood, and the administrators of the electoral Saxon districts were to ensure that the posts were erected. Furthermore, before 1700 wooden fingerposts with distance markings (so-called Arm(en)säulen or "arm columns") were commonplace on the roads of Saxony. These consisted of a wooden post, at the upper end of which were direction indicators in the shape of human arms and hands. Because the wood rotted rapidly as a result of its constant exposure to moisture, many of these fingerposts collapsed a few years after they had been erected and became unusable. The establishment of postal mileposts in electoral Saxony was not an isolated phenomenon. Similar posts or stones with distances marked on them were erected along the roads in a number of countries.
State survey by Zürner
The basis for the introduction of Saxon mileposts was the cartographic work of the pastor, Adam Friedrich Zürner, from Skassa. Zürner had prepared a map of Großenhain, which attracted the attention of Augustus the Strong. After further cartographic work, the prince elector gave him the task on 12 April 1713 of: "recording districts, including the lordships, manor estates, towns, villages and the like, on geographic maps" (original: "Aemter samt denen darinnen befindlichen Herrschaften, Rittergütern, Städten, Dörfern und dergleichen mehr in mappas geographicas bringen"). This entailed the topographic survey of Electoral Saxony. In addition to the heartland, it covered the electoral Saxon parts of the counties of Henneberg and Mansfeld, the Schönburg estates, the estates of the Albertine branches of Saxe-Merseburg, Saxe-Weissenfels and Saxe-Zeitz as well as the two Lusatias. The resulting cartographic material remained largely secret for several decades for military reasons. The prince elector only had an improved postal map published which was the result of an extension to the contract that followed a few weeks later. This "Chur-Sächsische Post-Charte", first published in 1718, and its subsequent editions, remained in use until the 19th century. Because the distances stated at that time were frequently based on imprecise estimates, Zürner had to survey the distances afresh or verify existing data. To achieve that he designed a survey vehicle in the shape of an electoral Saxon baggage coach. Each revolution of the rear wheel of the coach with a circumference of one Dresden rod (Dresdner Rute), i.e. 4.531 metres, was transmitted to a mechanical counter in the coach by means of a chain. Zürner's assistants used a measuring cart in the shape of a wheelbarrow for those tracks unsuitable for a coach, which likewise measured the distances by the turning of a wheel and which was carried as the so-called "fifth wheel on the wagon" (fünftes Rad am Wagen) in a case on the surveying coach. Both methods enabled a very accurate survey of roads.
Another problem was the lack of standard units of measurement. At that time there were miles (Meilen) of various length even within the Electorate. To achieve standardization, the Electoral Saxon post mile was therefore introduced on 17 March 1722, whereby 1 mile = 2 leagues = 2,000 Dresden rods = 9.062 kilometres. To indicate distances on the mileposts, Zürner used the league (Wegstunde), which equalled a half mile. The survey journeys usually began in Leipzig or Dresden, the counter being set to zero at the posthouse in each city. As a result, a Leipzig or a Dresden distance is quoted. During such a journey, the assistant to the surveyor had to drive a numbered wooden stake into the ground every quarter of a mile and dig a hole next to it. The excavated material was then used to help fix the wooden post securely. The landowner was responsible for looking after the survey stake. In several cases the surveys were also conducted outside the territory of the electorate. Anywhere Saxon land was interrupted by other territories, roads used by the Saxon post office were surveyed, with the permission of the territorial owner. Surveying was especially difficult in Upper Lusatia because landowners of the estates of the realm there tried to impede Zürner's activity. Zürner was able to begin surveying Upper and Lower Lusatia only on 29 June 1723. The survey work on the most important roads in the state was completed by 1733.
Erection of the columns
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