Letter to Professor Dr. Unger, mailed from Bavaria between 1844 and 1848


Front side of the letter mailed from Nuremberg, Germany to Professor Dr. Unger in Graz, Styria, Austria Reverse side of the letter mailed from Nuremberg, Germany to Professor Dr. Unger in Graz, Styria, Austria
The letter mailed from Nuremberg, Germany to Professor Dr. Unger in Graz, Styria, Austria.

The envelope


The postmark of Nuremberg
The postmark of Nuremberg, was used in the Kingdom of Bavaria before November 1st, 1849, when the first postage stamp and numeral obliterators to cancel stamps were introduced in Bavaria.

The postmark recalls the postmark Nr. 2547-17B (TY) of Peter Feuser's catalogue
  • "IAN" is the Latin-style abbreviation for January (Ianuarius), used in several Bavarian and Austrian postmarks of the period.
  • The year number supposed to be in the middle, but it is missing
  • The last characters (IX) are the number of the post office.
Here is an example of the clean postmark: The postmark of Nuremberg
The postmarks and the handwriting on the front side of the envelope:
An Hochwohlgeboren
     NÜRNBERG
     3 IAN ... IX
Herrn Profeßor Dr. Unger
     B.O.C.
Frei
  Grätz [old spelling of Graz]
  (Steiermark)

According to the postmark in the upper-right corner, the letter was posted from Nuremberg (NÜRNBERG), in the Kingdom of Bavaria (Königreich Bayern). Such two-line postmarks were used in Bavaria before the introduction of adhesive postage stamps and numeral obliterators, which came into use on November 1st, 1849.
The first line of the postmark contains the name of the town, while the second line contains the day, the month abbreviation in Latin, the year, and the post office code (IX in this postmark).
The year of the postmark is missing, while the day and month are clearly visible - 3 IAN. “IAN” is the Latin-style abbreviation for January (Ianuarius), used in several Bavarian and Austrian postmarks of the period.

BOC postmark of Bavaria 1843-1848
BOC postmark, type I (black colour and wide „O“), used in Bavaria between 25.02.1843 – 26.06.1848
The abbreviation "B.O.C." stands for "Bayerisch-Oesterreichische Correspondenz" (Bavarian–Austrian Correspondence). This was applied as a preferential transit-rate tracking stamp (Tax-Begünstigungsstempel) created under the 1842 postal convention between the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Austrian Empire.
According to specialized Bavarian postal transit registries, the black ink cancellation displaying wide spacing and dots between letters represents the "Typ I" variety of this mark. This configuration has a verified operational use window restricted between February 25, 1843, and June 26, 1848. Because the departure date reads January 3rd, the letter could not have been processed in early 1843 before the type's rollout. Consequently, the combination of these parameters definitively restricts the historical posting window to January of 1844 through January 1848.

During this period, Bavaria and Austria maintained a tight postal convention that regulated the exchange of border-crossing mail and established standardized accounting tracks. Reciprocal mail sent in the opposite direction from Austria into Bavaria was similarly stamped with the "O.B.C." (Oesterreichisch-Bayerische Correspondenz) counterpart mark.

The formal script line at the very top of the address block reads "An Hochwohlgeboren" ("To the Highly Well-Born"). This was a mandatory 19th-century German administrative and social honorific applied to official correspondence to formally salute university professors, medical doctors, and highly respected members of the academic bourgeoisie.

The large ink cross 18 Kreuzers charge
The large ink cross - served as a sign for a fully prepaid letter
Frei handwritten mark
The handwritten frei (free/paid) notation A giant, prominent number 15 represents the total postal rate of 15 Kreuzer.
The front of the wrapper features a large ink cross (X) drawn boldly across the entire address panel.
In 19th century German pre-stamp philately (Vorphilatelie), this cross served as a critical visual instruction applied by the dispatching postmaster to signify a fully prepaid letter (Frankobrief), serving as a macro-validation of the handwritten frei (free/paid) notation.
On the reverse side, the postmaster scrawled a giant, prominent number 15 in iron-gall ink. This numeral represents the total postal rate (Porto) calculated in Kreuzers for international cross-border transit under the 1842 Bavarian–Austrian postal convention.

The letter was folded and secured with a prominent red heraldic signet wax seal, which was standard practice before commercially manufactured envelopes became universally available. The impression displays a classic bourgeois coat of arms (Bürgerliches Wappen) consisting of a shield with a rampant lion or a griffin facing left (dexter), a closed tilting helmet, and ornate leaf mantling.

The original seal AI reconstructed seal with the lion in the middle AI reconstructed seal with the griffin in the middle Coat of arms of Kingdom of Bavaria between 1835 and 1918
The original seal is shown on the left, together with two AI generated reconstructions: one depicting a lion and the other a griffin as the central figure. Further research is required to identify the sender. Coat of arms of Kingdom of Bavaria between 1835 and 1918
Lions have appeared in the coats of arms of Bavaria since 1623 and continue to be used today, with the exception of the period from 1806 to 1835. Therefore, it is plausible that the seal also depicts a lion. However, a magnified view may reveal what appears to be a wing rather than a tail, leaving open the possibility that the animal is a griffin or another heraldic creature.



The recipient - Professor Dr. Unger


Franz Unger
Dr. Franz Unger (1800-1870), lithograph by Josef Kriehuber
Professor Dr. Franz Joseph Andreas Nicolaus Unger (1800–1870) was an Austrian botanist, plant physiologist, paleobotanist, and one of the leading natural scientists of the nineteenth century.

Although trained as a physician, Unger became particularly known for his studies of fossil plants, plant anatomy (phytotomy), and plant physiology. He made important contributions to paleobotany and helped establish the scientific study of fossil floras. Unger hypothesized that hereditary characteristics are determined by combinations of simple elements within plant cells, an idea that anticipated later concepts of heredity and influenced the thinking of his student Gregor Johann Mendel. He was also a pioneer in documenting the relationship between soil and vegetation, publishing influential studies on the subject in 1836.

Gregor Mendel’s groundbreaking work in genetics was profoundly shaped by his time at the University of Vienna (1851–1853), where he studied plant physiology under Dr. Franz Unger.
Gregor Mendel on stamp of Germany 2022
Gregor Mendel on stamp of Germany 2022
Unger’s radical cell theories and his belief in the transmutation of species rejected the idea of fixed, unchanging plant varieties, directly inspiring Mendel to explore the mathematical laws governing variation and heredity. Applying this progressive training to his famous pea-plant experiments at the St. Thomas Abbey, Mendel discovered the foundational principles of dominant and recessive traits, building a quantitative bridge between cellular biology and evolutionary thought that Unger had long championed.
Unger is notable for proposing evolutionary ideas before the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). He accepted the transmutation of species and argued that living organisms had developed from earlier forms through natural processes. These views placed him among the early advocates of evolutionary thought in the German-speaking scientific world.

Dr. Franz Unger was a prominent contributor to Flora (Allgemeine Botanische Zeitung), one of the most important weekly botanical journals of the 19th century and the official publication of the Regensburg Botanical Society. Between 1843 and 1861, the magazine was edited by the botanist Dr. August Emanuel Fürnrohr from Regensburg. As the official organ of the Society, the journal served as a major forum for botanical research in the German-speaking world.

Dr. Fürnrohr was a middle-class academic, scientist, and former pharmacist. Unlike his contemporary aristocrats or families who purchased nobility, he was never ennobled by the Kingdom of Bavaria, meaning he did not possess an official, registered family crest.

Throughout the 1840s, Unger regularly published articles on plant physiology, paleobotany, and the geographical distribution of vegetation in its pages. Unger's association with Flora began early in his scientific career. A member of the Regensburg Botanical Society since 1831, he participated in scientific initiatives sponsored by the Society, which published its research findings and prize-winning works in Flora. This close relationship helps explain his frequent contributions to the journal throughout the following decades.

The note from the reverse side of the letter, perhaps written by Franz Unger
The note from the reverse side of the letter, perhaps written by Dr. Franz Unger.
The handwritten notation "Flora. N 40–44" on the reverse side of the letter, probably added by the recipient, refers to weekly issues (Nummern) 40–44 of Flora from a volume of that time period. Given the letter's dispatch date of January 3rd, this note most likely tracks correspondence regarding the late-autumn issues (October or November) from the preceding calendar year (1843-1847). Dr. Unger frequently submitted multi-part articles or series that ran across consecutive weekly issues. If so, it suggests that the correspondence was connected with the editorial, publishing, or scientific activities of the periodical. Since Unger was an active contributor during this time, the notation may indicate that the letter or its contents were associated with one of his submissions, editorial communications, or published articles. However, the exact nature of this connection cannot be determined from the surviving cover alone.

Scientific correspondence in the mid-nineteenth century frequently circulated among authors, editors, publishers, printers, and learned societies. Consequently, the cover may have served not only as a postal wrapper but also as part of the journal's editorial or archival record, preserving material associated with the preparation, publication, or organization of botanical research.

“Lindwurm from Klagenfurt on Austrian stamp from 1968
Lindwurm from Klagenfurt on Austrian stamp from 1968, MiNr.: 1256, Scott: 696.
Franz Unger was among the 19th-century naturalists who contributed to the reinterpretation of the famous Klagenfurt “Lindwurm” remains, long associated with the city’s dragon legend. Rather than accepting a mythological explanation, Unger supported the emerging scientific view that such finds represented the fossilized remains of extinct Ice Age animals. In line with other contemporary scholars, he helped frame the Klagenfurt discovery as a natural palaeontological object, most commonly identified today as belonging to a large Pleistocene mammal, such as the woolly rhinoceros, thereby contributing to the gradual replacement of legendary interpretations with geological and biological analysis.
Unger details his anatomical examination of the Klagenfurt skull, identifying it as a fossilized woolly rhinoceros (Rhinoceros tichorhinus - known as Coelodonta antiquitatis today). He demonstrates that this specific find, historically known to date back to the 14th century, served as the physical model for the city’s 1590 dragon monument and argues that prehistoric remains frequently inspired European monster myths.






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Created on 10.06.2026. Last update 13.06.2026