how does the postman get in?

[CustomX 101]

Been meaning to ask this for ages. In the places I've stayed so far in Berlin, the letterboxes have always been located inside the security gate of the building. 

 

How does the postman get in to deliver mail? And how to delivery drivers get in to leave the little card telling you that they tried to deliver?  

 

Do they have master security keys or something like that? 

[snowingagain 3,661]

Gosh, that must be a lot of keys for them to carry around...though when googled in German this method was suggested. 

[CustomX 101]

I know it sounds like a dumb question but I'd really like to know how the hell they get in! 

[Chelski 572]

Ring someone's doorbell at the security gate? Who might be at home? Who then lets them in after they identify themselves?

[tor 14,434]

and why does he always ring twice? :)

[cvm 299]

At last, somebody...!

 

[Chelski 572]

...

[Chelski 572]

7 minutes ago, tor said:

and why does he always ring twice? :)

It's a Postman thing. I think they're taught that at Postman College. Or they think they're Jack Nicholson. It's one or the other.

[LeonG 13,594]

According to http://www.gutefrage.net/frage/wie-kommt-der-brieftraeger-ins-haus the owner of the building may have given the postman a key or they might be ringing people's doorbells in order for someone to let them in.

 

If you want to find out for sure, you can ask the hausmeister or if you have time, you can wait for the postman and see for yourself.

 

[CustomX 101]

stakeout. 

[CustomX 101]

yeah I can't believe that everyone's post depends on someone being home to let the postman in.  Likewise, I also can't quite believe that postmen carry around masterkeys given to them by the thousands of hausmeisters in their neighbourhoods. Hence my curioisity! 

[LeonG 13,594]

1 minute ago, CustomX said:

yeah I can't believe that everyone's post depends on someone being home to let the postman in.  Likewise, I also can't quite believe that postmen carry around masterkeys given to them by the thousands of hausmeisters in their neighbourhoods. Hence my curioisity! 

 

A conspiracy theory says that there is one master key that fits every building in Berlin   Or the postmen in Berlin are magical creatures who can walk through doors.

 

However, when you think about it, Germany is an ageing country meaning they have a lot of retirees and the unemployment in Berlin is also pretty high so lots of people on Hartz iv too so it is really not that hard to imagine that each building might have someone who is home and can buzz the postman in.

 

I had a coworker who used to do Hermes deliveries and he said they just rang all the bells until somebody opened the door.

 

[Chelski 572]

3 minutes ago, LeonG said:

 

However, when you think about it, Germany is an ageing country meaning they have a lot of retirees and the unemployment in Berlin is also pretty high so lots of people on Hartz iv too so it is really not that hard to imagine that each building might have someone who is home and can buzz the postman in.

 

Danke LeonG. Even in my shit-one-horse town... that's the way it works.

[Smaug 5,842]

Our postwoman has a key to our building because we gave her one.

[fraufruit 35,793]

The delivery people ring until someone lets them in or they tape a Zettel outside.

 

The postman is the Easter Bunny.

[anzu 565]

Had a discussion with our local postman some time back, after the front door lock to the building was changed and he was suddenly no longer able to get in.

 

They usually have a key to the building, issued by either the Hausmeister or the Hausverwaltung. If the key is not issued for whatever reason, they have to ring until someone lets them in, so there may indeed be days where they can't get in and the mail is not delivered.

 

 

 

[Tim Hortons Man 542]

I noticed here in Munich that that the post person(?) has a key which opened our building. Thinking it could be like NewYork where you have a master key which opens all front doors, construction sites elevators etc. It was in the paper because those keys are only supposed to be available to authorised persons (police firefighers etc) but they were available on Ebay.

 

Also I noticed that after moving back into our unit there was a new lock on our upstairs storage, opens with the front door, assuming it's for the chimney sweep

 

 

[SpiderPig 9,744]

2 hours ago, Smaug said:

Our postwoman has a key to our building because we gave her one.

I'd like to give my post lady one ...

 

She is quite cute...

[yourkeau 6,983]

Well, welcome to DDR! Although this feature exists in some buildings in the West, it's usually the Eastern block countries where everyone was supposed to live in a multi-storey building, so that no one is “rich bourgois„. In Poland the postman used to have not only a key to the building but also a master key to all post boxes, as they were enclosed ones so that no one steals your post. But then the EU said this is a violation of some freaking competition law, you have to let spammers to throw some junk into your postbox.

 

Not sure if giving  an entrance door key to the postman is also not a such violation, so that Hermes, UPS etc can sue for discrimination.

[BobUK 4,654]

Our building is fairly old and has the mail boxes inside, the postlady has a key to the building, but I've noticed that a lot of newer buildings have the mail boxes outside.

 

It's a bit annoying when Hermes, UPS, et al drivers ring the bells for apartments, they tend to press the buttons at the bottom of the panel, assuming that they are the ground floor apartments, but they are actually on the the top floor. I usually look out of the window to see who it is, if it's a spammer I ignore them...