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Symbol image delivery: "Maybe Santa Claus had a hand in it"
Photo: Paul Zinken / dpa
On its homepage, Deutsche Post advertises with the words that around 90 percent of all national letters should end up "one working day after posting" to the recipient.
Ironically, with the advent calendars, with which the former state company wants to remind the new members of the Bundestag, that did not work.
The Christmas greetings filled with chocolate only reached the mailboxes of numerous MPs from various parliamentary groups in the course of this week - and thus one week after the start of Advent, as the dpa news agency reported.
Was it because Swiss Post sent the calendars as parcels, which generally have a longer duration?
Reinhard Houben has a different assumption: "Maybe Nikolaus had a hand in it," jokes the FDP MP.
But he also said: You are always happy about sweets, even if the delay is a shame.
Parcel jam in the Bundestag
The Post, on the other hand, does not want to be responsible for the mess itself - and refuses to have strolled around the transport of its own promotional gift, of all places.
A company spokesman announced: "We are washing our hands in innocence here." The calendars had already been delivered to the Bundestag post office on November 24th.
The Bundestag press office finally provides information about the reason for the delay.
In fact, on November 24th, seven pallets of Advent calendars were delivered as a collective shipment, said a spokeswoman.
"After passing the X-ray path, they could not be distributed around the house immediately because the post office employees were fully occupied with the prioritized distribution of daily mail." Unfortunately, it was not clear from the outside that it was an advent calendar.
The parcel volume in the Bundestag was three times as high as usual in November and December. The spokeswoman emphasized that the Bundestag post office "endeavors to ensure timely delivery of parcels, especially in the run-up to Christmas".
After all, many do not take the Post's cause too badly.
It is not a problem that the first little doors of the advent calendar could only be opened late, said an employee of a member of parliament.
"The main thing is that the calendar is there now: the chocolate is very tasty."
apr / dpa