West Prussian Land Register 1772/73 (R. Drefs)

Published by the Odessa Digital Library - 21 Jun 1999
     http://www.odessa3.org

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Copyright 1999, R. Reuben Drefs and Detlef Poed.

The records are now at headquarters of the Germans from
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Contact information may be found by query on the search
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The so called "Marburger Auszüge" of the West Prussian Land Register from 1772/73

For this publication the archive material "West Prussia No. 28" of the document collection of the Herder-Institut in D-35037 Marburg, Gisonenweg 5-7, was evaluated.

The originals connected with the archive material "West Prussia No. 28" of the Herder-Institut are kept in the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz in D-14195 Berlin (Dahlem), Archivstraße 12-14.

Introduction

After the occupation of West Prussia and the District of the Netze River by Prussia during the first partition of Poland in the year 1772, the Geheime Finanzrat Rembert Roden was ordered by Frederick the Great to prepare a land survey of these territories. The land survey should produce the necessary foundation for the introduction of the Prussian taxation system in the new territory. In the years 1772/73 three commissions with about 60 officials and 40 surveyors were occupied with this work. For each town a land register was established which could contain up to 91 items.

This was largely a head of household registration and not a poll tax or one that counted every person. Thus the listing of names is restricted to the head of household at the time of the registration. Most head of households were male although there are a few women listed. The most frequent enumeration of women comes as widow and thus lists the surname of the deceased husband. Unfortunately, many women are listed without a surname, this is also the case with male Jews, and to some extent people with Polish heritage. An important aspect of this land tax register is the listing of children. The number of children living in 1772 are numerically indicated, most of the time designated as over and under 12 years of age.

The land tax register of 1772 has been discussed by various German and Polish authors in Europe. A bibliographical list of these articles are given at the end of this introduction.

The history of the ownership and holding archives in itself is extremely interesting. The many volumes of the land tax register were moved from archive to archive over periods of time. Somehow most of it has survived two world wars. The 18th century copies of original volumes of West Prussia have found their way back to Geheimen State Archive in Berlin. However, the original volumes for the Netze River District have remained in Bromberg State Archive, today Bydgoszcz, Poland. This listing does not include the Netze counties because we have not received a letter of permission to post those records on the Internet.

In the 1920's the volumes for West Prussia, minus the Netze counties, was extracted and typed onto sheets of paper. These documents are today housed at the Herder Institut, Marburg, Germany. More than thirty years ago films were made of the Herder Institut material. One set of films was kept at the Marburg State Archive, one in another more remote place for safe keeping and a third was taken to Poland where it is available today at the Scientific Institute in Thorn/Torun, Poland. We are fortunate to have received a copy of the film from the Marburg State Archive. We thank them for this courtesy so that this information can be shared with Germans from Russia and other ethnic Germans as well as people of Polish heritage. It would appear that more than half of the surnames are Polish.

The material that was filmed contains only the surname and the numerical list of members of the household including hired servants, farm hands both male and female. In some cases these are missing. The material that was not filmed included number and types of animals, farm machinery, buildings, household holdings etc. For this type of sociological study one would need to go back to original documents in Berlin and Bromberg/Bygoszcz State Archives.

Kinds of Documentation

Today three kinds of documentation of these land registers are available in different archives and institutions:

  1. Originals, called "Urschriften" in German.
  2. Contemporary copies from the end of the 18th century, called "Reinschriften" in German.
  3. Extractions (=Auszüge) worked out in the years 1919-1920 and 1940-1945, called "Gesamtauszüge" and "Teilauszüge" in German. The complete set is also called "Marburger Auszüge" in German.
The "Gesamtauszüge" are typewritten copies of certain items of the land registers made by archive workers of the State Archive Danzig in the years 1919-1920. The "Teilauszüge" are excerpts which were extracted from the "Gesamtauszüge" in Danzig from 1940-1945. They do not include all items of the "Gesamtauszüge".

We explicitly would like to point out that due to reading and writing errors the "Marburger Auszüge" may considerably deviate from the material in the Geheimes Staatsarchiv. The present publication does not give any clue where in the recording these deviations appear. Therefore we strongly recommend all users to check the originals in the Geheimes Staatsarchiv in Berlin for further advanced research.

The following tables give a brief overview of archives and institutions which keep the different kinds of documentation of the land registers today. We refer to the article of Kornelia Hubrich-Mühle: "The Land Register of Taxation (Kontributionskataster) of Frederick's Land Survey (Landesaufnahme) of West Prussia and the District of the Noteć River (Netzedistrikt) from 1772-73: History and State of Research" as well as to our own research:

  1. Originals

  2. 18th Century Copies

  3. 20th Century Extractions

References

Summary

Kornelia Hubrich-Mühle gives the following summary at the end of her article about history and state of research:

"The Land Register of Taxation (Kontributionskataster) of Frederick's Land Survey (Landesaufnahme) of West Prussia and the District of the Noteć River (Netzedistrikt) from 1772-73: History and State of Research.

The land register of taxation, which consequently emerged from the fiscal and statistical land survey of West Prussia and the district of the Noteć river in 1772-73, is a source of information, which has interested researchers for a long time. Despite that, the complicated history of the register has never really been clarified by research authorities, since German and Polish researchers worked against rather than with each other. Therefore this essay attempts to sketch the creation and content of the land register; to follow its confusing history; as well as to show where the source - which has taken on three forms through its history - is located according to current knowledge; and, finally, to examine its controversial worth as a source of information in the light of older and newer Polish and German research. As a conclusion of all this, it can be said, that the land register is an important and copious source of material, which however can only be used in in-depth interpretation with caution and strict criticism."

Thanks

A special thank you goes to Le Roy Dockter who extracted five films or half of the total data, also to Christine Burkart who extracted two films, Wesley Pietz one film, Philipp Materi one film and Ron Kuehn one film. I (Reuben Drefs) extracted the hand written pages from the original German script (there was some) and edited the material as part of my work as project coordinator.

A second thank you goes to Detlef Pöd of Osnabrück, Germany and Jaroslaw Dumanowski of Thorn/Torun, Poland who worked with me in obtaining the films. Detlef Pöd lead the discussions with the German institutions and wrote the German correspondence; Jarek Dumanowski provided the same services in Poland. Detlef Pöd and Reuben Drefs put the dollars down to obtain the films and the cost of duplication. Many additional costs were covered by Reuben Drefs such as copying onto paper and mailing to the various inputters. -RRD