Germany's Census

[Delightful Dukkie]

Where would I go to look at the census that were held in Germany, or Prussia, Silesia or Pommerania? About 1850 to 1950??
Thank you good people

[standardcrow]

German census returns are not held centrally. You can try local archives/registry offices. You will have no luck whatsoever after WW2 for East Germany as they were all destroyed. Hope this helps, even if it is only a little!

Beth

[Rena]

If you know the parish, village, or town where your ancestors lived there might be a film showing the "Court Addresses" in the library catalogue of www.familysearch.org     In the early 1800's parish clerks made annual lists of houses, equipment and local men of substance.  However, some clerks actually listed every worker in the district.    I ordered and viewed a film at my local morman church on the off chance and got lucky because I found my family over a period of several years living in various villages. At the time I believed the early 1852 census wasn't available, but there it was on the film.

maybe some links on this page might help

http://www.progenealogists.com/germany/germangenealogylinks.htm

[Delightful Dukkie]

Thank you for your answer Rena.
I'm trawling through some Parish records from LDS; could only find and intention to marry note..a start lol;  Am still searching for the actual marriage and then some possible births and/or deaths.

[Delightful Dukkie]

German census returns are not held centrally. You can try local archives/registry offices. You will have no luck whatsoever after WW2 for East Germany as they were all destroyed. Hope this helps, even if it is only a little!

Beth

Hi Beth,
After wwII? You mean about 1945?  I didn't know that !!   Most of what i'm looking for is well before and also between the wars.  Thankyou for this information

[standardcrow]

http://genealogy.about.com/od/germany/a/basics_2.htm

"Regular censuses have been conducted in Germany on a countrywide basis since 1871. These "national" censuses were actually conducted by each state or province, and the original returns can be obtained from the municipal archives (Stadtarchiv) or the Civil Register Office (Standesamt) in each district. The biggest exception to this is East Germany (1945-1990), which destroyed all of its original census returns. Some census returns were also destroyed by bombing during World War II. "

Of course it seems to neglect to mention the lack of censuses since the 80s as Germans think they're eeeeeeeeeeeevil (at least that is what my (German) hubby told me.

[Delightful Dukkie]

  With German's modern history and its geographic location and a history of wars etc well before  modern times,   I can understand their reluctance for census!  Wonder if we should tell them there are no secrets in our "high-tech" world.  Except of course our fore-bearers!! 

[Raphael]

Where would I go to look at the census that were held in Germany, or Prussia, Silesia or Pommerania? About 1850 to 1950??
Thank you good people
Hi! Dukkie
[http://uk.yhs.search.yahoo.com/avg/search?fr=yhs-avg&type=yahoo_avg_hs2-tb-web_uk&p=Prussia%2C%20Silesia%20Census/quote]

Try this link , let me know privately if the link is not compatable with your Computer and I will reconfiger  it.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Raphel (UK) & Düsseldorf  (D)

[Berlin-Bob]

Of course it seems to neglect to mention the lack of censuses since the 80s as Germans think they're eeeeeeeeeeeevil (at least that is what my (German) hubby told me.

They did do a census in the 1980's.  There were a lot of public protests and demonstrations against it, although the government kept repeating that no names would be stored, just statistical data.
Some people even burnt their census forms in public.

After that, we were then told that in future there would only be be a "mini-census" - a random 10% of the population would be asked.  That seems to have died a death somewhere along the line.  I am sure that the data is already available in various government databases - it is just a question of collating it.

Germans think they're eeeeeeeeeeeevil

When Hitler came to power, every german had to have an Ahnenpass - an Ancestor Passport.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnenpass )

People had to enter details of their ancestors, and although theoretically this was simply to prove or verify Aryan-ness it was also (mis)used to search out jewish and part-jewish citizens.

Many people burned their Ahnenpass after the war, others kept them (to the delight of of their descendents who are now researching the family history).

After generations of prussian and nazi and DDR burocracy many Germans still have a deep-seated mistrust of data collecting.  There are very few database for german "RootsChatters".  Unlike RootsChat, where detailed family histories can be put together, the german FH forums tend to help by publishing lists of name interests, deciphering old documents and supplying addresses, where you can go and check out certificates and registers.  And you often have to prove direct relationship before you can order copies of certificates.

Bob