Online German Gazetteers and Parish Register Inventories

Gazetteer definition: a list of all localities within a given jurisdictions, such as a county, duchy, state, province, or empire. Information provided may vary depending on the original purpose of the publication and may include different government jurisdictions, church parish(es), population-, area,-and tax information, post office, description, history, and more.

Parish register inventory: A listing of parishes within a given jurisdiction. It usually includes information about extant parish registers by type, time period covered, and accessibility.

Below are gazetteers and parish register inventories for Germany

General

German Empire

• Meyers Gazetteer (currently not online)
• The Genealogisches Ortsverzeichnis (GOV)
• Areas east of the Oder-Neisse rivers
• For phonetic searches in the area covered by today’s Germany, use the “fuzzy gazetteer”
• JewishGen gazetteer has several search options, including “contains”. Be sure to change the country and choose a search option.
• Deutsch-Fremdsprachiges Ortsnamenverzeichnis place name changes for formerly German localities as of June 1919,
• Orbis Latinus (1909 - English interface) – Latinized place names. Several volumes/editions are available on multiple websites: 1972 four-volume combined set version

Prussia (Preußen)

• Gemeindelexikon Preußen - A complete set of the volumes. Browse images by volume.
• Various volumes of Gemeindelexikon Preußen are also available on GoogleBooks and the DigiBib (Genealogy.net)

Regional

A number of gazetteers and parish register inventories are available in the digital library (DigiBib) of the German Society for Computer Genealogy. The are found under the tab “Digibib”. New titles are added regularly.

Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen)

• Ortschaft-Verzeichnis von Elsass-Lotharingen (1880)
• Die Orte des Elsass (List)
• Deutsch-französisches Ortsnamenverzeichnis
• German-French place name list for Alsace

Baden

• Das Grossherzogtum Baden in geographischer, naturwissenschaftlicher, geschichtlicher, wirtschaftlicher und staatlicher Hinsicht dargestellt - Explanation of symbols and abbreviations see p. 768; alphabetical place name list follows.
• History of parishes

Bavaria (Bayern)

• Amtliche Ortsverzeichnisse” (official gazetteers) Download version available. Begins with 1877.
• Ortsdatenbank (place name database) - entries include links to articles and nice maps
• Bayernatlas regional atlas - modern

Berlin

• Berlin Street maps
• Directory of historic and current Berlin street names

Brandenburg

• Quellen zur Bevölkerungsgeschichte in der Mark Brandenburg bis 1945 (2012) - by Stefan Rückling

Bremen

• Geschichte und Landesbeschreibung der Herzogthümer Bremen und Verden (1824), Volume 1
• Geschichte und Landesbeschreibung der Herzogthümer Bremen und Verden (1824), Volume 2 - the table of contents at the end of volume 2.

Brunswick (Braunschweig)

• Place list of the former Duchy of Braunschweig in the Kingdom of Westphalia (1806-1813) - Lists boundary changes that had happened under Napoleon

East Prussia (Ostpreussen)

• Gemeindelexikon Ostpreussen (1905)
• Inventory of extant genealogical sources - arranged by Kreis

Hamburg

• Ausführliche Nachrichten über die sämmtlichen evangelisch-protestantischen Kirchen und Geistlichen der freyen und Hansestadt Hamburg (1826) – History of Hamburg parishes with lists of pastors. Click on „Inhalt“for a table of contents linked to images.
• Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908) - includes a chapter on Hamburg; read online or download

Hannover

• Historische Ortsdatenbank - historical place name database
• For Ostfriesland, see Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908); includes a chapter on Hamburg; read online or download
• Gemeindelexikon (1908) - digitized together with Westfalen and Pyrmont; Hannover on images 1-274

Hessen

• Kirchenbücher und Standesregister für alle Wohnplätze im Land Hessen (1939) - in the DigiBib
• Historisches Ortslexikon - Database for today’s Hessen
• Rheinhessen and Kurpfalz gazetteer/parish register inventory

Hessen-Nassau

• Historisches Ortslexikon - database for today’s Hessen
• Kassel Church Book Archive – list of parish registers already filmed

Hohenzollern

• Gemeindelexikon Hohenzollern’sche Lande 887

Lippe-Detmold

• Bilingual (German/English) gazetteer - includes parish, civil registration office, post office and more

Lübeck

• Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908) - includes a chapter on the Fürstentum Lübeck; read online or download

Mecklenburg-Schwerin

• Gazetteer for Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Mecklenburg-Strelitz

• Gazetteer for Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Oldenburg

• Oldenburg Gazetteer - table
• Oldenburg Parishes - list of parishes for the 1814 area of Oldenburg, with beginning date for records and expert to contact for help

Palatinate (Pfalz)

• Die Kirchenbücher der Bayrischen Pfalz (1925) - parish register inventory
• Rheinhessen and Kurpfalz gazetteer and parish register inventory

Pommern

• Pommern Gemeindelexikon 1885
• Pommern Gemeindelexikon 1905

Posen

• Posen Gemeindelexikon (1908)
• Posen Vital records

Rheinland

• Gemeindelexikon 1885 - PDF that can be downloaded in sections
• Gemeindelexikon 1885 - DigiBib version

Saxon Duchies

• Das Historische Ortsverzeichnis von Sachsen (Digital Historical Gazetteer of Saxony) - Covers some areas; in German; project is based on the “Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon” published beginning in 1813 (13 main volumes plus 5 supplemental volumes).
• To determine districts included: Ämterverzeichnis
• Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon - all original volumes; read online or download.

• Anhalt
• Saxe-Altenburg (Sachsen-Altenburg)
• Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha)
• Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen)
• Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach)
• Reuss-Gera (Junior Line)
• Reuss-Greiz (Senior Line)
• Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt o Sondershausen

Saxony [Kingdom] (Königreich Sachsen)

• Das Historische Ortsverzeichnis von Sachsen (Digital Historical Gazetteer of Saxony) - in German, project is based on the “Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon” published beginning in 1813 (13 main volumes plus 5 supplemental volumes).
• To determine districts included: Ämterverzeichnis
• Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon - all original volumes; read online or download
• Die Kirchenbücher im Königreich Sachsen - parish register inventory

Saxony [Prussian province] (Provinz Sachsen)

• Parish register database - can be searched by localities and parishes
• Handbuch der Provinz Sachsen ( 1854)
• Handbuch der Provinz Sachsen (1839)

Schaumburg-Lippe

• Ortsverzeichnis Schaumburg-Lippe - Schauburg-Lippe gazetteer; parish listings include links to 19th Century emigrants, census records, pictures, maps, websites.
• Ortsverzeichnis Schaumburg-Lippe - Schauburg-Lippe gazetteer; parish listings include links to 19th Century emigrants, census records, pictures, maps, websites.

Schleswig-Holstein

• Gemeindelexikon (1897)
• Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908) - read online or download

Silesia (Schlesien)

• Die Kirchenbücher Schlesiens beider Confessionen (1902) - parish register inventory,

Waldeck-Pyrmont

• Gemeindelexikon (1905) - included with Westfalen, see the addendum beginning on page 131

Westfalen

• Gemeindelexikon (1905) - digitized together with Hannover and Pyrmont; Westfalen begins with image 245

Westpreussen

• Westpresussen Gazetteer and record inventory - in German; links to maps; can search partial place names (at least 4 letters required)

Württemberg

• Evangelical parish database - includes links to other related databases
• Hof- und Staatshandbuch für Württemberg (1901) – several editions can be viewed or downloaded
• Hof- und Staatshandbuch für Württemberg (1907)
• Staatshandbuch (1936)
• History of parish