Online German Gazetteers and Parish Register Inventories

Definitions

Gazetteer: 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.

General

German Empire

• Meyers Gazetteer, see the explanation on the " Germany Gazetteers" page
• The Genealogisches Ortsverzeichnis (GOV)
• For areas east of the Oder-Neisse rivers, Kartenmeister provides church- and civil jurisdictions
• 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 edition - English interface) – Latinized place names. Several volumes/editions are available on multiple websites: 1972 four-volume combined set version

Prussia (Preußen)

• "Prussia, Municipality Gazetteer" - A complete set of the Gemeindelexikon Preußen (1905) volumes. Browse images by volume. Find this set on the Ancestry website by going to "search"; then enter "Gemeindelexikon" in the "keyword search" field. (Hint: A search in the "title" field brings up only the "Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder", a gazetteer for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.)
• Various volumes of the Gemeindelexikon Preußen (1885, 1895, or 1905 editions) are also available on GoogleBooks and the DigiBib (Genealogy.net)

Regional gazetteers and parish register inventories

A number of gazetteers and parish register inventories are available in the Digital Library-Geographie, Kartographie, Topographie of the German Society for Computer Genealogy. . New titles are added regularly.

Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen)

• Ortschaft-Verzeichnis von Elsass-Lotharingen (1880) - locality listing for Alsace-Lorraine
• Die Orte des Elsass (List) - Alsace locality list
• Deutsch-französisches Ortsnamenverzeichnis - German-French place name list (place names only)
• German-French place name list for Alsace (includes higher-level jurisdictions: arrondissement, department, and canton)

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.
• Die Kirchenbücher in Baden (1957) - parish register inventory
• LeoBW Ortslexikon - Historical gazetteer of Baden-Wuerttemberg; does not list parishes for every locality, but provides helpful historical background. Click on "hier" to access place name search.

Bavaria (Bayern)

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

Berlin

• Berlin Street maps City maps for different years from 1738 to 1989
• Directory of historic and current Berlin street names
• Pre-1874 parish register inventory , also available on GoogleBooks

Brandenburg

• Quellen zur Bevölkerungsgeschichte in der Mark Brandenburg bis 1945 (2012) - Sources for social history in Brandenburg up to 1945 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, includes separate lists for civil registration and church records.

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) - Inventory of parish registers and civil registration records for all inhabited places in the State of Hessen, in the DigiBib
• Historisches Ortslexikon - Database for today’s Hessen
• Rheinhessen and Kurpfalz gazetteer/parish register inventory -Table that includes parish jurisdiction, religion, time period covered, and location of the records

Hessen-Nassau

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

Hohenzollern

• Gemeindelexikon Hohenzollern’sche Lande 1887 

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 Inventory of extant records by county and parish

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; the project is based on the “Staats-, Post- und Zeitungslexikon” published beginning in 1813 (13 main volumes plus 5 supplemental volumes), and other regional historical gazetteers.
• 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
• 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
• Digital historical gazetteer of Saxony (some  areas)
• Parish registers of the Evangelical churches in the Province of Saxony

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

• Topographie Holstein (1841) - descriptive gazetteer
• Gemeindelexikon (1897)
• Topographie des Herzogtums Holstein (1908) - read online or download

Silesia (Schlesien)

• Die Kirchenbücher Schlesiens beider Confessionen (1902) - parish register inventory for the Catholic and Lutheran churches in Silesia
• Schlesische Kirchenbücher wo finden - Finding church books from Silesia (alphabetical listing with notes about the whereabouts of the records)

Thuringia (Thüringen)

Die Evangelischen KIrchenbücher Thüringens ( Güldenapfel, 1934)

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

• Westpreussen gazetteer and record inventory- in German; links to maps; can search partial place names (at least 4 letters required)
• West Prussia Parish register Inventory ( Die Kirchenbücher der Provinz Westpreussen by Max Bär, 1908)

Württemberg

• Evangelical parish database - includes links to other related databases
• Hof- und Staatshandbuch für Württemberg (1901) – government directory, several editions can be viewed or downloaded
• Hof- und Staatshandbuch für Württemberg (1907)- government directory
• Staatshandbuch (1936) - government directory
• LeoBW Ortslexikon - historical gazetteer of Baden-Wuerttemberg does not give parishes for all localities but includes history
• Directory of Wuerttemberg parish registers (Duncker, 1938)