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

A number of gazetteers and parish register inventories are available in the Digital Library (DigiBib) of the German Society for Computer Genealogy. They are found under the headings" Geographie, Kartographie, Topographie etc.". 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.
• 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

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

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; 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)

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)

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)

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