Germany Population Records

Stadtbücher(City Administrative Records)

"City administrative records are codices that have been used in municipal law firms for administrative purposes since the 13th century. Since then, the term "Stadtbuch" or "liber civitatis" has been documented. Unless a number of different book series were run in a municipal office, the "Stadtbuch" was used to refer to the Code, which lists all matters relevant to the administration or the administration. Thus actions of the court, new citizens, council lists, privilege records, oaths, invoices, tax lists, etc., were introduced into these books. They thus became a central medium which established and preserved social relations, secured procedures, established credibility, arranged knowledge, organized and reorganized and reconstructed traditions.

City administrative records are one of the richest insights into the life of medieval and early modern cities. However, they are among the least researched and therefore hardly used sources. The transmission is extremely wide-spread and therefore difficult to survey. Especially the material from smaller municipalities, which represented the mass of pre-modern cities, is hardly known until now."-- Index Librorum Civitatum

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