As a result of wars and political realignments, the internal and external boundaries of Germany have changed several times. Place-names and county, province, and state jurisdictions have also changed, often more than once. Because of these changes, you may not be able to find the name of your German ancestor's town on a modern map. You may also have trouble determining the jurisdiction where their records were kept.

This section describes the changes that have taken place in Germany's state structure. This information will help you find records in the Family History Library Catalog for the place where your ancestors lived.

The territory of Germany has varied considerably over the centuries. Until 1871 Germany consisted of numerous independent kingdoms, duchies, principalities, and states, whose borders often changed and merged. These changes often make it hard to determine which archive has the particular records you need. In 1871 all states except the Austrian states were consolidated into the German Empire under the leadership of Preußen.

The Family History Library Catalog is based on German jurisdictions as they existed from 1871 until World War I, regardless of earlier or later changes. Places that are now under foreign jurisdiction but were part of the German Empire in 1871 are listed under both GERMANY, PREUßEN, [PROVINCE], [TOWN] and also under their present location, such as POLAND, RUSSIA, LITHUANIA, FRANCE, or DENMARK.

Boundaries

Several boundary changes occurred after World War I. Elsaß-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) was returned to France in 1918. A few towns and villages of Rheinland were ceded to Belgium. The northern tip of Ostpreußen (East Prussia) was given to Lithuania. The northern part of Schleswig-Holstein passed from Germany to Denmark in 1920. Compare the maps in at the beginning of this outline to see how the boundaries have changed.

After World War II, other former Prussian areas, such as Posen, most of Schlesien, Westpreußen, and parts of Pommern, became part of Poland. Russia and Poland split Ostpreußen, and a tiny part of Schlesien went to the Czech Republic.

Each nation or state determined its own record-keeping practices. You may find that records differ in what they contain and where they are kept according to who ruled that area when the record was created.

States and Provinces

The German Empire, created in 1871, was made up of a patchwork of German-speaking duchies, principalities, and states. These areas often had little in common. The Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog uses 38 state or province divisions for Germany. For a list of these states and provinces, see the German States and Provinces table in the "Gazetteer" section of this outline. More information about four of the most complex states follows.

Preußen. The largest, most powerful German state was Preußen (Prussia). It was divided into 13 large provinces (see table in the "Gazetteer" section of this outline). Only two of the provinces had the name “Preußen” in them, but citizens from all 13 provinces were Prussians. Thus, a resident of Rheinland often said he or she was from Preußen. Most Prussian emigrants to foreign countries came from the provinces of Rheinland, Hessen-Nassau, or Westfalen. The catalog lists each town in Preußen behind its state and province, as in this example: GERMANY, PREUßEN, RHEINLAND, THÜR.

Sachsen. Sachsen (Saxony) covered a wide band of Germany from the North Sea to the Czech Republic. The three modern German states carrying this name are Niedersachsen, Sachsen, and Sachsen-Anhalt. The Family History Library Catalog lists several old Empire states under Sachsen:

• Sachsen (the kingdom)
• Preußen Sachsen (the province)
• Thüringen (the Duchies of Sachsen)
• Sachsen-Altenburg
• Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha
• Sachsen-Meiningen
• Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach