Schleswig-Holstein Vital Records

Das Standesamt (Vital Record Office
On October 1, 1874 Prussia established civil registration in its territories and in 1876, January 1, all of Germany followed suit. Each city and county had a Standesamt, big cities have several according to subdivisions. The Standesämter took over from parishes which recorded baptisms, marriages and burials as recorded by the parish clerk or the pastor himself. When the Standesamt took over, the clerk represented the state. He recorded before witnesses the beginning of the marriage, for instance which gave the union legitimacy that also extended to the legitimacy and rights of the children. Today a marriage has to be recorded before the civil registrar first and can then be registered by the church.

Civil registration officers were at first the mayor of the town or the school teacher. Besides recording births, marriages and deaths the administrator of a Standesamt today deals with among others recognitions of fatherhood, overlooks the indexes of testaments, deals with removals from church membership and is involved in population statistics.

A list of which civil registrtion office is responsible for a town in Schlesiwg-Holstein, see