Half a century after the “Zimmermann” Johann Georg Knie (1794-1859) published a new and well-structured gazetteer of Silesia including the following data:
- place name in german and its variants in Polish, Sorbian, Czech
- form of settlement (hamlet, village, town)
- civil and church jurisdictions over those places
- location
- manor, population size, religious denominations, schools
- economy, infrastructure
- list of abbreviations, pronunciation of Polish terms
Knie, Johann Georg, Alphabetisch-Statistisch-Topographische Uebersicht aller Dörfer, Flecken, Städte und andern Orte der Königl. Preuß. Provinz Schlesien, mit Einschluß des ganzen jetzt zur Provinz gehörenden Markgrafthums Ober-Lausitz, und der Grafschaft Glatz: nebst beigefügter Nachweisung von der Eintheilung des Landes nach den verschiedenen Zweigen der Civil-Verwaltung, Breslau 1830
Historical gazetteers are an important reference for local history and genealogy. Names of places and their belonging to church-, administration- and jurisdiction districts changed often in former Silesian areas. Friedrich Albert Zimmermann discribed already at the end of the 18. century towns and villages of the following duchies and counties of Prussian-Silesia in 13 volumes of his geographical directory: vol. 1: Duchy of Brieg (Brzeg), vol. 2: Upper Silesia I, vol. 3: Upper Silesia II, vol. 4: Duchy of Münsterberg, vol 5: Duchy of Schweidnitz, vol. 6: Duchy of Jauer, vol. 7: Duchies of Sagan and Wohlau and the Counties of Militsch and Wartenberg, vol. 8: Duchy of Liegnitz, vol. 9: County of Glatz, vol. 10: Duchy of Glogau, vol. 11: City of Breslau, vol. 12: Duchy of Breslau, Band 13: place and subject index and a chronicle of Oberglogau.
To browse the single volumes online at Silesian Digital Library it is necessary to install the djvu-Browser-Plugin.
Round 1900 Georg Dehio established a guide to the German architectural monuments (Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler). It is a comprehensive reference book for people interested in the history of arts. At the same time the “Dehio” can serve as a detailed and compact guide for discovering architectural treasures off the beaten tourist tracks.
The “Dehio” series is expanded and updated constantly. Meanwhile buildings of the 19th century, of the modern era as well as technical monuments are part of this reference book. Information about single monuments are amended by introductions to municipal history of larger towns and cities considering which take into consideration also aspects of preservation and urban development. Maps, indexes of street and place names, registers of objects and artists and and a glossary make the use of the “Dehio” very easy and comfortable.
Reclams art guides (Reclams Kunstführer) are a similar series of reference books to art monuments. They are less encyclopaedic and addressed to a broader readership. Therefore they contain photographs and information about museums, collections, etc. The series was published between 1958 and 1994 and contains volumes to Germany (without the regions of the former GDR), Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Turkey.
Since December, 14th 2007, the memorial book “Gedenkbuch - Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945″ is accessible as an online-database at the website of the Federal Archives of Germany. The second print edition of the memorial book (2006) constitutes the main corpus of data. Beyond that the database contains information about Jews that held the Polish citizenship but lived and worked in Germany and were deported in 1938/39 to the Polish border.
The database is searchable by first name (Vorname), last name (Familienname), birthname (Geburtsname), place and date of birth (Geburtsort, Geburtsdatum), last residence (Wohnort), place and date of deportation (Deportationsort, Deportationsdatum).
Users are encouraged to add their information contacting the archive.
The collection mapping project Handbuch der historischen Buchbestände in Deutschland, Österreich und Europa (Fabian 1992, 1997) is now available on b2i, a research portal for the subjects of library, book and information sciences. The handbook provides information about libraries and collections mainly in Germany and Austria , furthermore in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Great Britain und Ireland. It is planned to extend the coverage to Switzerland and South Tyrol.
The Deutsches Wörterbuch (”German dictionary”) is still considered the standard reference for German etymology. It was started by the Grimm Brothers in 1838 and the first major step in creating a standardized German language since Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible to German.
When the project finally was finished in 1961, the dictionary contains 32 volumes and includes about 350,000 main entries.
Editions: Grimm, Jacob / Grimm, Wilhelm: Deutsches Wörterbuch
- original: Hirzel, ISBN 978-3-7401-0000-1, 4990 €
- paperback reprint: dtv, ISBN 978-3-423-59045-7, 499 €
- CD-ROM: Zweitausendeins, ISBN 978-3-86150-639-3, 49,90 €
- online: Universität Trier, DBW-Online, free
Current results in scientific research are particularly published and discussed in journals and anthologies.
Online catalogs of libraries very often do not contain bibliographical references to articles. The latter can be found in databases related to specific fields of research.
These databases mostly are not available online, but Litdok provided by the Herder-Institut Marburg is. Litdok contains bibliographical references to articles on the history of East Central Europe. A user interface
with the possibility to choose between ten languages and multilingual subject headings offer a comfortable search for literature in different languages.
In the next months we will introduce a sequence of digitalization projects of JewishGen or, respectively Jewish Records Indexing - Poland. We start with the Polish Business Directory from 1929 (including Gdansk) for trade, industry, handicraft and agriculture.
Browsing the singular PDF-files is rather uncomfortable as access is realized only by Voivodships of Poland. If possible it might be easier to order the printed version
to the reading-room of a library:
Księga Adresowa Polski (Wraz z w.m. Gdańskiem) dla Handlu, Przemysłu, Rzemiosł I Rolnictwa / Annuaire de la Pologne (y compris…Dantzig) pour le commerce,
l’industrie, les métiers et l’agriculture
Modern sociology of religion defines superstition as a concept that targets at either idealization or depreciation of knowledge for accomplishing reality. The major work in this field which is essential for understanding sources of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times and possessed by scientific libraries has recently been published as a reprint.
This encyclopaedia could be ordered at the bookstore Zweitausendeins on special offer.
Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli (Ed.): Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens. 10 Vol. Berlin und Leipzig: De Gruyter, 1929-1942 (reprint 2000: ISBN 3-11-016860-X)
The 68 volumes of “Zedlers Universallexikon”, the most important German encyclopedia of the 18th century, are an essential means for historical research. Consulting these folios - heavy and binded in hogskin - in the dignified atmosphere of a reading room doubtlessly is a sensual pleasure. Nevertheless
all those people that miss a well-equipped library nearby or who look for comfortable search possibilities now can use Zedlers Universallexikon online. It is provided by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Access is possible via encyclopedia entries or index search.
