Bavaria (Bayern) Maps

For a comprehensive understanding of maps, study the article Germany Maps.

History of the Collection
The borders of Bavaria increased dramatically during the Napoleonic wars (1803-1812) and the changes made at the congress of Vienna (1815). After these changes, the Kingdom of Bavaria began a detailed survey of each village in the kingdom. The survey began about 1810 and was not completed until about 1850. One set of records that resulted from these surveys is a set of very detailed maps of every village of Bavaria at a scale of approximately 1:1000. This is detailed enough that almost every house and every barn is visible.

Arrangement of the Records
The maps of the farm villages show the number of each house. The strips of farm land surrounding each village are numbered to show which strips of farmland belonged to which house.

Scope of the Records
Although every village was surveyed, not all of the maps survive.

Access to the Records
The original maps for all of Bavaria (except the Palatine or Pfalz) are available from the Landesamt für Vermessung und Geoinformation, München, Bayern. A few of the maps are available online at the website Historisches Lexikon Bayerns. Most of the maps are not online, and the online search feature of the website does NOT list which maps are available.

The website Landesamt für Digitalisierung,Breitband und Vermessung has a contact page at Kontak Send an email in English to ask about a map for a specific village. For this set of maps, ask about maps created 1820-1840. In 2010 the cost for a DVD with a digital copy of a map was 40 Euro.

Bavaria in Historical Maps
This app has been available since 2013 on the basis of six georeferenced maps to a fascinating discovery trip through the historical Bavaria. The maps are part of one of the most important card collections in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. 257 map sheets from the 16th to the 19th century were digitized and completely georeferenced.

Through a time beam the user navigates through the centuries and can trace the historical-geographic development of certain regions. A total of over 2,500 points-of-interest provide in-depth representations of places, castles, monasteries and castles in the vicinity of the current location of the user.

The app was created in cooperation with the House of Bavarian History, the Bavarian Administration of State Castles, Gardens and Lakes and the Land Office for Digitization, Broadband and Surveying.

The app is available for free on the iTunes Store and on the Google Play Store.

Other Websites with Bavarian Maps
Here is an interactive mapof Germany

Here is a link to historical, administrative and other maps of Bavaria

Here is a link to maps of the 19th century Bavaria, searchable by towns and regions.


 * 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

Germany Nationwide Maps

 * Ravenstein's Atlas of the German Empire covers Germany as it existed between 1871 and 1914. The maps and accompanying gazetteer from the University of Wisconsin Libraries can be downloaded in sections. Once downloaded, each colored map can be enlarged to show details. Localities are charted down to the parish level.
 * Königliche Preußische Landesaufnahme. Kartographische Abteilung. Karte des Deutschen Reiches (Map of the German Empire). Scale1:100,000. Berlin, Germany: Königliche PreußischeLandesaufnahme, 1914-1917. (FHL film 68,814.) This map will help you find places in the former German Empire as they existed from 1871 to 1914. The detailed maps on this microfilm are in numerical order. A digital verson of this map is available on www.ancestry.com at this link. You can also search the Ancestry card catalog for the term "Ubersichtsblatt" to get to the map set.