The Legend of Die Karte des deutschen Reiches translated into English

The Legend of Die Karte des deutschen Reiches translated into English

Fritz Juengling Ph.D., AG®

Bärbel Johnson AG®

This paper appeared in The Palatine Immigrant XLVIII:4 (September 2023):22-29.

For more information about the Palatine Immigrant and its publishing organization, Palatines to America German Genealogy Society, see: https://www.palam.org/

The Karte des deutschen Reiches[1](KdR) is an extremely valuable tool to find places in Germany in the late 19th century. It has been included in Meyersgaz.org[2], which is a composite of Meyers Orts- und Verkehrslexicon, die Karte des deutschen Reiches, and Steven W. Blodgett’s parish database. Besides finding a place on the map, there is another reason that the KdR can prove valuable in one’s research. It is valuable to see how people may have moved or travelled. If a family suddenly disappears from a parish and another parish must be searched, considering surrounding terrain might help you find the probable parish to search in, as the next closest parish might not have been the easiest to travel to; rivers, mountains, or forests might have impeded easy travel to the closest parish. So, being able to see various landscape features might help the researcher determine movements of ancestors.

It is the purpose of this article to make the legend to the KdR accessible. Besides the fact that the language of the legend is German and might be difficult for English language speakers, the legend employs many words that are unused or unfamiliar today and many dictionaries will not include them.

Zeichen – Erklaerung

für die

Karte des Deutschen Reiches

im Massstabe von 1: 100 000 d.w. Länge

bearbeitet von der Kgl. Preussischen Landes – Aufnahme,

den topographischen Bureaus des Kgl. Bayerischen und de Kgl. Säschsischen Generalstabes,

sowie von dem statistischen Landesamt des Königreiches Württemberg.

(die auf den älteren Kartenblättern des Preussischen und Säschsischen Generalstabes vorkommenden abweichenden Signaturen werden bei neuer Bearbeitung der Blätter durch untenstehende Zeichen ersetzt.)

Explanation of characters used in die Karte des deutschen Reiches

In the scale of 1:100,000 of actual length, compiled by the Royal Prussian Land Surveyor, the topographical Office of the Royal Bavarian and the Royal Saxon General Administration, as well as the Statistical Land Office of the Kingdom of Württemberg.

(The differing symbols appearing on the older map sheets of the Prussian and Saxon General Administration will be replaced by the characters shown below when the sheets are revised.)

The material from the first four columns is arranged alphabetically[3].

The last column is treated differently, as the size and type of script are the factors, not definitions. This section is kept in the same pattern as that of the legend itself. [1] The Karte des deutschen Reiches can be found at: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~215008~90096410:Legend-for-Karte-des-Deutschen-Reic?sort=pub_list_no_initialsort%2Cpub_date%2Cpub_list_no%2Cseries_no&qvq=q:Karte%20des%20Deutschen%20Reiches;sort:pub_list_no_initialsort%2Cpub_date%2Cpub_list_no%2Cseries_no;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=1&trs=1367

[2] Meyersgaz.org can be found at: https://www.meyersgaz.org/

[3] Illustrations and descriptions of many of the items in this column can be found at: http://maps.mapywig.org/m/m_documents/DE/Bildliche_Darstellung_der_Kartenzeichen_in_den_amtlichen_deutschen_Karten.pdf