From parish register to the “historical table”: The Prussian population statistics in the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

This overview deals with the development of population statistics in Germany and Prussia, where different streams and trends in the field of statistics can be observed until the end of the 18th century: (1) the so-called university statistics (Staatenkunde); (2) political arithmetic; (3) table statistics; (4) “German Kameralia;” and (5) Prussian financial science. The most important sources for historical demographic research are the parish registers. In Germany, they start in the early or high Middle Ages as baptismal lists. In Prussia in the 16th century, parish registers consisted of entries and items of baptisms (births), marriages, and funerals (deaths). Based upon these parish registers at the end of 17th century in the Brandenburg Electorate, population lists were set up as registers or tables of population movement, as “general registers of the born, the married, the deceased, and the communicants.” Physicians and such Prussian medical authorities as the Collegium medicum and the Collegium sanitatis collected data about the causes of death and the longevity of human life (people more than 90 years old). In the course of 120 years during the 17th and 18th centuries, about 350,000 immigrants came to Brandenburg-Prussia. The Prussians developed excellent migration and census statistics in the form of historical tables. From the founding of the Prussian Office of Statistics in 1805 until its reorganization in 1809–1810, historical tables were set up using population statistics.

Keywords:

• Historical population statistics
• 18th century
• Parish register
• Historical population tables
• Census
• Morality
• Migration statistics

Notes

1 See the works of Hermann Conring in seven volumes (Goebel, 1730), especially Volume 4, Examen rerum publicarum potiorum totius orbis. Conring had given the first lecture on this topic at Helmstädt University in 1660.

2 On p. 163, Seckendorff wrote that “the fortune of the sovereign and the real treasure of the land lay in the multitude of his subjects.”

3 Commissariernes i Osnabrügk och andre betjenter ankomme breef.

4 Concilium Tridentinum. Sessio 24 Cap. 1: “Let the parish priest have a book in which he should write down the names of the husband and wife, the witnesses as well as the day and place of the marriage, which book he should keep carefully at his house.”

5 See Visitation—und Consistorialordnunge von 1573: “We direct each and every pastor to the following consideration and reasoning: that they keep a special register of each and every name of the persons that they or their chaplains marry or baptize, as well as those who die during their tenure; and that they safeguard this register in the place of storage where other church books are kept. They are warned that if such registers are lost or mislaid, that each pastor in our Consistorio shall be fined 10 thalers for their lack of diligence.”

6 Furthermore, see Verordnung nebst einem Schema zur bequemen Einrichtung der Kirchen-Bücher und Erleichterung der vorschriftmäβigen Anfertigung der Jahres-Listen, de dato Berlin den 2. Jan. 1766 in Chr. O. Mylius, Novum Corpus Constituionum, vol. 4, pp. 15–20.

7 See Hattauer (1970, p. 559)—following the main regulations: Marriages: § 483: “Marriages entries must include the first name, last name, and lineage name as well as the ages of both members of the engaged couple; whether they have been previously married or not; and whether they are or are not still under the guardianship of parents and guardians.” Baptisms: § 485 and § 486: “In birth and baptismal entries, pastors should include, in addition to the name of the child, the last name, first name, lineage name, and estate of the godparents. Also, the entry should include a declaration by the parents.”

8 Klopp (1927, pp. 315–320): “The registry office shall have the goal of making easily accessible to the authorities the essence of the required information…” “…in all tables having maximum utility should all information should complete and easy to find” (p. 315); “… In England there exist the admirable practice of preparing the so-called Bills of mortality, which have started to be imitated by the authorities and policy in Paris. These documents show, not only the person who has died, but also in what manner from which sickness, just as it is possible to extract from the birth and marriage certificates of an English scribe much useful about the general circumstances of these events” (p. 318–319).

9 See O. Klopp (Ed.), Die Werke von Leibniz, Erste Reihe, vol. V, p. 320–26, Vorschlag zu einer Medizinal Behörde, 1680; p. 326–337, Essay de quelques raisonnemens nouveaux sur la vie humaine et sur le nombre des hommes and his contribution : Questiones calculi politici circa hominum vitam et cognatae, 1682.

10 See Wöchentlich Berliner Frag-und Anzeigungsnachrichten von allerhand in und auβerhalb der Stadt zu kaufen und verkaufen, zu verleihen und lehnen vorkommenden, auch verlorenen, gefundenen und gestohlenen sachen, so dann Personen, welche Geld lehnen, oder ausleihen wollen, Bedienung oder Arbeit suchen oder zu vergeben haben, auch sondere Nachrichten von Fuhrleuten, Reisenden, Verheiratheten, Geborenen und Verstorbenen, auch dem wöchentlich marck-gängigen Preise des Getreides, briefly called: Intelligenzzettel or Intelligenzblätter.

11 August Albrecht Heinrich von Borgstede in: Nachlaβoβ Rep. 92, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preuβischer Kulturbesitz Berlin. Also, Borgstede (1788): Statistisch-topographische Beschreibung der Kurmark Brandenburg, Th. 1, Berlin 1788, p.172; Otto Behre: Geschichte der Statistik in Brandenburg-Preuβen, Berlin 1905.