Prussian Land Registry (Authority)
The Prussian Land Survey (later the Royal Prussian Land Survey ) was a subsidiary budget of the Great General Staff , which was responsible for the production of topographic maps and the necessary surveying work for the German Empire (except Bavaria ).
development
The Prussian Land Registry was created on January 1, 1875 by the establishment of the position “Chief of the Land Registry” by combining several existing parts of the Great General Staff. The Central Directorate of Surveying in the Prussian State , founded in 1870, decided on the work program . The diversity of the individual branches and the requirements for accuracy went far beyond military requirements.
The results of the land survey , i.e. the coordinates of the trigonometric points, the heights of the leveling points and the various maps, were used less for military purposes than to the same extent, if not predominantly for public or private purposes. As early as 1875, the chief of the general staff and in 1912 the chief of the state administration tried again to transfer the tasks to a civil authority. Both times it failed because of the refusal of the civilian side to cover the high costs.
At the outbreak of the First World War , the land registry was dissolved except for the cartographic department. The unpredictably long war led to their re-establishment on April 29, 1917, in particular to better support the war surveying system.
The small Reichswehr could not support an authority of this size. On October 1, 1919, its essential parts were taken over as the Reich Authority under the name "Landesaufnahme, Zweigstelle Berlin" under the Ministry of the Interior and on July 11, 1921, renamed the Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme (RfL).
Today's successor organizations are the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy , the Land Surveying Offices (with various modern names) and the Bundeswehr Office for Geoinformation .
Structure and areas of responsibility
The chief of the land registry was a lieutenant general. On April 1, 1894, a fourth senior quartermaster position was created for him in the Great General Staff with the designation "Senior Quartermaster and Chief of the State Reception".
The following departments were initially subordinate to him:
- Trigonometric department (for geodetic tasks , especially earth measurement and land surveying )
- Topographical department (for the production of the measuring table sheets )
-
Cartographic department (especially processing of general staff maps ) with
- Printing and
- Photographic Institute
- Plan chamber
In addition to the permanent staff of 18 officers, 190 technical officials and workers and 27 people as office and domestic staff (a total of 235 people), there were 8 officers from the General Staff and 15 from the regiments, mostly for the field service, a total of 258 people. Later came:
- Economic Commission of the Land Registry (1878)
- Photogrammetric Department (April 1, 1914)
- Colonial section
- Section for artillery plan material
On April 1, 1914, the Prussian Land Registry included 31 officers, 367 civil servants, 29 salaried employees and 120 workers (a total of 547 permanent staff), plus 51 officers and 313 other soldiers, a total of 911 people.
The land registry, which was re-established on April 29, 1917, was given a new structure:
- Head of the Land Registry
- Chief of staff with staff
- Trigonometric division
- Topographical department
- Photogrammetric department
- Cartographic Department
- Geological Department
- Scientific computing center
- Section for artillery plan material
- Plan chamber
- affiliated: Office of the Central Directorate of Surveys
On October 1, 1919, the following were not included in the "Landesaufnahme, Berlin branch":
- The geological department and the sections that dealt with the map equipment of the field army and with colonial maps were dissolved.
- The scientific computing center and the subordinate section for artillery plan material were taken over into the army command.
On October 1, 1921, the Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme had 602 employees.
literature
- Oskar Albrecht: Contributions to military surveying and mapping and to military geography in Prussia (1803-1921) (= Geoinformationsdienst der Bundeswehr. Series of publications. 2004, Issue 1, ISSN 1865-6978 ). Office for Geoinformation of the Bundeswehr, Euskirchen 2004.
