Rhenish-Westphalian original cadastre
The Rhenish-Westphalian original cadastre was drawn up from 1819 to 1834 as a property tax cadastre. It was the first nationwide cadastral shot in the Rhine province and the province of Westphalia , the western part of the country Prussia . After the establishment, the cadastre was continuously updated or renewed if necessary.
It created a variety of documents, including overview maps of the municipalities, cadastral maps showing the individual plots and books in which the land with their size, the type of crop and its net earnings were recorded. The number of measurements taken were also documented in hand drawings.
Emergence
At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Prussia was given large areas in the west, which initially formed three provinces, from 1822 the Rhine province and the province of Westphalia. In this area there were several property tax systems, in some parts also older cadastres, which, however, were often drawn up without surveying and without maps.
Initially, the Prussian government did not change the property tax and its distribution in the individual parts of the country. However, there was no uniform and exact basis for collecting the tax, according to which the taxes could be distributed fairly. Therefore, following the example of France, a nationwide uniform cadastre with the measurement of all properties should be drawn up. In the areas on the left bank of the Rhine, which had belonged to France under Napoleon , a cadastral survey and parcel surveying began in 1808, but this was not completed by 1813. In the Duchy of Westphalia from 1807 to 1809, provisional property records were drawn up under the government of Hesse-Darmstadt , and a triangulation was started in preparation for the measurement of the properties. This triangulation was only completed after the change of government by order of the Westphalian President Ludwig von Vincke , later also director general of the land registry in both western provinces.
Under the Prussian government, the cadastre that existed in some parts of the country was initially only continued. In 1817, the senior presidents, together with other high-ranking officials and scientists, decided to set up a Rhenish-Westphalian cadastre according to a uniform plan and tried to get a corresponding cadastral instruction and a law in Berlin. There was resistance from the nobility, who denied the necessity of a parcel survey and thus the measurement of their property. In 1819 the Minister of Finance ordered the immediate resumption of cadastral surveys in the area on the left bank of the Rhine and the beginning of the survey work in the area on the right bank of the Rhine. The law on the establishment of the tax system stipulated in 1820 that the area information for the collection of property tax is based on a parcel and piece measurement. In the same year a cabinet order followed for the continuation and completion of the cadastre in the western provinces.
Surveying and rating
The procedure and the details of the surveying and assessment work were regulated by the Godesberg instructions of 1819, which were based on the French regulations for cadastral surveys ( Recueil méthodique ) and improved them. The regulations were later supplemented and revised several times. The basis for the survey was a triangulation with which a fixed point network was established. The network was compacted by polygonal lines . The further measurements could be connected to this network.
The survey was carried out on a community basis. These so-called tax communities, later called districts , were divided into corridors, also known as sections, each of which was shown on a map sheet, the land map. The individual plots were measured using the orthogonal and integration method. The length of the Prussian rod was 3.766 meters . The measurement was not controlled, so that possible errors in the recording cannot be recognized by contradictions in the measured values . The measurements are documented in hand drawings, an advance compared to the French method, in which only a true-to-scale map had to be created and the measuring table method predominated.
Original numbers were used to calculate the area of the plots, which made it more accurate than a graphic determination. The unit was the Prussian acre of 2553 square meters , which was composed of 180 square rods.
After the measurement, the rating followed, the determination of the net income of the land. There was no nationwide uniform standard for this, but assessment districts, so-called associations, were formed that were as similar as possible according to location and economic structure. In these associations, the net yield per acre (i.e. the gross yield minus management costs) was determined for the different types of crops and the types of crops were divided into classes with a uniform net profit. According to the real estate tax law of 1839, this income was only a ratio that was not to be regarded as an actual net income. Finally, a commission estimated the yield of the properties and divided them into yield classes.
After completing the survey and rating, the results were made known to the owners. In the event of objections, a new measurement was carried out, the costs of which the owner had to bear if the cadastre was correct, or a new assessment. According to the instruction of 1830, once the cadastral survey has been completed, the applicant should always bear the costs of correcting errors.
The establishment of the cadastre was completed in 1834; additions were made by 1839. The land tax law of 1839 regulated the uniform taxation of all properties. For example, land intended for public use, state land, official housing for civil servants, soldiers, teachers and clergy, as well as land used for worship were still tax-free.
Content of the original cadastre
The cadastral instructions stipulated which documents had to be drawn up. The original maps, books and other records were kept with the governments . The communities received copies of maps and books that were intended for use and inspection. The documents created are:
- Overview map of the municipality: It represented the entire municipality, usually on a scale of 1: 10,000 or 1: 20,000.
- Land map: The land maps were island maps in which the properties of a corridor were shown. The scale was dependent on the size of the property and was 1: 5000, 1: 2500 or 1: 1250, in exceptional cases also 1: 625. The land maps not only contain the parcels with their boundaries and numbers, but also the buildings, field names and the paths and streams for which no separate parcels have yet been created. The changes to parcels and buildings have been added to the maps so that they not only show the original condition.
- Land register: The land registers are directories of all parcels of a hallway, which are numbered consecutively for each hallway, with their location, owner, area size, type of crop, class division and net income.
- Parent role: The parent role was used to collect property tax and for each item kept the property of an owner with their location, area size, type of crop, class division and net income.
- Building tax role: This contained the taxed residential buildings and their income classes depending on the rental value.
- Hand cracks: In the hand cracks, which are not to scale, the measured values and other information such as crop type, yield class classification or location descriptions are documented. In contrast to other maps and books, which were updated in the event of changes after the listing, they only contain the information from the original recording.
- Overview hand plan: This overview of the municipality, which is not to scale, also contains the triangulation network and an overview of the crop types with the yield classes.
- Other documents such as the register of landowners, the non-updated registers of property of the owners, the boundary map of the municipality, calculation books and protocols.
Further use
In order to keep the cadastre up-to-date, it had to be updated after completion in the event of changes, for example due to a change of owner or the division of a property. The procedure was regulated in an instruction from 1826 and later improved. Although the cadastre was set up for the purpose of taxation, it also led to a significant reduction in border and property disputes. In the eastern provinces of Prussia, a cadastre was not set up until the 1860s.
There has been continuous evidence of the properties since the original cadastre . The cadastre has been partially renewed through new measurements . This happened on a large scale with separations or later land consolidations .
As the first precise and comprehensive survey, the original cadastre was used, for example, to create city atlases . It shows the cities before the big changes that arose, for example, through industrialization in the 19th century. It is also a source for local history research .
literature
- Gerald Kreucher: The original cadastre in Westphalia (= publications of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Archives . No. 20 ). Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-932892-23-3 ( http://www.archive.nrw.de/lav/abteilungen/westfalen/servicefuerfamilienforschung/kreucher_urkataster.pdf archive.nrw.de [PDF; 4.6 MB ] lecture).
- Manfred Spata: Freiherr vom Stein and the cadastral dispute in 1827 with Freiherr von Vincke . In: News from public surveying in North Rhine-Westphalia . No. 3/2007 , 2007, p. 37–40, 49–53 (37–40 for the original cadastre; 49–53 for the regulations).
- Klemens Wiesemann: History of the property tax and surveying system in the Duchy of Westphalia . Jos. Grobbel Verlag, Fredeburg 1993, ISBN 3-922659-64-0 .