Census in the German Reich 1939

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ordinance on the establishment of a people's index dated April 21, 1939

The 1939 census was a census carried out in the German Reich . Originally planned for 1938, it was postponed to May 17, 1939 because of the "Anschluss of Austria" . The security service of the Reichsführer SS and the Secret State Police hoped to use this opportunity to obtain data for a Jewish index .

Previous censuses

The first census at the time of the Weimar Republic took place in 1919 and did not include any question of religious affiliation. In the same year, Article 136 of the Weimar Constitution created a constitutional basis for such questions. In 1925 a combined population, occupation and company census was carried out. The next census was planned for 1930, but was postponed several times due to the dire financial situation and only carried out on June 16, 1933. The population, occupation and company census also asked about religious affiliation; At the express request of Achim Gercke from the later Reichssippenamt , the place of birth was also asked "for the purpose of investigating folk-biological questions". The evaluation of all data was not completed until 1936.

preparation

As early as the spring of 1936, the Reich Statistical Office promoted another combined national, occupational and company census in 1938, justifying this with the fact that the results of the previous census were outdated by the development work and reorganization of the economy and new data for the military economy and military strength would have to be collected. The Reich Office only briefly dealt with the “Jewish question” and questioned whether “the recording of all Judaism and mixed Jews, even if they do not belong to the Mosaic religion, is still necessary”.

On July 12, 1937, in the presence of Adolf Eichmann, the "Security Service of the Reichsführer SS" and the Secret State Police held a meeting about the cooperation between the Party and the state in establishing a comprehensive Jewish index. "Supplementary cards" were requested for the planned census. There the religious affiliation of all four grandparents should be indicated, whereby the "racial affiliation" could be determined. Imprisonment should be threatened for false information. This enabled all “full Jews”, “ valid Jews ” and mixed Jewish people defined in the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act to be recorded. In order to avoid duplication of work, the compilation of a comprehensive Jewish index should be postponed until the census.

Because of the annexation of Austria , the census was postponed to 1939. The evaluation of the collected data lasted until March 1941.

Controversial interpretations

Denominations in Germany at the census May 17, 1939.
  • Protestant or Catholic church members (94.5%)
  • Believer in God (3.5%)
  • Jews (0.4%)
  • Other religions (0.1%)
  • Faithful (1.5%)

    • The question of whether and when the statistical secret practiced before 1933 and now legally enshrined in the National Socialist era was disputed and the statistical office was involved in the persecution of Jews. The "supplementary card" with personal data on "blood descent" had to be delivered in a sealed envelope which, according to the label, could only be opened by the statistical office.

    Kurt Horstmann, head of department at the Federal Statistical Office at the time , considered it unlikely that this information could have got into the hands of the Gestapo before the end of 1941 : Rather, the security service could easily obtain the relevant data from other forms of registration, registry office registers, income tax cards, etc.

    Götz Aly , on the other hand, was convinced that German officials [...] immediately transferred this information about the religious affiliation of the four grandparents, which was made in the "alleged protection of statistical secrecy and with the threat of punishment", to the column 'descent' of the police register. "According to Saul Friedländer's account," caused the local police for ensuring that the census cards of Jews and mixed race had the letter 'J'; Copies of all local census lists should be sent to the SD and forwarded to II 112. "

    In her dissertation, Jutta Wietog rejects this description and suspects a mix-up with the “people's card index ” set up a short time later . The evaluation of the supplementary maps lasted until March 1941; beforehand the Reich Statistical Office gave only selective information. From April 1941 the supplementary cards were sent to the registration authorities, from the end of 1941 they went on to the Reichssippenamt . Wietog therefore considers it unlikely that the data collected in the census were used to a large extent for the transport lists for the deportation of German Jews . The thesis that the personal data of the referendum was misused through a comparison of the population register has not been dispelled and the facts are not considered to have been adequately clarified. For the " Ostmark " at that time , however, it can be assumed with a very high degree of probability that the census data were not misused for "transport lists" of the extermination camps, since in autumn 1939 the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde in Vienna - presumably by Adolf Eichmann - was forced to " Faithful Jews ”with their home address, date of birth and name and another“ special census ”of the so-called“ Non-Faithful Jews ”took place.

    A publication by the Bavarian State Office for Statistics and Data Processing leaves the question unanswered as to whether and to what extent the data on the supplementary card were misused from April 1941 to supplement existing Jewish files. According to an analysis of the 45,672 handwritten comments on the supplementary cards of Jewish households in Berlin, most of which are dated August to December 1941, the Berlin “supplementary cards” were first sent to the Reich Labor Service by the registration authorities in early autumn 1941 on their way to the Reichssippenamt. However, the censuses of 1933 and 1939 then exemplified the abuse of official statistics by a totalitarian regime: data were passed on to other agencies and falsified, used for propaganda or misused for surveillance purposes.

    Results

    All figures refer to the territorial status of May 16, 1939, but without the Memelland (approx. 150,000 Ew.).

    Population numbers

    Detailed population figures (from line 15 without those serving in the Reich Labor Service (RAD) or in the military ):

    row What was counted Population numbers percent
    1 Reich territory as a whole; with RAD (m / f) and military (m) 79.375.281 100
    2  of which (line 1): RAD (male / female) and military (male) 1.330.023 1.68
    3 Total Reich territory (excluding RAD and military) 78.045.258 98.32
    4th   Men to row 1 38,761,645 48.83
    5   Women to line 1 40,613,636 51.17
    6th   100 years old and older (to line 1) 16 (3 men, 13 women)
    7th   Married (on line 1) 36,764,476
    (18,382,238 married couples)    		 46.32
    8th   Single (to line 1) 36,732,511 46.28
    9   Widowed men (on line 1) 1,217,799 1.53
    10   Widowed women (on line 1) 3,850,922 4.85
    11   Divorced (to line 1) 809.574 1.02
    12   in large cities (> 100,000 inhabitants, to line 1) 24.187.422 30.47
    13   in municipalities from 2,000 to less than 100,000 inhabitants (to line 1) 29,875,968 37.64
    14th   in municipalities with less than 2,000 inhabitants (to line 1) 25,311,877 31.89
    15th Prussia 40.941.155 51.58 100
      Prussian areas:
    15 a     East Prussia Province 2,413,447 3.04 5.89
    15 b     Mark Brandenburg Province 2,912,388 3.67 7.11
    15 c     Pomeranian Province 2,330,445 2.94 5.69
    15 d     Province of Silesia 4,788,452 6.03 11.7
    15 e     Province of Saxony 3,549,429 4.47 8.67
    15 f     Schleswig-Holstein Province 1,538,888 1.94 3.76
    15 g     Hanover Province 3,406,496 4.29 8.32
    15 h     Province of Westphalia 5,146,791 6.48 12.57
    15 i     Hesse-Nassau Province 2,632,836 3.32 6.43
    15 y     Rhine Province 7,827,795 9.86 19.12
    15 k     Hohenzollern country 73.169 0.09 0.18
    15 l     Berlin 4,321,521 5.44 10.56
    16 Bavaria 8,050,473 10.14
    17th Saxony 5,158,329 6.5
    18th Württemberg 2,851,385 3.59
    19th to bathe 2,457,323 3.1
    20th Thuringia 1,713,849 2.16
    21st Hanseatic City of Hamburg 1,698,388 2.14
    22nd Hesse 1,445,933 1.82
    23 Mecklenburg 876.412 1.10
    24 Braunschweig 569.171 0.72
    25th Oldenburg 555.916 0.70
    26th Bremen 445.067 0.56
    27 Stop 420.606 0.53
    28 lip 183.713 0.23
    29 Schaumburg-Lippe 52.053 0.07
    30th Saarland 823.978 1.04
    31 Sudetenland 2,919,648 3.68
    32 Austria 6,881,457 8.67 100
      Austrian areas:
    33     Vienna 1,912,608 2.41 27.79
    34     Lower Danube 1,671,458 2.11 24.29
    35     Upper Danube 1,018,721 1.28 14.80
    36     Styria 1,107,039 1.39 16.09
    37     Carinthia 439.721 0.55 6.39
    38     Salzburg 253,618 0.32 3.69
    39     Tyrol 323,456 0.41 4.70
    40     Vorarlberg 154,836 0.20 2.25

    Age structure

    Age pyramid 1939 (from the figures in the table below); Men on the left, women on the right. The strong constriction is due to the bad times around and after the First World War (see, inter alia, turnip winter , Spanish flu and German inflation 1914 to 1923 ); the men born before 1900 do not have fallen from the First World War
    Age Surplus of men Men Women Excess of women vintage
    1 33,805 747.901 714.096 1938
    2 27,344 680.528 653.184 1937
    3 26,827 664.089 637.262 1936
    4th 25,228 654.460 629.232 1935
    5 26,292 654.306 628.014 1934
    6th 20,993 547.317 526.324 1933
    7th 18,541 518.730 500.189 1932
    8th 20,610 541,697 521.087 1931
    9 17.602 581,308 563,706 1930
    10 18,648 600.146 581,498 1929
    11 17,147 608.494 591,347 1928
    12 16,995 606.106 589.111 1927
    13 18.005 617,688 599,683 1926
    14th 19,382 645,337 625.955 1925
    15th 17,447 661.117 643.670 1924
    16 20,606 651.030 630,424 1923
    17th 19.096 676.628 657.532 1922
    18th 21,509 721.690 700.181 1921
    19th 26,116 738.821 712.705 1920
    20th 31,522 718.441 686.919 1919
    21st 15,560 387,639 372.079 1918
    22nd 14,854 351.454 336,600 1917
    23 14,652 390.501 375.849 1916
    24 13,663 441.094 427.431 1915
    25th 10.121 674.141 664.020 1914
    26th 9,428 694.061 684,633 1913
    27 12,969 717.826 704.857 1912
    28 11,037 708.156 697.119 1911
    29 11,797 709.645 697.848 1910
    30th 10,034 731,438 721.404 1909
    31 8,868 738.078 729.210 1908
    32 10,432 733.039 722607 1907
    33 7,065 730.123 723.058 1906
    34 5,716 701.675 695,959 1905
    35 3,033 694.211 691.178 1904
    36 1,734 684.381 682,647 1903
    37 1,711 686.616 684.905 1902
    38 1,807 687.933 686.126 1901
    39 653.870 657.044 3,174 1900
    40 623.471 651.425 27,954 1899
    41 577,660 640,869 63.209 1898
    42 541,826 627.640 85.814 1897
    43 511.903 621.068 109,165 1896
    44 479.379 599,971 120,592 1895
    45 458.206 586,927 128,721 1894
    46 448.605 575.939 127,334 1893
    47 432.174 550.301 118.127 1892
    48 420,896 539.015 118.119 1891
    49 428.941 528.993 100.052 1890
    50 421.255 517.907 96,652 1889
    51 417.064 506.236 89.172 1888
    52 421,893 503,883 81,990 1887
    53 406.938 482,401 75,463 1886
    54 402.119 473,959 71,840 1885
    55 391.739 457.125 65,386 1884
    56 377.471 437.116 59,645 1883
    57 377.163 432.940 55,777 1882
    58 365.965 416.478 50,513 1881
    59 355,634 401.964 46,330 1880
    60 361,488 409.419 47,931 1879
    61 359,338 405.002 45,664 1878
    62 351.778 392.135 40,357 1877
    63 341.911 380,957 39,046 1876
    64 338.705 375.106 36,401 1875
    65 311.825 345.066 33.241 1874
    66 294,895 326.832 31,937 1873
    67 275,422 307.073 31,651 1872
    68 236.295 261,619 25,324 1871
    69 231.213 257,513 26,300 1870
    70 231,747 261.283 29,536 1869
    71 201,441 229,850 28,409 1868
    72 187.413 214,789 27,376 1867
    73 172.232 201,337 29,105 1866
    74 155.391 184,431 29,040 1865
    75 139.251 167.978 28,727 1864
    76 127,785 157.030 29,245 1863
    77 109.166 135.020 25,854 1862
    78 91,870 115.036 23,166 1861
    79 82,406 105.289 22,883 1860
    80 72.293 95,499 23.206 1859
    81 59,907 79,899 19,992 1858
    82 49,642 67,763 18,121 1857
    83 37,892 53,244 15,352 1856
    84 30,010 42,799 12,789 1855
    85 23,133 34,398 11,265 1854
    86 19,422 29,716 10,294 1853
    87 13,508 21,429 7,921 1852
    88 10,674 17,270 6,596 1851
    89 7,773 12,862 5,089 1850
    90 5,337 9,349 4.012 1849
    91 3,532 6.339 2,807 1848
    92 2,064 3,808 1,744 1847
    93 1,428 2,624 1,196 1846
    94 919 1,740 821 1845
    95 591 1,265 674 1844
    96 370 783 413 1843
    97 208 526 318 1842
    98 195 355 160 1841
    99 114 240 126 1840
    100 41 100 59 1839
    101 3 13 10 1838
    38,761,645 40,613,636

    Administrative units

    There were five levels: “Land” (1), “Province” (2) (only in Prussia), “Administrative Region” (3), “District” (4) and “Municipality” (5). The names for the middle levels were not uniform. In the table below, they are assigned to the five levels regardless of their name.

    level Surname number
    1 countries 15th
    2 (Prussian) provinces 10
    3 Administrative districts 53
    3 Berlin and Hamburg 2
    4th Circles 670
    4th Counties 223
    4th Counties and counties together 893
    4/5 City districts 225
    4th Counties, rural districts, urban districts together 1128
    5 Small towns (from 10,000 inhabitants) 410
    4/5 Cities of all sizes 637

    Information on "Jews"

    The census recorded people who were classified as “Jewish” (as opposed to German-blooded ) following the First Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act.

    classification German Reich (within the borders of January 1, 1938,
    excluding Ostmark , Sudeten German areas and Memelland )
    Total population "Old Reich area" 69,316,526
    "Full Jews" 233,846
    of which "religious Jews" 213.930
    "Valid Jews" approx. 6000 or 8,500
    "Mixed race 1st degree" 52.005
    "Mixed race 2nd degree" 32,669
    serves as a line break, please do not remove it
    classification Austria Vienna Austrian federal states
    Total population of the "Ostmark" 6,650,306
    "Full Jews" 94,530 91,530 3,000
    of which "religious Jews" 81,943 79,919 2,024
    "Valid Jews" 1,512 1,452 60
    Sum of the "Jews"
    (in the sense of the 1st regulation of the Reich Citizenship Law )     		96,042 92,982 3,060
    "Mixed race 1st degree" 16,938 14,858 2,080
    "Mixed race 2nd degree" 7,391 5,955 1,537
    serves as a line break, please do not remove it

    Official publication

    • The population of the German Reich, according to the results of the 1939 census. Part: H. 1., Stand, Entwicklung u. Way of settlement d. Population d. German Empire: table part . Berlin: Verl. F. Social policy, economy, etc. Statistics, 1943
    • The population of the German Reich, according to the results of the 1939 census. Part: H. 5., The foreigners in the German Reich: table. Berlin: Verl. F. Social policy, economy, etc. Statistics, 1943
    • The families in the German Reich: the marriages after d. Number d. born children. Editing in the stat. Reich Office . Berlin: Verl. F. Social policy, economy, etc. Statistics, 1943
    • Census. 1.4. The Jews and Jewish mixed race in the German Reich . Berlin, 1944
    • Census. 2. Households in the German Reich . Berlin, 1944
    • Official municipality register for the Greater German Reich based on the 1939 census . Berlin: Publishing house for social policy, economy and statistics, Paul Schmidt, 1944

    Publication of the supplementary maps

    A digitized version of the supplementary maps of the census of May 17, 1939 was published on the Internet by Tracing the Past eV. The publication contains around 410,000 original entries with various search options. The entries have been expanded with biographical information from the list of residents of the Federal Archives .

    See also

    literature

    • Gudrun Exner; Peter Schimany: The census in Austria and the registration of the Austrian Jews. In: Rainer Mackensen (Ed.): Population research and politics in Germany in the 20th century. Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-15121-5 .
    • Jutta Wietog: Censuses under National Socialism. Documentation on population statistics in the Third Reich. Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-10384-X .
    • Census. The population of the German Reich according to the results of the 1939 census. Statistics of the German Reich, vol. 552, Berlin 1944.

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ Jutta Wietog: censuses under Nazism. Documentation on population statistics in the Third Reich. Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-10384-X , p. 40 u. 246.
    2. ↑ Jutta Wietog: Population censuses ... , p. 82.
    3. ↑ Document 288. In: The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 . Vol. 1: 1933-1937, Munich 2008, pp. 680 f., ISBN 978-3-486-58480-6 .
    4. ↑ Illustration of an additional map  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.archiv.sachsen.de  
    5. ↑ Legal basis: 1937 RGBl. I, 1053/1938 RGBl. I, 796/1939 RGBl. I, 281 / VO of January 21, 1939 in the Reichsminsterialblatt - printed in Statistics of the German Reich , NF Bd. 552.1 Nachdr. Osnabrück 1975.
    6. ↑ Manfred Gailus & Armin Nolzen: Quarreled "Volksgemeinschaft": Faith, Denomination and Religion in National Socialism . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 9783647300290 , p. 196 (accessed December 30, 2018).
    7. ↑ Illustration in Jutta Wietog: Volkszählungen ... , p. 274.
    8. ↑ Jutta Wietog: Censuses ... , p. 13.
    9. ↑ Götz Aly; Karl Heinz Roth: The complete coverage. Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 7, ISBN 3-596-14767-0 .
    10. ↑ Saul Friedländer: The Third Reich and the Jews. (Special edition) Munich 2007, p. 218, ISBN 978-3-406-56681-3 .
    11. ↑ Jutta Wietog: Population censuses ... , p. 14.
    12. ↑ Jutta Wietog: Population censuses ... p. 276.
    13. ↑ Gudrun Exner, Peter Schimany: The census in Austria ... , p. 154.
    14. ↑ Gudrun Exner; Peter Schimany: The census in Austria… , pp. 148–151.
    15. ↑ An Analysis of the Reichsarbeitsdienst Notations in the 1939 German "Minority Census" https://www.academia.edu/42118968/An_Analysis_of_the_Reichsarbeitsdienst_Notations_in_the_1939_German_Minority_Census_
    16. ↑ 200 years of official statistics in Bavaria, 1808 to 2008 (pdf; 2.5 MB), p. 39 (accessed on 23 September 2012).
    17. ^ The population of the German Reich according to the results of the 1939 census, No. 2; Berlin 1941.
    18. ↑ Figures (unless otherwise noted) from Die Juden und Jewish Mischlinge in the German Empire. In: Census. The population of the German Reich according to the results of the 1939 census. Statistics of the German Reich, Bd. 552, H. 4, Berlin 1944.
    19. ↑ Jutta Wietog: Population censuses ... , p. 157.
    20. ↑ Statistics of the German Empire , NF Vol. 552.1.
    21. ^ Dieter Maier: Labor deployment and deportation. the involvement of the labor administration in the National Socialist persecution of the Jews in the years 1938–1945 Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-127-6 , p. 205.
    22. ↑ Calculated according to information from Beate Meyer: Jüdische Mischlinge. Racial politics and experience of persecution 1933–1945. Hamburg 1999, p. 162, ISBN 3-933374-22-7 .
    23. ↑ Gudrun Exner; Peter Schimany: The census in Austria ... , p. 142.
    24. ↑ See (last accessed on November 28, 2018) the website of Mapping the Lives