South Prussia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

South Prussia (German:Südpreußen) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1793 to 1806. It was created after the second partition of Poland and included the region of Greater Poland. The main city was Posen (Poznań) and in 1806 it had 1,503,508 inhabitants. South Prussia was administered by the General-Direktorium in Berlin until 1806.

German colonists invited to settle on the province's noble estates were known as Hauländer, those on royal crownlands Kolonisten.

Following the conquest of the Napoleonic armies and a Polish rebellion in 1806, it became part of the Duchy of Warsaw, a French client state. After the Congress of Vienna, in 1815 it was divided between the Prussian Grand Duchy of Posen and Congress Poland as a part of the Russian Empire.

The Prussian General-Direktorium records dealing with the history and genealogy of the Prussian part of Poland were taken from the Prussian archives by Napoleon Bonaparte soon after 1806 and transferred to Warsaw. This transfer had the effect that they slumbered there up to this day and have not been used as often as their importance merits. The LDS camera people apparently made no attempt to examine or film them which has been a severe loss to the genealogy of that period. The new Guide to the holdings of the Archiwum Glowne Akt Dawnych in Warsaw (AGAD,1992) apparently is the first attempt to give a very brief listing of the Prussian holdings and hopefully will initiate a wider interest among researchers to compile a more detailed inventory:

• General Ober Finanz-Kriegs-und-Domänen Direktorium
  (briefly known as General-Direktorium)
  Departement Südpreussen, 1793/1795 - 1807 (AGAD, zesp.169)

Abt.I : Universalia , Nr.4 - 1908; 1698 vols.
Abt.II: Hauptverordnungen - Royal Decrees (in Berlin)
Abt.III: Dept. Kalisch, Nr.1 - 244; 241 vols.
Abt. IV: Dept. Posen, Nr.1-273; 268 vols.
Abt. V: Dept. Warschau, Nr.1-168; 168 vols.
Abt.VI: Ortschaften - locality matters, Nr.13 - 3890; 2375 vols.
Abt.VII: Ämter, Nr. 2-1973; 1342 vols.

[edit] Districts

In 1806 the Province of South Prussia had three districts (departments):

• Posen ("Departement der Kriegs- und Domainen-Kammer zu Posen") included the counties ("Kreise") of:
  • Posen
  • Oborniki
  • Meseritz
  • Bomst
  • Fraustadt
  • Krebe
  • Schrim
  • Kosten
  • Krotoschin
  • Peisern
  • Schroda
  • Gnesen
  • Wangrowitz
  • Powitz
  • Brzesk
  • Radziejow
  • Kowal

• Kalisch ("Departement der Kriegs- und Domainen-Kammer zu Kalisch") included the counties ("Kreise") of:
  • Kalisch
  • Adelnau
  • Konin
  • Ostreschow
  • Wielun
  • Lumtomiersk
  • Warta
  • Schadek
  • Sieradz
  • Petrikau
  • Radomsk
  • Czenstochau

• Warschau ("Departement der Kriegs- und Domainen-Kammer zu Warschau") included the counties ("Kreise") of:
  • Warschau
  • Blonin
  • Tschersk
  • Rawa
  • Sochaczew
  • Gostin
  • Orlow
  • Lenczyca
  • Zgierz
  • Brzezin

[edit] See also

• New East Prussia
• Partitions of Poland
• Prussia

Greater Poland

Historical administrative divisions Duchy of Greater Poland (12th-13th centuries) • Poznań Voivodeship and Kalisz Voivodeship (until 1768) • Poznań Voivodeship, Kalisz Voivodeship, Gniezno Voivodeship, and Netze District (until 1793) • South Prussia (until 1806) • Poznań Department, Kalisz Department and Bydgoszcz Department (until 1815) • Grand Duchy of Poznań (until 1846) • Province of Posen (until 1918) • Poznań Voivodeship (until 1939) • Reichsgau Posen (1939) • Reichsgau Wartheland (until 1945) • Poznań Voivodeship (until 1975) • Poznań Voivodeship, Kalisz Voivodeship, Leszno Voivodeship, Konin Voivodeship and Piła Voivodeship (until 1998) • Greater Poland Voivodeship