Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission zu Berlin

In the past, Berlin flourished as a capital city, not so much due to the subsidies provided by Prussia and the empire but because these regimes understood and utilized it as a capital city. It became an imperial city and then a legendary European metropolis in a rather indirect way. This volume examines the relationship between capital city and state, as well as the independent role that Berlin had as a flourishing center of business and finance.

This volume sheds light on the role played by progeny in maintaining dynasties in early modern royal courts as well as the horizontal and vertical interplay between the actors. It attempts to break through the narrative of older research that saw dynasties as a series of male rulers. Instead, these contributions focus on how progeny were viewed at the time and the future scenarios associated with them.

Before WWII, Victor Herold (1890–1956) edited the Brandenburg Church Visitation records from the Reformation period for the Prignitz, the State of Ruppin, the Uckermark, and the Mittelmark. In the wake of wartime losses, Herold’s manuscripts have acquired the quality of original sources. The index volume for the three “Mittelmark” part volumes includes common indexes of persons, places and subjects.

Before WWII, Victor Herold (1890–1956) edited the Brandenburg Church Visitation records from the Reformation period for the Prignitz, the State of Ruppin, the Uckermark, and the Mittelmark. In the wake of wartime losses, Herold’s manuscripts have acquired the quality of original sources. The “Eastern Mittelmark” includes the cities of Frankfurt (Oder), Wriezen, Eberswalde, Bernau, Strausberg, Fürstenwalde, Münchenberg, Beeskow and Storkow.

Victor Herold edited the records of the Brandenburg Church Visitations during the Reformation period for the Prignitz, the State of Ruppin, the Uckermark and the Mittelmark. After extensive wartime losses, his manuscripts have taken on great value as sources in their own right. This volume includes the cities of Spandau, Potsdam, Nauen, Rathenow, Friesack, Brandenburg (Havel), Treuenbrietzen, and Beelitz along with their surrounding villages.

Before the Second World War, Victor Herold edited the Brandenburg church visitation records of the Reformation period for the Prignitz, the land of Rupping, the Uckermark, and the Mittelmark. After the extensive loss of original documents during the war, Herold’s manuscripts have their own value as sources. The “Central Mittelmark” includes the cities of Berlin/Cölln, Altlandsberg, Köpenick, Mittenwalde, Teltow, Trebbin, and Zossen.

Three Prussian reform universities were originally founded as Friedrich-Wilhelm Universities: Berlin, Breslau and Bonn. These represented a new, forward looking type of university created by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The authors of the articles in this volume investigate both the shared features of the "Berlin model" and the differences between the three universities in terms of concept and development. The convention which gave rise to this volume was held to mark the 200th anniversary of the Humboldt University in 2010. The edition of the Matriculation Registers of the University of Berlin, presented on this occasion, is also available as Volume 86 of the Individual Publications of the Historical Commission.

By addressing the problem of Berlin’s cross-border commuters, the author traces a hitherto largely neglected phenomenon in contemporary history. Until the building of the Berlin Wall, numerous inhabitants of the divided city worked in their “other” Berlin. However, the Cold War and conflicting economic systems made commuting across the Iron Curtain a problem that plunged many into conflict and was symptomatic like no other of the tensions in the divided city. This account opens a new window on a time of extraordinary challenges in politics and everyday life.

The self-image of the Federal Republic of Germany was always reflected in the treatment of its capital, Bonn. To start with, Bonn's architecture remained as visibly provisional as the Federal Republic was intended to be. Later, as the power blocs became more firmly entrenched, Bonn was provided first with more representative government buildings, and then later with museums and other insignia of capital status. The municipal coffers received more and more support. At the same time, West Berlin increasingly lost its role as an outpost of the Free West. This book examines the period from 1949 to 1999, the half-century in which the government and the Federal Parliament were located in Bonn. It makes a contribution to the history of the Federal Republic, of the city of Bonn, and of the financing of the capital city.

Was Berlin in a better financial state as the Imperial capital from 1871-1945 than it is today? Up to now, hardly any historical studies of the capital have dealt intensively with its financing. The present study is the first to use a model calculation with concrete data to analyze how Berlin was funded as a capital, and how its function as a capital affected the overall economic performance of the city. Following a definition of monetary transfers relevant to the capital and a description of the expansion of the capital city (administrative buildings and staff), the budgets of Prussia and the German Reich are examined for all payments relevant to the budgets and are compared with the urban development of Berlin. The study reveals that prior to 1945 exorbitant sums of money flowed into the city's economy from the Reich and from Prussia.

An outline biography of Robert Koch, the founder of bacteriology in Germany. This study evaluates Koch's opus postumum, which has been forgotten, and presents a new view of the personality and working methods of this Nobel laureate. In addition, it contains a complete catalogue of the documentation relevant to Koch's curriculum vitae and the relevant notes, working materials and letters. Because of the criteria for accessing the documents and the locations of the documents, the book is indispensible for librarians and archivists.

Das Staatsverständnis der Amtsträgerschaft in der Zeit des altpreußischen Absolutismus ist Thema dieses Bandes. Herausgearbeitet wird es in der Untersuchung der Strukturbedingungen der Behördenentwicklung, der zeitgenössischen geistesgeschichtlichen Hintergründe und des Staatsdenkens im 18. Jahrhundert.

Aus dem Blickwinkel seiner Träger ergibt sich ein in mancherlei Hinsicht neues Bild des Staatswesens. Sieg zeigt die Traditionslinien bei der Herrschaftslegitimation und das späte Aufkommen einer abstrakten Staatsidee ebenso wie die praktischen Gründe der zugrunde liegenden Mentalität. Zudem erweist sich, dass die Wertorientierung des Staatsdenkens über eine spezifisch absolutistisch-obrigkeitsstaatliche Ausrichtung hinaus ging.

This is the first comprehensive source-based account of the fate that befell the books in the largest German library after 1939. During the war, nearly all the books and manuscripts were evacuated from Berlin. Later, parts of the stock were plundered and damaged. Significant stocks are today located in Poland and Russia.

The new findings, some of them quite surprising, are registered and illustrated in an appendix with extracts from the sources, illustrations, evacuation tables, an index and a coloured outline map.

An account of the upper classes and parts of the middle classes in 17th century Berlin and Cölln in the context of the overall development in Brandenburg and Prussia.

This analytical prosopographic study of urban and family history is the first to evaluate Protestant funeral orations and describes baroque life in Berlin in the early modern age. The author shows how family relationships are gradually superseded by a developing meritocracy. Individual biographies are related, and for the first time researchers are presented with genealogical and family tables; in addition, a map gives a novel insight into the educational tours undertaken at that time.

Using the examples of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory and the Royal Medical Manufactory, the study examines working and power relationships in large centralised production units before and during industrialisation in Prussia. The focus is on the division of employers into "Officiants" (state officials and salaried employees) and "Ouvriers" (workers). It is shown how such production units formed the basis for the formation of important groups which influence social structures right up to the present day. The development of the two state manufactories points to the potential for social, economic and technical innovation which marked the organisational form of the manufactory around 1800. Using extensive archive materials, it has been possible to provide a more exact analysis of the social and power structures in manufacturing, particularly in the period up to 1850, than has been possible in previous social histories of companies.

This social history examines the Berlin bourgeoisie using the example of a representative group of entrepreneurs. Using the modern method of nominal record linkage, the mobility and social networks of bourgeois families and groups of families are traced well back into the 18th century.

The study is based principally on a complex evaluation of church records. The study takes the social context of the capital city and residence of Berlin to contribute to the ongoing lively debate on the problems of continuity and discontinuity in the development of the modern bourgeoisie in Brandenburg and Prussia.

This study gives tangible form to the Berlin middle classes, with their outstanding entrepreneurs, civil servants and artisans working at court, important ecclesiastical figures, doctors, scholars and artists.

This book presents the history of housing policy in West Berlin from the end of World War II until the construction of the Berlin Wall. The topics covered include the housing emergency, housing management, the restoration of housing damaged during the war, the clearing-away of rubble, the architecture debate, the construction of social housing, housing developments, rental developments, urban planning, and the non-profit housing sector.