Province of Posen, German Empire

Provinz Posen circa 1846

Source: Handtke, F. (1846). Provinz Posen. Taken from: https://uwi-primoalma-prod.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/ol0k7k/TN_lunaRUMSEY~8~1~304125~90074786

The Grand Duchy of Posen was created after the third partition of Poland, where the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided between the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian Empires in 1792 and again after the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The Grand Duchy of Posen had some autonomy, but was generally a puppet of the Prussian government. After 1848, the Grand Duchy was renamed to Provinz Posen.

Provinz Posen was divided into two government regions called Regierungsbezirke. The two administrative regions were Posen (Poznań) and Bromberg (Bydgoszcz). Each Regierungsbezirke were divided into smaller administrative districts called Kreise (although the Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich lists a number of these Kreise as powiat (Counties)..an example is Inowrocław). The map above does a good job in showing the administrative boundaries.

More information can be found on the County pages on this website.

Extremely helpful websites dealing with the German Administrative districts:

1. Search the Meyers Gazetteer: https://www.meyersgaz.org/
   
2. Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. (CompGen) – The Historic Gazetteer: http://gov.genealogy.net/search/index