The ''Deutsches Geschlechterbuch'', until 1943 known as the ''Genealogisches Handbuch bürgerlicher Familien'', is a major German genealogical handbook of

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

or patrician families. It is the bourgeois and patrician equivalent of the '' Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels'' and the former ''

Almanach de Gotha The ''Almanach de Gotha'' () is a directory of Europe's royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First published in 1763 by C. W. Ettinger in ...

''. It includes genealogies and coats of arms of the included families. The ''Genealogisches Handbuch bürgerlicher Familien'' was started in 1889 and prior to 1943, 119 volumes covering around 1,200 families were published under the original title. From 1956, the series were continued under the title ''Deutsches Geschlechterbuch''. In 2007, the 219th and latest volume was published. In total, around 4,000 families have been covered. The ''Hamburgisches Geschlechterbuch'', comprising 17 volumes on the

Hanseatic The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

families of Hamburg, is an integral part of the work, and is regarded as the most comprehensive reference work of its kind on a single city.Hildegard von Marchthaler: ''Die Bedeutung des Hamburger Geschlechterbuchs für Hamburgs Bevölkerungskunde und Geschichte'', in: ''Hamburgisches Geschlechterbuch'', Bd. 9, Limburg an der Lahn 1961, S. XXIII The publication has been highly influential and inspired several similar publications, such as '' Nederland's Patriciaat''. To some extent it corresponds to ''

Burke's Landed Gentry ''Burke's Landed Gentry'' (originally titled ''Burke's Commoners'') is a reference work listing families in Great Britain and Ireland who have owned rural estates of some size. The work has been in existence from the first half of the 19th cen ...

'' in the United Kingdom, although it could also be said to be the equivalent of ''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher, considered an authority on the order of precedence of noble families and information on the lesser nobility of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1826, when the Anglo-Irish genea ...

'' in its coverage of

and patrician families who comprised the highest class in the former city-republics.

References

Bibliography

*Genealogisches Handbuch bürgerlicher Familien (1889–1943) *Deutsches Geschlechterbuch (1956-) German biographical dictionaries Genealogy publications Directories Publications established in 1889 {{bio-dict-stub