Bevölkerungsliste Aachen 1799

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In 1794 the army of the French Revolution occupied Aachen and unified it, along with other territories on the left Rhinebank, with France. For Aachen it was the beginning of the so called Franzosenzeit. Aachen became the capital of the French Departement de la Roer and in 1802 for the first time bishop´s seat and diocese.

Incorporated in the economy of the French Empire, supported by Napoleon I., who valuated Charlemagne´s city, Aachen´s economy flourished. Currency, measurements and weights were standardised, freedom of trade introduced, guild regulations repealed, the transport system improved and the market experienced protection against British competition through the continental embargo. The area´s most important production segments of mining, iron smelting, paper, glass and needle fabrication, and especially Aachen´s cloth manufactories profited from a unified economic area.

Following Napoleon´s downfall and the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the Rheinlande were assigned to Prussia and Aachen was declared seat of a Prussian district government.

One of the great achievements of the Franzosenzeit for genealogical research are the Bevölkerungslisten of the Roerdepartement. In this census-like collection we find precious hints. They should be regarded with caution though like other censuses. Taken by municipal officers in the official language French, ages can be imprecise, spelling of surnames was sometimes very "creative" (first names mostly listed in the French version) and some lists appear to be incomplete.

For Aachen the Bevölkerungsliste, usually referred to as Einwohnerliste, was taken in 1799. It includes names in households, their age, relationship, occupation, born in municipality or year of moving to municipality. Children under the age of 12 are listed by number in household only.

In 1798 Aachen was divided into three sections by the French administration: Sektion Réunion, Sektion Liberté and Sektion Egalité. These are the sections used in the Einwohnerliste. Names of streets are scarcely listed (using the French version), housings are listed by consecutive numbers. Only three years later, in 1801, the above sections were reorganized: Sektion A and Sektion B, again followed by consecutive housing numbers. This division was kept under Prussian rule. Often in documents you will only find section and housing number without street name. It was not until 30.07.1857 a regulation was implemented to renumber housings per street. The Konkordanzliste with old sections and numbers and new street names and numbers can help identifying. Beware that some streets underwent multiple name changes since pre Franzosenzeit.

The transcription of the Bevölkerungsliste PDF attached is a collaborative work of transcription, translation and registration by the members and friends of the Bezirksgruppe Aachen of the Westdeutsche Gesellschaft für Familienforschung, compiled by Michael Brammertz.