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Prostituiertenregister

Writer's picture: TheFormidableGenealogistTheFormidableGenealogist

After tracing someone's ancestor to early-1900s Dresden, Germany, I wondered how much more progress I could make. As with any region, I want to exhaust every resource available in the search for lost ancestors. (And to do it from my armchair at home is preferred.) However, German records can be very hard to find and/or access electronically, depending on the area.


I searched the digital records from the towns radiating into the surrounding, more rural areas, and I found a clue pointing to the nearby town of Freiberg. The available records from that location include residency permits, school registrations, work permits...and a book called Prostituiertenregister. The Prostitute Register.


Registration of prostitutes with the local police was to keep the trade supervised, controlled, and 'proper.' It also implied that workers received some type of health checks. The reality may have been very different than the ideal. But these were Germans, so they at least tried to keep some complete records for these Frauenzimmer, or "women's rooms."


The register from Freiberg spans the years 1881 to 1906. Each entry includes the registrant's name, birth date and location, the date of registration, address where the woman worked, and numerous other details. I did not find a clue within this record set relevant to the person I was looking for. However, its 90 pages contain many other women whose names could be found if people today were searching for them. Even if you're looking for a male, like I was in this case, a surname and place of birth of a female might yield a big clue regarding where to look next. Even if you don't have any ancestors from eastern Germany in the late 1800s, remember that you should consider every source available in an area when you are desperate for another clue. Even if you don't think the source is necessarily relevant to your search, at least see what kind of data are available within those records.


A sample of the basic information in the German register:

  • Baldauf, Maria Magdalena / born 5 November 1861 in Chemnitz / registered 1881 [age 20], 1882, and 1883

  • Fiedler, Maria Louisa / born 27 April 1869 Gohlis in Leipzig / registered in 1890 [age 21]

  • Gräntz, Saloma / born 12 December 1861 in Zittau / registered in 1881 [age 20]

  • Hesse, Maria Theresa / born 29 December 1848 in Freiberg / registered in 1881 [age 33]

  • Israel, Carolina Ernestina / born 13 October 1859 in Oberfriedersdorf / registered in 1881 [age 22]

  • Korb, Maria / born 10 August 1864 in Prag [Prague] / registered in 1886 [age 22]

  • Niedermayer, Laura / born 14 April 1878 in Salzburg / registered in 1898 [age 20]

  • Pohle, Emilia Elisab. / born 14 February 1870 in Berlin / registered in 1890 [age 20]

  • Regent, Anna / born 29 November 1866 in Pardubitz in B [Pardubice in Bohemia]/ registered in 1887 [age 21]

  • Ritter, Carolina / born 26 November 1861 in Wien [Vienna, Austria] / registered in 1887 [age 26]

  • Trawetzky, Carolina / born 30 April 1874 in Töplitz / registered in 1891 [age 17],1894

  • Wagner, Anna / born 15 June 1866 in Altendorf / registered in 1893 [age 27]

There's no judgment in my identifying these women, and I don't believe I've divulged their deepest secrets. I imagine most were performing a job in exchange for the income to survive, which most of us need to do. The data in this record set might help identify someone's ancestor or connect them to another layer of their past.











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