Evangelisches Zentralarchiv in Berlin

The inventory of the Protestant Central Archive in Berlin includes appr. 6,000 church books from Protestant parishes in the former eastern church provinces of Prussia. The church records originate from the provinces of East and West Prussia, Pomerania, Poznan, Silesia, and Brandenburg (east of Oder and Neisse). Some of the provinces are represented with numerous church records, while others have suffered severe losses during the wars.

The inventory of the central archive contains appr. 6,000 church records from Protestant parishes, appr. 750 military church records from the Prussian army and the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) and appr. 70 foreign church records from German Protestant parishes abroad. An alphabetic index of the parishes including church records from the inventory of the central archive can be found on the website of the archive: https://ezab.de/kirchenbuecher/kirchenbuch-suche.php

The vast majority of church books from the Protestant Central Archive have already been digitized; only a small part remains to be processed. Currently, the church books of several hundred parishes from 112 districts are online.

Certain church records are presented with a white background on Archion; they are only online as meta data sets without digitized material. This inventory consists of two groups:

• A remnant of church records that are stored in the EZAB but have not yet been digitized. As most church books of the EZAB have already been digitized by a service provider, just a small part is missing that is currently under inspection and presented on Archion with a white background. At the moment, it is unclear when the examination of the few missing church records will be finished, as the effort of processing church books is subject to significant variations.
• The rights of these church books are not with the EZAB. The rights of the original church books that are from the Protestant parishes east of Oder and Neisse and stored in the central archive are with the Union of Protestant Churches in the Protestant Church of Germany (UEK). If the central archive only keeps microfilms or digitized material but not the original books, their rights are with the institutions that store the original copies. These church books are also saved as meta data sets on Archion, but without digitized material. A respective note can be found in every book concerned. Unfortunately, these church books cannot be viewed on Archion but on site in the central archive in Berlin as filmed or digitized material.

If you need a church record for your family research that is not available online with Archion, you can view the church records as microfilms on site in the central archive. Please find further information on utilizing the central archive on its homepage: ezab.de/kirchenbuecher/nutzungshinweise.html