Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach

Archive of the Lutheran-Protestant Church in Central Germany

Historically, the Lutheran-Protestant Church in Central Germany has two regional archives – one based in Eisenach, one in Magdeburg – each administering different areas within the borders of the Lutheran-Protestant Church in Central Germany.

All historical church records of the Lutheran-Protestant Church in Central Germany are recorded by the two regional church archives in Eisenach and Magdeburg, microfilmed and then digitized from the film. The entire inventory includes approximately 60 000 Lutheran-Protestant parish registers from over 3000 communities in which ecclesiastical acts such as baptisms, marriages, funerals and confirmations were registered. The church records are handwritten in old German writing. The earliest few specimens date to the 1520s. Nationwide, however, the church records system was only introduced after the Thirty Years' War.

The regional church archive in Eisenach (Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach) is one of the two archives of the Lutheran-Protestant Church in Central Germany. The second regional church archive is located in Magdeburg. The Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach manages the historical tradition of the former Lutheran-Protestant Church in Thuringia. It once included large parts of the present federal state of Thuringia and smaller peripheral areas of the present federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. An exception is the region around the town of Schmalkalden. It is still part of the Lutheran-Protestant Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck.

What is already online?
Church records from different communities in the church district Hildburghausen-Eisfeld
Church records from different communities in the church district Eisenach-Gerstungen
Church records from different communities in the church district Bad Salzungen-Dermbach
Church records from different communities in the church district Meiningen
Church records from different communities in the church district Sonneberg
Church records from different communities in the church district Rudolstadt-Saalfeld
Church records from different communities in the church district Arnstadt-Ilmenau
Church records from different communities in the church district Schleiz
Church records from different communities in the church district Greiz
Church records from different communities in the church district Apolda-Buttstädt

You can also SEARCH to check if your church book is already online.

What next?
Church records from different communities in the church district Weimar
Church records from different communities in the church district Gotha
Church records from different communities in the church district Waltershausen-Ohrdruf

Further church districts will follow, but the order is not yet fixed. Please note that in some cases not all historical church records within a church district are completely available online at once and there may be subsequent deliveries at a later date.

The film list will help you figure out which church district your wanted location belongs to. The current version can be found on the homepage of the Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach under this link: www.landeskirchenarchiv-eisenach.de/benutzung/verfilmte-kirchenbuecher/

If you need a church book for your genealogical research, which is not yet available online at Archion, you have the opportunity to search on-site in the Landeskirchenarchiv Eisenach. Microfilms of the recorded church books are already available there. Further information can be found on the website of the archive: www.landeskirchenarchiv-eisenach.de/benutzung/genealogie/