Berlin resident register

The Berlin resident register and its index provide information on the entire city’s residents from 1875 to 1948 and on residents in Berlin (West) up to 1961. The residents’ registration office was divided into subject areas to process particular questions (among others, foreigners and refugees) and register groups. In 1963, the office had to manage approximately 8 million index cards. The cards of people who had out-migrated have been transferred to the secondary register. Indexes also follow a phonetic principle, which determines the sorting order and further distinguishes between men, widowed and unmarried women. The register of residents A – Z contains approximately 3,700,000 index cards. Using this index, one can follow the movements of Berlin’s residents and have insight into their number and sex, as for refugees.