Administration

Trauzimmer

With the introduction of civil administration and the new church organization, the recording of administrative files, such as birth, baptism and marriage, was transferred as a priority to the new administration. For the first time these files were documented in detail by the registry offices.

 

Administration

With the French occupation the territory on the left-bank of the Rhine was given a new face. Modelled on the mother country, it was divided up into départements, arrondissements (boroughs) and municipalités (parishes): in the north the Roer (Rur) département with its administrative centre in Aachen, in the south the Rhine & Moselle département with its main city Koblenz and the Saar département based in Trier. This administrative structure was clearly subdivided at every level and for the first time enabled local government to be standardised thoughout the Rhineland.

A.Klebe reported on this:
"A decree of government commissioner Rudler… means that all documents and files are subject to registration, and sets the rate to be charged according to which class of file is concerned. All records, whether judicial or out of court, receipts, purchases, terms, contracts, powers-of-attorney, transcripts, testaments, inheritances, judicial documents, waybills, copies, testimonials, resignations, verdicts, guardianships, appeals; in short everything is to be submitted to this registration."
(Klebe, A.: Reise auf dem Rhein, 1806, Frankfurt a.M., S. 75f.)

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