Use and services

What are building files?

The city archive manages the building documents that were created by the municipal building inspectorate. This concerns all properties in Erlangen and the incorporated suburbs. The files contain completed construction processes with building applications, permits, plans, static calculations, drainage plans and the like. The files are the documents that were created by the city administration in the course of approval procedures. Originally, the documents were also held by the building owners.

The building files contain documents from around 1870 to the present day. If you are interested in documents prior to 1870, please indicate this when ordering the building file. The file duration may vary for incorporated towns. It usually begins shortly before the respective incorporation.

The municipal archive is not responsible for building processes that have not yet been completed or for specialist questions on building law. If you have any questions in this regard or if there is an ongoing legal dispute, please contact the building inspectorate directly.

Which building files can I find in the city archive?

You can find building documents for properties in the following locations:

• Erlangen
• Alterlangen
• Bruck
• Büchenbach
• Dechsendorf
• Eltersdorf
• Frauenaurach (with Neuses and Schallershof)
• Hüttendorf
• Klosterwald
• Kosbach (with Häusling and Steudach)
• Kriegenbrunn
• Mönau
• Sieglitzhof
• Tennenlohe

We do not keep records from localities outside Erlangen (for example in the district of Erlangen Höchstadt). Please contact the municipality in which the property is located first.

How does the inspection of building files work?

To view a building file, you must make an appointment. Please complete the form "Request to inspect building files" and send us the completed form. You can have all building permits and plans presented to you. If you would also like to inspect drainage documents or statics, please write this on the form.

Once the documents have been collected, we will contact you to arrange an appointment in the reading room. It can take up to three weeks between the request and the appointment.

Building files may not be shown to everyone, but only to the owner or an authorized person. You must therefore bring your identity card and proof that you are authorized to view the file - a so-called legitimation - with you to your appointment.

If you are the owner of the property, a current proof of ownership is sufficient. This must not be older than two years. Proof of ownership includes

• Land tax assessment notice
• Purchase contract
• Prior notice of conveyance with purchase contract
• Extract from the land register
• Statement of account for garbage collection fees
• Certificate of inheritance

If you would like to view the file for the current owner, in addition to the above-mentioned proof of ownership, you will also need your identity card and a signed power of attorney. If there is more than one owner, only one owner needs to sign the power of attorney. A power of attorney is valid for six months and should read as follows

"I hereby authorize (name of owner), residing at (address of owner) as owner of the property (address or parcel number) the (name of authorized representative), residing at (address of authorized representative) to inspect the municipal building documents for my property named above and to order reproductions in the form of copies or scans from the Erlangen City Archive.

(date, place) (signature of owner)"

Please note:

If the production of reproductions is not expressly permitted in the power of attorney, the building documents can only be submitted for inspection.

How can I obtain copies or scans of the building file?

In the reading room you will be presented with the building file documents you have ordered. You can mark important documents and order them with a reproduction order. The file will then be available for inspection for another two weeks if required.

You can order scans or copies. Scans can be made by the archive in all formats. Copies can be made up to DIN A3. Large orders are processed by an external agency.

Copies and scans cannot be made on site. The processing time is usually a few days to four weeks, depending on the size of the order.

Current note:

Photographing the submitted construction documents is currently permitted in a test phase. Please follow our instructions on site.

What costs will I incur?

The fee for inspecting building files is €15.00 per address or file unit. How much the copies or scans cost can be found in the City of Erlangen's fee regulations for the city archive.

I have further questions

If you have any further questions or need more information, we will be happy to help you.

By telephone:

09131/86-2219 - Reading room
09131/86-2886 - Building file administration

By e-mail:

stadtarchiv@stadt.erlangen.de

General information

The town archive holds many collections that can be used to search for people and family members. We help with searches and process inquiries from researchers who wish to research information about their ancestors.

Please use our contact form for your request

General conditions

We process your request chronologically by date of receipt. The processing time can take several weeks.

Your request can be processed more quickly if you provide all the information you have about the person you are looking for. This includes surname, first name, any known dates of birth/marriage and death, addresses and details of the town (Erlangen or incorporated suburb).

If you send us a confirmation of cost coverage together with your request, we will not have to contact you and will be able to answer your question more quickly:

"I am prepared to cover costs up to a maximum of € XXX for processing the request."

For the processing of inquiries in the context of private personal or family research, a fee of €20 per half hour or part thereof will be charged.

This fee must be paid even if no information on the person being searched for could be found or if you already know the information provided.

Is Erlangen the same as Erlangen?

Erlangen has grown over the course of time due to the incorporation of formerly independent municipalities. The files and historical archives of these municipalities were taken over and are now kept in the city archives. Erlangen includes:

• Sieglitzhof (since 1919)
• Alterlangen (since April 1, 1920)
• Büchenbach (since August 1, 1923)
• Bruck (since September 15, 1924)
• Kosbach with Häusling and Steudach (since January 1, 1967)
• Eltersdorf (since July 1, 1972)
• Frauenaurach with Neuses and Schallershof (since July 1, 1972)
• Großdechsendorf (since July 1, 1972)
• Hüttendorf (since July 1, 1972)
• Kriegenbrunn (since July 1, 1972)
• Tennenlohe (since July 1, 1972)
• Königsmühle (since July 1, 1977)

Tradition of the registry office/register of civil status

The Civil Status Act (PStG) was revised in 2009. Since then, the "historical" birth, marriage and death registers of the registry office have been kept by the city archive. There has been a registry office in Erlangen since 1876.

The birth registers 1876-1913, marriage registers 1876-1943 and death registers 1876-1993 can currently be found in the city archive.

With the transfer to the city archive, the registers of administrative records become archive records and are subject to the provisions of the Bavarian Archive Act (BayArchG). After this date, documents can no longer be issued from the civil status registers.

However, you can obtain simple copies/scans or officially certified copies from the registers.

For reasons of data protection, the civil status registers cannot be viewed in the reading room. Information can only be provided by the staff of the municipal archive.

The civil status registers after 1913 (births), 1943 (marriages) and 1993 (deaths) are located in the Erlangen registry office and must be ordered there.

Historical records of the residents' registration office

The city archives also contain the historical records of the residents' registration office. This covers a period from around 1880 to 1984.

If a name and dates are known (birth, marriage, date of death, date of moving in), further details can be found in the historical registration documents. This may include the surname and first name of the partner, dates of marriages or divorces, births of children, deaths, religious affiliation and residential addresses.

Address books

The address books of the city of Erlangen between 1751 and 1990 have been digitized in cooperation with the Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. and can be viewed online.

You can find the address books in the "GenWiki" of the Verein für Computergenealogie.

Church and parish archives

Before the introduction of registry offices in 1876, births or baptisms, marriages and deaths were documented in the respective parishes in so-called church registers. These registers are kept by the archives of the Catholic and Protestant churches or the parishes themselves.

The church records of the Catholic parishes in the city of Erlangen are administered by the Bamberg Diocesan Archives.

The church records of various Protestant parishes are still held by the parishes themselves. Inquiries will be answered by the parishes. You can find the contact details on the Erlangen-Evangelisch website

The following parishes manage their own church records:

• Erlangen-Bruck
• Erlangen-Erlöserkirche
• Erlangen-Johanneskirche
• Erlangen-Martin-Luther Church
• Erlangen-St. Mark
• Erlangen-St. Matthew
• Erlangen-Thomas Church
• Frauenaurach
• Kriegenbrunn

The other Protestant parishes have handed over their church records. These are kept in the archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria in Nuremberg. Some of the books can also be searched online for a fee in the church register portal Archion.

The following parishes have handed over their church records to the state church archive in Nuremberg:

• Erlangen-Altstadt
• Erlangen-German Reformed Parish
• Erlangen-Egidienkirche (Eltersdorf)
• Erlangen-French Reformed Parish
• Erlangen-Frauenaurach
• Erlangen-Neustadt
• Erlangen-St. Maria Magdalena (Tennenlohe)
• Erlangen-University Parish

Military tradition

If the person you are looking for served in the Bavarian Army (for example in the First World War), information can be found at the Bavarian Main State Archives, War Archives Department.

This is where the so-called Kriegsstammrollen are kept, which contain detailed information about the soldier's military career, place of residence and family. The personal files form a separate collection group within the War Archives Department.

Basic knowledge and local contacts

The website and wiki of the Verein für Computergenealogie and the Gesellschaft für Familienforschung in Franken e.V. provide basic information on family research.

The Archivportal-D can be used for an overview of the various archives in Germany.

We provide information from the archived registration cards for genealogical and family research and heir tracing. We may provide you with information on residents who died or moved away from Erlangen before 01.04.1985.

If you need information from the population registers for current address information, for pension insurance, for receivables management or generally for the period after 1985, the Bürgeramt will be happy tohelp you.

If you require information from the registration files, please send an e-mail to

stadtarchiv@stadt.erlangen.de