Die Maus e.V. Staatarchiv Bremen

Bremen Passenger Lists

A Project with the Bremen Chamber of Commerce and the Bremen Staatsarchiv
Handelskammer Bremen

Emigration > Passengerlists

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The "Ordinance with Respect to Emigration on Domestic and Foreign Ships" from 1832 in Bremen was the first state law with the purpose to protect emigrants. Among other things it required that the shipowners must maintain passenger lists.

In 1851 the Bremen Chamber of Commerce established the "Nachweisungsbureau für Auswanderer" (the Information Office for Emigrants), where the ship captains had to deliver their lists.

The rules and regulations of the ´Nachweisungsbureau´ considerably improved the quality of both the stay at Bremen prior to the sailing plus the seaworthiness of the ships.

Unfortunately, all lists from 1875 - 1908 older than 3 years were destroyed due to lack of space in the Bremen Archives.

With the exception of 3017 passenger lists for the years 1920 - 1939 all other lists were lost in World War II.

These saved lists had been stowed away in a salt mine at Bernburg an der Saale in 1942 together with other archives for the purpose of protection, and were transferred into the custody of Moscow Archives at the end of WW II. In 1987 and 1990 those lists were given back to the Bremen Chamber of Commerce.

An agreement of July 1999 between the Bremen Chamber of Commerce and the Bremen Society for Genealogical Investigation, DIE MAUS (´The Mouse´), provides the basis for digitizing the passenger lists by members of DIE MAUS (i.e., the ´e-migration mice´).

Copies of lists from 1907/08 and 1913/14 had been provided for statistical evaluations in Stuttgart. After WWII some of these lists and a card index were archived at the "Bundesarchiv Koblenz" as Bremen Shiplists. They are trancribed also.

Inquiries and/or questions to the Bremen Passenger Lists will be replied by Karl Wesling kwesling(at)gmx.de and Monika Ayers JETDOC2(at)aol.com.

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