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German Empire and Weimar Republic (1834-1933)

From 1834 until 1867, the German Customs Union (Zollverein) conducted censuses every three years in its member states. This was important as the revenues of the Zollverein were distributed in proportion to population. On December 1, 1900, the census of the German Empire counted 56,345,014 residents. This correlated to a population increase of 7.78% in the previous five years. In the German Empire, censuses occurred in 1871 and every five years from 1875 to 1910. After this, censuses were conducted irregularly: during World War I in 1916 and 1917 and after the war in 1919 and 1925.

National Socialism (1933-1945)

The censuses from 1933 and 1939 during Nazi Germany were population, occupation and business censuses and, like the 1925 census, were carried out by demographer Friedrich Burgdörfer. The results of both censuses were very influential in the determination of the later deportation of designated peoples. Already in the census from June 16, 1933, some half a million Jews were recorded. With the 1939 census, all Jews were recorded as Mischlinge and foreigners required a supplementary form, which served as the basis of the index of Jews and “Jewish crossbreeds” in the sense of Nazi racial policy. These included complete name, residence, gender, birth date, religion, language (first), ethnicity, occupation and number of children under 14 in the respective household. The state issued a national identity index on May 17, 1939, by order of minister of the interior Wilhelm Frick, which, according to historian Götz Aly, served as the “Keystone in the Registration of the Jews” and the bureaucratic premise of their deportation and annihilation. According to the 1936 “Statistics of the German Empire,” the purpose of the special census was to get “An overview of the biological and social measure of Judaism in the German Empire,” “with regard to the basic transformation, carried out by the national socialist government, in the position of Judaism toward its German host nation.” While the census was not abused, the desired results came forth.

Divided Germany (1945-1990)

Following World War II, censuses were conducted in the Soviet occupation zone in December 1945; the French occupation zone in January 1946 and again in all four Allied occupation zones of Germany in October 1946 under the authority of the occupying forces. These occurred in order to record the war casualties and large stream of refugees, repatriates, expellees. After the formation of the two German states in 1949, further censuses were carried out.

German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

In East Germany, the censuses from 1950 and 1964 were both population and occupation census. The results from 1950 were not publicized for political reasons. The data from 1964 was extensively published by the Central Administration of Statistics. The censuses from 1971 and 1981 were carried out as complex population, occupation, living space, and building censuses and were only partially published.

Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)

The censuses in West Germany in 1950 and 1987 were comprehensive population, occupation, building, residence and workplace censuses. The censuses in 1961 and 1970 were only population, occupation and workplace censuses. During the building and residence censuses of 1956, the resident population was also counted. The publishing of all West German censuses (including the 1994 population census in East Germany) was done by the Federal Office of Statistics.

Reunified Germany (1990- )

2011 EU-wide Census Participation

The Cabinet of Germany decided on August 29, 2006 that Germany would partake in the EU-wide census round in 2011 with a registration-supported process. In 2000 and 2001, Germany and Sweden were the only EU states that did not take part in the Europe-wide census. In contrast to earlier decades, no traditional censuses was conducted, where all residents are surveyed. The process of registration-supported census uses primarily the records of each community and the Federal Agency of Labor, instead of administration records. Additionally, information about buildings and residences, which lack comprehensive administrative data, will be asked for via mail from the individual building and residence owners. Supplementary random sampling will be conducted through interviews, for example educational information, which does not exist in the administrative data. This sampling serves moreover, therefore, to statistically correct the inaccuracies in register of residents. The Office of Statistics tested this method from 2001 to 2003. The Center for Survey Research and Methodology in Mannheim and the Chair of Economic and Social Statistics from the University of Trier is researching a method to localize analysis of the sampling under the lead of Ralf Münnich. A sampling method has been developed, which connects moderate costs and a lower cost of survey with higher quality responses from the census. Therefore, new census methods should be researched and their practical success rate tested. The project will end in September 2010, shortly before the census.

The process of registration-supported census should lead to resilient results, as in a traditional census. At the same time, lower costs should fall on the taxpayer. While a new census following the conventional method of the German Institute for Economic Research would approximately cost one billion Euro, the new method falls somewhere around 300 million Euro. Estimates of the Federal Office of Statistics approach around 1.4 billion Euro for a traditional census and around 450 million Euro for a registration-supported census.