Repertory of Policeyordnungen

Research Project

This project is dedicated to making accessible and studying a particular type of early modern administrative law, the so-called police ordinances (Policeygesetze/Policeyordnungen), of selected territories and imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire and adjacent countries (Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland). In cooperation with various scholars, research institutions and archives, a database was produced, which makes these sources accessible and serves as the basis for a multi-volume repertory. The latter is arranged by country and provides information on the legislating authorities and the addressees of the police ordinances, their social and geographic ambit, their references to other laws and above all the subject matters of the various provisions. The latter are systematically described and made accessible through a threefold index of the police regulations (5 sectors, 25 groups and approx. 200 subject matters).

So far, twelve volumes of the repertory have been published. They cover police ordinances from the Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, Sweden, from ecclesiastical and secular territories, a number of imperial cities, and the Swiss cities of Bern and Zurich. The most recent volume to appear was Kungariket Sverige och hertigdömena Pommern och Mecklenburg / Königreich Schweden und Herzogtümer Pommern und Mecklenburg

The database of over 200 000 police ordinances is to be made available online via an OPAC.

The research conducted in connection with the repertory are published in the book series Studien zu Policey, Kriminalitätsgeschichte und Konfliktregulierung.

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