1822 marked the start of production for the Prussian Urmesstischblatt, covering the entire territory of Prussia. The maps are hand-drawn unique pieces at a scale of 1:25,000, produced by the Royal Prussian General Staff. They were not published but served as the basis for smaller-scale maps and are available as high-quality plots.
Use Cases
- Analyze historical land use and settlement patterns based on the detailed topographic features.
- Train computer vision models for map feature recognition based on the hand-drawn cartographic symbols.
- Study the evolution of cartographic design and standards based on the 1821 instruction and explanatory notes.
- Georeference historical landscape changes by comparing these foundational maps with modern geospatial data.
Strengths
- High-quality plot files are available for the map sheets.
- Maps are foundational to topographic cartography, marking a significant historical starting point.
- Some individual sheets have been reworked in color to be more similar to the original hand-drawn pieces.
Limitations
- Last updated 1839-01-01 00:00:00; freshness should be verified.
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
Provenance
- Source
- Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie
- Collection Method
- Hand-drawn cartographic works produced by the Royal Prussian General Staff.
- Time Range
- Production began in 1822; the specific sheet is from 1839.
- Geography
- Covers the entire territory of Prussia, with the specific sheet for Zeuthen.