HGIS Germany: A Spatial Information System on Germany and Central Europe during the 19th Century
Andreas Kunz and Silke Marburg, Institute of European History, Germany

HGIS Germany grew out of an interest in the construction of digital historical maps of the development of Germany and of the European state system. Such maps, arranged in thematic strands and combined in series covering important benchmark years, have been placed on an interactive mapserver which is in operation at the Institute of European History (IEG) at Mainz, an independent research institute loosely connected with Mainz University (see http://www.ieg-maps.uni-mainz.de). However, map series can only show a limited amount of information for selected dates at fixed scales, and it is generally not possible to attach a large variety of thematic data such as statistical or general historical information to them.

A solution involving a Geographical Information System (GIS), using an ArcGIS platform, was therefore designed in order to cover this gap. It led to a new project, "HGIS Germany," now being completed by the IEG in conjunction with the Institute for Spatial Information and Surveying Technology (i3mainz) at the University of Applied Sciences, Mainz. The project team is headed by Andreas Kunz (IEG Mainz), and by Alexander Zipf (University of Applied Sciences, Mainz). Major funding for a three-year period (April 2004- March 2007) has been secured from the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation of Essen, Germany, with additional funding coming from the Ministry of Science of the German federal state of Rhineland Palatinate. A German language version of the HGIS information system has already been placed on the internet (see http://www.hgis-germany.de).

At the Moscow meeting, the completed version of the HGIS Germany website will be presented for the first time to an international audience using an English language interface.