Search aids: Search book from 1814, Neues Findbuch 2016 (online searchable) Registrar: Already in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Westphalia of 7 December 1807 (Bull. 1807/08 I, 3) the division into departments, districts and municipalities for the Kingdom had been introduced by Art. 34 to 37. The total number of departments was between eight and twelve, the number of districts in a department between three and five. In each department, in addition to the prefect, a general secretary, a prefecture council and a general department council were established for the administration. The entire administration in the narrower sense belonged to the department of the Ministry of the Interior. The prefect was entrusted, under royal authority and supervision, with all branches of public administration, including tax administration, within the scope of his department. In addition, there were military tasks such as the recruitment and supervision of the National Guards, troop catering, preparation and implementation of troop recruitment. In the district of his département capital he also held the office of sub-prefect. The Secretary General was the permanent representative of the Prefect. He was the director of the administrative office, took care of the expeditions and managed the archives. The remaining subjects were dealt with in the offices of the departments. The Prefectural Council, consisting of three to four members under the chairmanship of the Prefect in each department, was the rulings authority on disputed matters. The prefectural councils decided as administrative authorities and their decisions could only be annulled by the Council of State. The General Council, composed of candidates proposed to the King from the Departmental Colleges, consisted of fifteen to twenty members. This committee elected the prefect and the secretary from among its members. The General Council of the Department met once a year for two weeks. He had to distribute the direct taxes among the individual districts, decide on the requests for tax reductions received from the district councils and municipalities, determine the subsidies for the departmental expenses and submit the accounts. Finally, he was entitled to comment on the situation and needs of the department. Each department was divided into three to five districts. Each district was headed by the subprefect, assisted by the secretary of the subprefecture and a district council. The districts were divided into five to 19 cantons, with larger cities forming their own cantons (= city districts). At the head of a canton stood the Canton Mayor, who was usually also Maire of his residence. He stood between the sub-prefect and the communemaires and supervised the communemaires, whose management he headed. A Mayre, one or more police inspectors and a municipal council were appointed to administer the individual municipalities. Maire was responsible for the administration of the municipal property and the municipal institutions and supervised the local police. He was also responsible for municipal spending. The Elbe département was formed from the left Rhine parts of the duchy of Magdeburg, the county of Barby, the offices of Gommern (Saxony), Calvörde (Brunswick), Klötze (Hanover), parts of the principality of Halberstadt and the Altmark. The capital of the department was Magdeburg. The department consisted of the districts of Magdeburg, Neuhaldensleben, Stendal and Salzwedel. The first prefect of the Elbe Department was the former Prussian District Administrator Ernst Alexander von der Schulenburg, who was suspended in the summer of 1811 and replaced by the Police Prefect of Kassel, who had been General Director of the High Police until October 1809. Inventory information: The holdings came via the government archive Magdeburg (time of the Kgr. Westphalen Ba Nr. 1) into the today's state archive. In former times it was called Rep. A 76 III Ba No. 1. The traditions of the central authorities of the Kingdom of Westphalia are now kept in the Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin. In June and July 2016, the retroconversion of the distortion information took place, which was reviewed in August 2016 and supplemented by numerous German file titles. In this context, the history of the registry formers and the inventory information were entered and a new finding aid book was compiled.
