| morgen | |
|---|---|
| Unit system | German customary units |
| Unit of | area |
| Symbol | Mg |
| Named after | The amount of land that can be tilled in the morning hours with a single-furrow horse or ox plough (measured from morning to noon).[1][2] |
| Conversions | |
| 1 Mgin ... | ... is equal to ... |
| SI base units | 2,500 m2 |
| Imperial unit system | 2,990 yd2 |
Amorgen (Mg) is a historical, but still occasionally used, German unit of area used inagriculture.[1] Officially, it is no longer in use, having been supplanted by thehectare.[1] While today it is approximately equivalent to thePrussianmorgen, measuring 25ares or 2,500square meters (0.62 acres), its area once ranged from 1,906 to 11,780 square metres (0.471 to 2.911 acres), but usually between 0.25 to 0.5 hectares (0.62 to 1.24 acres).[1] In the 20th century, the quarter hectare became standard for onemorgen.[1] The Morgen unit of landmeasurement was also used in theNetherlands,Poland,Lithuania, and parts of theDutch colonial empire, such asSouth Africa. It was also used in theBalkans,Norway, andDenmark, where it was equal to about 0.27 hectares (2⁄3 acre).
The word is identical to theGerman andDutch word for "morning" because the measurement was determined by the area that can beploughed with asingle-furrow horse or ox plough in onemorning (measured from morning to noon).[1][2] Themorgen was usually defined as a rectangle with sides of an even number of localrods, as turning while ploughing was to be avoided as much as possible.
The area measure of the morgen varied regionally,[1] but it was usually between one-fifth to half ahectare (2,000 to 5,000 m2). In northern Germany, there were also morgens of 6,000 to 9,000 square meters, and in themarshes, up to over 11,000 square meters. With the standardization in the late 19th century (the metrified morgen introduced by theNorth German Confederation in 1869), four morgens equaled one hectare in theGerman Empire, which is why the morgen was sometimes referred to as a quarter hectare (vha) to distinguish it from traditional measures.
In the 20th century, the morgen, with its size of 25ares, established itself as an agricultural area measure. However, with the increasing average farm size (from 2005 to 2015 by 36.4% to 59.6 hectares or 238.4 morgens), it has lost significance compared to the hectare.[1] This is particularly evident where the average farm size in eastern Germany is around 1000 morgens.
Themorgen was commonly set at about 60–70% of thetagwerk (German for "day's work") that referred to a full day of ploughing. The next lower measurement unit was the German "rute" or Imperialrod, but the metric rod length of 5 metres (16 ft) never became popular.
The following table shows an excerpt of morgen sizes as used in German-speaking regions. Some morgen were used in a wider area and thus had proper names. The actual area of a morgen was considerably larger in fertile areas of Germany or in regions where flat terrain prevails, presumably facilitating tilling. The next lower measurement unit to a morgen was usually in "Quadratruten"square rods.
| Region (Timespan) | Name | Size in m2 | original definition (QR = Quadratruten) |
|---|---|---|---|
| - metric - | Viertelhektar = vha | 2,500 | (100 QR) |
| Homburg | 1,906 | 160 QR | |
| Franconia | 2,000 | ||
| Frankfurt | Feldmorgen | 2,025 | 160 QFeldR |
| Oldenburg | 2,256 | ||
| Kassel | Acker | 2,386 | 150 QR |
| Prussia (1816–1869) | Magdeburger Morgen | 2,553.22 | 180 QR |
| Waldeck-Pyrmont | |||
| Bremen | 2,572 | 120 QR | |
| Schaumburg | 2,585 | 120 QR | |
| Hanover (before 1836) | 2,608 | 120 QR | |
| Hanover (after 1836) | 2,621 | 120 QR | |
| CologneRhineland | Rheinländischer Morgen | 3,176 | 150 QR |
| Bergisches Land | Bergischer Morgen | 2,132 | 120 QR |
| Württemberg (1806–1871) | 3,152 | 384 QR | |
| Frankfurt | Waldmorgen | 3,256 | 160 QWaldR |
| Braunschweig | Waldmorgen | 3,335 | 160 QR |
| Bavaria | Tagwerk | 3,407 | 400 QR |
| Baden | 3,600 | 400 QR | |
| Oldenburg | Jück | 4,538 | 160 QR |
| Danzig | ca. 5,000 | 300 QR | |
| Holstein | Tonne (Tønde) | 5,046 | 240 QGeestR |
| Schleswig-Holstein | Steuertonne | 5,466 | 260 QGeestR |
| Kulmischer Morgen | 5,601.17 | 300 QR | |
| East Frisia | Diemat (h) | 5,674 | |
| Mecklenburg | 6,500 | 300 QR | |
| Altes Land (Harburg &Stade) | 8,185 | ||
| Hamburg | 9,658 | 600 QGR | |
| Kehdingen | Marschmorgen | 10,477 | |
| Altes Land | 10,484 | 480 QR | |
| Land of Hadeln | 11,780 | 540 QR |
The Polish terms for the unit weremorga, mórg, jutrzyna, the latter being a near-literal translation intoold Polish.
| Unit | Miara (Unit) | Sążeń2 (Viennesefathom2) | Łokieć2 (Vienneseell2) | m2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 morg (morgen) (= 0.5755ha) | 3 | 1,600 | 6,439.02 | 5,754.64 |
| 1 miara (Unit) (= 19.18are) | 533.33 | 2,929.07 | 1,918 | |
| 1 sążeń2 wiedeński (Viennese fathom) | 4.0237 | 3.6 | ||
| 1 łokieć2 wiedeński (Viennese el2) | 0.9 |
The term "morgen" was used in the AustrianKingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria where 1 morgen was equal to2,700 square metres (2⁄3 acre).[3]
Until the advent of metrication in the 1970s, the morgen was the legal unit of measure of land in three of the four pre-1995 South African provinces: theCape Province, theOrange Free State, and theTransvaal. In November 2007, the South African Law Society published a conversion factor of 1 morgen = 0.856,532 hectares, to be used "for the conversion of areas from imperial units to metric, particularly when preparing consolidated diagrams by compilation".[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Morgen".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 836.