Morgen

Unit of area

For other uses, see Morgen (disambiguation).

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 Mg in ...| ... is equal to ...
SI base units|  2,500 m2
Imperial unit system|  2,990 sq yd

A Morgen (Mg) is a historical, but still occasionally used, German unit of area used in agriculture.[1] Officially, it is no longer in use, having been supplanted by the hectare.[1] While today it is approximately equivalent to the Prussian morgen, measuring 25 ares or 2,500 square 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 one morgen.[1] The Morgen unit of land measurement was also used in the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, and parts of the Dutch colonial empire, such as South Africa. It was also used in the Balkans, Norway, and Denmark, where it was equal to about 2⁄3 acre (0.27 ha).

A farmer with a two-horse team and a single-furrow plough

The word is identical to the German and Dutch word for "morning" because the measurement was determined by the area that can be ploughed with a single-furrow horse or ox plough in one morning (measured from morning to noon).[1][2] The morgen was usually defined as a rectangle with sides of an even number of local rods, 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 a hectare (2,000 to 5,000 m²). In northern Germany, there were also morgens of 6,000 to 9,000 square meters, and in the marshes, up to over 11,000 square meters. With the standardization in the late 19th century (the metrified morgen introduced by the North German Confederation in 1869), four morgens equaled one hectare in the German 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 25 ares, 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.

The morgen was commonly set at about 60–70% of the tagwerk (German for "day's work") that referred to a full day of ploughing. The next lower measurement unit was the German "rute" or Imperial rod, but the metric rod length of 5 metres (16 ft) never became popular.

## Comparative measures to the Morgen in German-speaking regions

[edit]

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.

German sizes of morgen  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
Cologne Rhineland | 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

## Poland

[edit]

The Polish terms for the unit were morga, mórg, jutrzyna, the latter being a near-literal translation into old Polish.

Comparison of Area units in Lesser Poland 1791-1876, 1 Franconian morg = 1 wiener morg (system morgi dolnoaustriackiej)  Unit | Miara (Unit) | Sążeń² (Viennese fathom²) | Łokieć² (Viennese ell²) | m²

|
|
|
|

1 morg (morgen) (= 0.5755 ha)  | 3  | 1,600  | 6,439.02  | 5,754.64
1 miara (Unit) (= 19.18 are)  |  | 533.33  | 2,929.07  | 1,918
1 sążeń² wiedeński (Viennese fathom)  |  |  | 4.0237  | 3.6
1 łokieć² wiedeński (Viennese el²)  |  |  |  | 0.9

## Austria–Hungary

[edit]

The term "morgen" was used in the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria where 1 morgen was equal to 2⁄3 acre (2,700 m2).[3]

## South Africa

[edit]

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: the Cape Province, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal. 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]

## See also

[edit]

* Arpent
* Dutch units of measurement
* German obsolete units of measurement
* List of unusual units of measurement

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Gemarkung Seckenheim [Marking Seckenheim] (PDF) (Report) (in German). Seckenheim: Heimatmuseums Seckenheim e.V. 2019. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
2. ^ a b Duden; Definition of Morgen (in German). [1]
3. ^ THE HISTORY OF UKRAINIANS IN CANADA. TUGG.
4. ^ "Instructions for the Conversions of Areas to Metric". Law Society of South Africa. November 2007. Archived from the original on 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2010-03-10.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Morgen". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 836.