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A morgen was a unit of measurement of land area in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania and parts of the Dutch Overseas Empire, such as South Africa. The size of a morgen varies from 1⁄2 to 2+1⁄2 acres (2,000 to 10,100 m2). It was also used in Old Prussia, in the Balkans, Norway and Denmark, where it was equal to about two-thirds acre (2,700 m2).
| Morgen | |
|---|---|
| Unit system | German customary units |
| Unit of | Area |
| Symbol | Mg |
| Named after | Amount of land tillable in the morning hours of a day by one person behind an ox or horse dragging a single bladed plough |
| Conversions | |
| 1 Mg in ... | ... is equal to ... |
| SI base units | 2,500 m2 |
| Imperial unit system | 2,990 sq yd |
The word is identical with the German and Dutch word for "morning" because, similarly to the Imperial acre, it denoted the acreage that could be furrowed in a morning's time by a man behind an ox or horse dragging a single-bladed plough.[citation needed] The morgen was commonly set at about 60–70% of the tagwerk (German for "day work") that referred to a full day of ploughing. In 1869, the North German Confederation fixed the morgen at a one-quarter hectare (2,500 m2),[1] but in modern times most farmland work is measured in full hectares. 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.
The following table shows an excerpt of morgen sizes as used in Germany — 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 | |
| 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 |
The Polish terms for the unit were morga, mórg, jutrzyna, the latter being a near-literal translation into old Polish.
| 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 |
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).[2]
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".[3]
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