Help us build the list! If you are aware of business register records in the archives not listed here, please let us know at research@ancestorantenat.pl.
To learn more about this interesting source, read below.
Business records obviously shed light on the professional lives of individuals, but also have much to say about family context. Life events such as marriages, deaths, inheritances, and even family disputes all had bearing on the businesses of entrepreneurs and thus were often reflected in the registers. Supporting documentation in these files frequently includes vital records (which in some cases have not survived elsewhere), prenuptial agreements, property records, and evidence of probate proceedings – all of which can illuminate family history.
Files on businesses operating when World War II broke out can also contain evidence of confiscation and other forms of repression by the Nazi German and communist regimes.
Nazi confiscation of factory. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kielcach, file no. 21/146/0/-/8265In the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the development of the modern state, many European countries developed procedures for registering businesses. Their purpose was and is to facilitate commerce as well as taxation by collecting and publishing information about firms.
In the 1850s, a special commission working in Nuremberg drafted a new commercial code, known as the Allgemeines Deutsches Handelsgesetzbuch or AHGB, which was gradually adopted by the various German-speaking countries. The law was introduced in Austria in 1863, and in the North German Confederation in 1869, and thus covered Austrian and Prussian Poland respectively.
Artificial silk factory 1927. Source: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, file no. 3/1/0/8/1819The rules required the registration (Handelsregister, or “commercial registers”) of all businesses (whether engaged in manufacturing, services, or trade) except for very small ones (i.e., those paying taxes below a certain threshold). The registers thus created contained information including ownership, premises, nature of business, partnership arrangements, authorized representatives, and on proceedings such as sale, liquidation, etc. Incorporated businesses were required to disclose their directors and amount of equity capital. Their maintenance was the responsibility of Handelsgerichte (courts dealing with commercial matters). All information entered in these registers was public.
Shoemakers, interwar period. Source: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, file no. 3/107/0/8/1001In Congress Poland, part of the Russian empire, leading entrepreneurs including Leopold Kronenberg made efforts in the 1880s to create a business registration system but these never came to fruition. When central Poland came under German occupation during World War I, the military authorities in Warsaw in February 1916 introduced such a system based on the German model.
In 1919, after Poland regained its independence, Head of State Józef Piłsudski introduced a decree on business registration that became law in the former Kingdom of Poland. It was extended to cover all other formerly Russian lands of the Republic of Poland by 1922. The regulations were also based on the German system and similarly assigned responsibility for administration to district courts (sądy okręgowe).
Glovemaker, interwar period. Source: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, file no. 3/1/0/11/9281Thus in the formerly Austrian and Prussian parts of Poland, the Allgemeines Deutsches Handelsgesetzbuch regulated business registration, while in the former Russian partition the relevant statute was Piłsudski’s 1919 decree. All these rules were very similar in content.
In interwar Poland, additions, deletions, and amendments to the registers were published in the official gazette, Monitor Polski (accessible at https://monitorpolski.gov.pl/MP). If entrepreneurs were delinquent in filing required information, the courts could take measures such as fining them.
Tax registration document (świadectwo przemysłowe). Source: Archiwum PaństwoweThe law introduced for formerly Russian Poland divided businesses into two groups:
Register A – enumerating unincorporated businesses such as sole proprietorships, and
Register B – for legal entities such as limited liability companies and corporations.
Originally there was also a “C” category for cooperatives, but these were soon moved to a separate register.
In Austrian Poland an analogous category system was used for different kinds of firms.
A new comprehensive company and commercial law code covering the entire Republic of Poland (i.e., all three former partitions) was decreed by the president in 1934, and remained on the books until the early 2000s. The business register system was largely preserved unchanged. Since the subsequent communist regime largely nationalized or shut down private firms by the late 1940s, the code’s application in the People’s Republic of Poland became very limited. Business registers again became highly relevant after Poland returned to a market economy beginning in the late 1980s.
Documentation concerning commercial registers in Polish archives is usually found in record groups for district courts – sądy okręgowe or Handelsgericht. In other cases it is located in files for regional chambers of industry and commerce (izby przemysłowo-handlowe), as these bodies also maintained lists of businesses.
Files can contain extracts, i.e., tables containing summary information on companies, like this one from Radom:
Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kielcach, file no. 21/146/0/-/8068However, in many cases richer court files for specific businesses have survived containing supporting documentation. Depending on the case, they can number from just a few sheets of paper to hundreds of pages. These documents were the basis for inputting information into the summary registers.
Begin by establishing what district court (Bezirkgericht, Handelsgericht, sąd okręgowy) had jurisdiction over the business you are looking for. Then see if records for that court have been preserved. Our database [link to PDF] can be a good start.
You can also try searching for the name of the firm or entrepreneur in the Polish State Archives website (szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl).
If you would like to consider working with a professional genealogist on research in business registers or other types of records, feel free to reach out to us at research@ancestorantenat.pl.
Card detailing documents required for registration. Source: Archiwum Państwowe w Kielcach, file no. 21/146/0/-/8074Chełmoński Adam, “Rejestr handlowy na tle dekretu z dn. 7 lutego 1919 r.” Rocznik prawniczy wileński vol. III (1929).
Stawecki Tomasz, Rejestry przedsiębiorców w Europie Warsaw 2004.
The State Archive in Warsaw has created a searchable database covering over 20,000 unincorporated businesses registered in Warsaw. Records included are from 1917-1946. You can access the database here: https://www.warszawa.ap.gov.pl/wyszukiwarki/rha/.
Monitor Polski archive: https://monitorpolski.gov.pl/MP
The database focuses on pre-1945 business register records or territories that belonged to the interwar Republic of Poland. Polish place names are used.
We include records from register A (unincorporated businesses) and B (corporations).
This resource on Polish business registers as a source for family history research was created by Hadassah Lipsius, Dawid Walendowski, and Anna Wiernicka. All rights reserved. You may link to it but not copy without permission.