Map Archive of Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny 1919 - 1939

Recognition for our work. More here.

A (slightly) delayed update:

• approx. 30 sheets of a 1:50,000 (GSGS 4529 Med 4) dated 1945 (Austria), a re-scaled copy of an Austrian and / or German 1:75,000 map. The series was published by the  'Survey Directorate AFHQ' (Allied Force Headquarters). As there's no modern index sheet for this series in mapster, you can use one from 1945 that's available underneath the list of sheets. The series is marked on the index sheet, in the bottom-right corner, in GREEN. For those interested in AFHQ history and structure, here's a pdf file.
• a few British and US 1M map series covering Europe and Asia (AMS 1301 / AMS 5301, 5302 / GSGS 2555 / GSGS 4646), dated 1940 - 1965. There have been quite a few of series in this scale and they might be continued until today and we have no time to figure out details and nuances, they have 'provisionally' ended in one bag (list).
• right in the same 'bag', about 20 sheets of a British small-scale (2.5M) map series  GSGS 4340 / HIND 1080) which covers Asia, though the sheets started from... the Black Sea. Some scans are doubles, but here and there, different publishing dates are available.
• Himalaya, 3 (out of 4?) sheets, ‘Tibet and Adjacent Countries’, 1:2,5M.
• ...and one (probably out of 2) sheets of ‘Highlands of Tibet and Surrounding Regions’. Interestingly, the map shows a dense network of railways, most of which no longer exist.

• a few small-scale Soviet and Russian maps
  (Please note, the map of Soviet railway network is a very large file, approx. 120 Mb)

From the collection of Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde

• approx. 40 sheets of the ‘Topographische Karte’ (Messtischblatt), 1:25 000, the ‘western’ part, i.e. west of the Oder river - these are the sheets we overlooked during previous update,
• approx. 1000 sheets of the ‘Topographische Karte’ (Messtischblatt, 1:25 000, the ‘eastern’ part, i.e. east of the Oder river , mainly Western Poland. Majority of those sheets have already been available, but some of the new ones have different publishing dates.

All Leibniz-Institut fuer Laenderkunde maps, though scanned really well, are available only at 300 dpi.

From the collection of the University of Berkeley Library, unfortunately also at 300 dpi only:

• approx. 700 sheets of a German „Russland” map, 1:50,000 dated 1942 - 1944/45; the map covers the arc of Eastern Europe, from the Baltic States, Belarus, parts of Russia, to the Ukrainian border against Moldova /Transnistria along the Dnieper (Dnipro) river and, in south-east, probably extended past Crimea and possibly covered the east coastline of the Black Sea
• approx. 20 double (x2) sheets of the same map, mainly from the central area, i.e. current Belarus. Unfortunately there's no index sheet in mapster available, so the sheets were put on a list.
• approx. 50 sheets of the same 1:50,000 map, but in a joint edition, i.e. x 4 single sheets.
  

As to the map type itself: German 1:50,000, under a code-names of Eol 50 (Ostland) and Esu 50 (Sowjetunion) based on a compilation of map sources: captured Polish maps by WIG, likewise Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian maps, but primarily, based on massive cache of Soviet 1:50,000 and 1:100,000 maps, additionally updated from German air photos from 1942-1944 and field reports. We don't know the extent of this map type, so when mapster index was drawn, the range was rather... excessive, stretching to Berlin in the west. No cler, original German index sheets are available (yet), we added what was at hand below the index sheets of single and quadruple sheets. Given the area covered by this map type, and number of war-time editions, estimated number of sheets could have easily run into a few thousands, or more. However, we do not expect to add any further sheets either this year - or the next either.
It needs to be acknowledged, that using this map type in mapster is difficult; firstly, because mapster database of place names does not extend to the east. Secondly, mapster index 'background maps' do not extend east of Poland either, so it's hard to identify individual map sheets against large terrain features, such as cities, rivers or large lakes. Thirdly, you can't see sheet names on the mapster Russland 1:50,000 map series. We will try to improve it somewhat by adding sheet names to the index, but please bear in mind it's over 700 German, Russian / Lithuanian / Ukrainian place-names. They need to be located, checked and entered into database manually, which is a very time-consuming process - we'll start from the larger towns / sheet titles.

For your information, adding town plans from Polona collection is takes a long time to complete, as it's a laborious proces: each file needs to be 'processed' manually, i.e. correct name, scale, publication date and call number need to be added to the file name, and then, all of this needs to be manually entered into our system, as there's no quick and easy way to convert all this information automatically. For reference, there's still about 200 - 400 town plans to add, mainly related to Central & Eastern Europe, plus a good few thousands individual maps at various scales which also need to be processed manually. This will take time.

Nevertheless, some things can be semi-automated, so we have addedd approx. 70 sheets of the Soviet 1:50,000 map, mostly dated around 1980s, the area is Kaliningrad Oblast.

• From the collection of the University of Berkeley, a few hundred German & Austrian 1:75,000 maps which cover the area of Czechia and Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, and severa original Czech sheets. Unfortunately, all maps were scanned at 300 dpi, so this is the only resolution available.

• Several town plans of Eastern Europe, mainly from the collection of 'polona', digital arm of the National Library of Poland. One of the more important plans is a plan of Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw: Sperrgebiet / Dzielnicy Å»ydowskiej, 1:2,500 scale.

• A surprise from Mr Brendon Whyte, National Library of Australia, who shared 2 maps of Russia. The first is one we already have from previous editions, this one, however, Jan. 1944, showd the amin borders of the Reichskommissariat Ostland i Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Another map, from 1970s' Soviet Union, to is a wall map of Old Rus State; it relates to the debate on the margins of current Russian war against Ukraine, about who was who ruled whom, and when, etc.
  

• As always, in the process of year-long spring-cleaning, we managed to consolidate, to some degree, various small-scale German maps of WW2. Ultimately, all irregular and joint editions of 'Ãœbersichtskarte' and 'Operationskarten', 1:1 mln scale, ended up in one list. We will not create an index sheet though. The maps were compiled for various military compaigns, so individual sheets overlap significantly. Some of those irregular editions are mentioned in the original index sheets which are available below the map list.

• On the subject of index sheets, we have added another few dozen of original German index sheets, they can be found below individual map series.

• And finally... courtesy of a person who wished to remain anonymous, we managed to scan unique brochurers called 'Kartenbriefe', issue 20 - 29, with an overview of developments and progres in German war-time military cartography. Some brochures are short of index sheets, as they were re-used by US and British post-WW2 military cartography services and libraries. Fortunately, we managed to link a few loose index sheets in those brochures to one of the last of them, i.e. Kartenbriefe Nr 31. So, for a completed package, we miss only the first few isues of Kartenbriefe. By the way, here's the shortcut to the pdf files. And, a marginal note on Kartenbriefe: the issue of April 1943 included samples of a German 1:25,000 experimental photo-map (Bildplankarte) from the area north of Kyiv, Sample 1, Sample 2. A few other sheets of this photo-maps are available on this list under the name of 'Bildplankarte'