| Morgen | |
| Standard: | German customary units |
| Quantity: | Area |
| Symbol: | Mg |
| Namedafter: | Amount of land tillable in the morning hours of a day by one person behind an ox or horse dragging a single bladed plough |
| Units1: | SI base units |
| Inunits1: | 2,500 m2 |
| Units2: | Imperial unit system |
| Inunits2: | 2500sigfig=3NaNsigfig=3 |
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 NaNacresNaNacres. It was also used in Old Prussia, in the Balkans, Norway and Denmark, where it was equal to about NaNacres.
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. 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 NaNha,[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 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.
| + German sizes of morgen | Region (Timespan) | Name | Size in m² | original definition (QR = Quadratruten) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - metric - | Viertelhektar = vha | 2,500 | (100 QR) | |
| 1,906 | 160 QR | |||
| 2,000 | ||||
| Feldmorgen | 2,025 | 160 QFeldR | ||
| 2,256 | ||||
| Acker | 2,386 | 150 QR | ||
| Prussia (1816–1869) | Magdeburger Morgen | 2,553.22 | 180 QR | |
| 2,572 | 120 QR | |||
| 2,585 | 120 QR | |||
| Hanover (before 1836) | 2,608 | 120 QR | ||
| Hanover (after 1836) | 2,621 | 120 QR | ||
| Rheinländischer Morgen | 3,176 | 150 QR | ||
| Bergischer Morgen | 2,132 | 120 QR | ||
| Württemberg (1806–1871) | 3,152 | 384 QR | ||
| Waldmorgen | 3,256 | 160 QWaldR | ||
| Waldmorgen | 3,335 | 160 QR | ||
| Tagwerk | 3,407 | 400 QR | ||
| 3,600 | 400 QR | |||
| 4,205 | 200 QGR--> | |||
| Jück | 4,538 | 160 QR | ||
| ca. 5,000 | 300 QR | |||
| Tonne (Tønde) | 5,046 | 240 QGeestR | ||
| Steuertonne | 5,466 | 260 QGeestR | ||
| Kulmischer Morgen | 5,601.17 | 300 QR | ||
| Diemat (h) | 5,674 | |||
| 6,500 | 300 QR | |||
| Altes Land (Harburg & Stade) | 8,185 | |||
| 9,658 | 600 QGR | |||
| Marschmorgen | 10,477 | |||
| 10,484 | 480 QR | |||
| 11,780 | 540 QR |
The Polish terms for the unit were morga, mórg, jutrzyna, the latter being a near-literal translation into old Polish.
| 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 NaNacres.[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]