Morgen
A morgen is a historical, but still occasionally used, German unit of area used in agriculture. Officially, it is no longer in use, having been supplanted by the hectare. While today it is approximately equivalent to the Prussian morgen, measuring 25 ares or 2,500 square meters, its area once ranged from, but usually between. In the 20th century, the quarter hectare became standard for one morgen. 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.
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. 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, but it was usually between one-fifth to half a hectare. 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, four morgens equaled one hectare in the German Empire, which is why the morgen was sometimes referred to as a quarter hectare 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, it has lost significance compared to the hectare. 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 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 never became popular.
Comparative measures to the Morgen in German-speaking regions
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.| Region | Name | Size in m2 | original definition |
| - metric - | Viertelhektar = vha | 2,500 | |
| Homburg | 1,906 | 160 QR | |
| Franconia | 2,000 | ||
| Frankfurt | Feldmorgen | 2,025 | 160 QFeldR |
| Oldenburg | 2,256 | ||
| Kassel | Acker | 2,386 | 150 QR |
| Prussia | Magdeburger Morgen | 2,553.22 | 180 QR |
| Waldeck-Pyrmont | Magdeburger Morgen | 2,553.22 | 180 QR |
| Bremen | 2,572 | 120 QR | |
| Schaumburg | 2,585 | 120 QR | |
| Hanover | 2,608 | 120 QR | |
| Hanover | 2,621 | 120 QR | |
| Cologne Rhineland | Rheinländischer Morgen | 3,176 | 150 QR |
| Bergisches Land | Bergischer Morgen | 2,132 | 120 QR |
| Württemberg | 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 | 5,046 | 240 QGeestR |
| Schleswig-Holstein | Steuertonne | 5,466 | 260 QGeestR |
| Kulmischer Morgen | 5,601.17 | 300 QR | |
| East Frisia | Diemat | 5,674 | |
| Mecklenburg | 6,500 | 300 QR | |
| Altes Land | 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
The Polish terms for the unit were morga, mórg, jutrzyna, the latter being a near-literal translation into old Polish.| Unit | Miara | Sążeń2 | Łokieć2 | m2 |
| 1 morg | 3 | 1,600 | 6,439.02 | 5,754.64 |
| 1 miara | 533.33 | 2,929.07 | 1,918 | |
| 1 sążeń2 wiedeński | 4.0237 | 3.6 | ||
| 1 łokieć2 wiedeński | 0.9 |