Records on Hungary, Voivodina and Transylvania, 1848–1860

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára

Title (official language):: Akten „Ungarn” „Woiwodina” und „Siebenbürgen”, 1848–1860

Creator/accumulator:: K. K. Ministerium des Cultus und Unterrichtes – Imperial and Royal Ministry of Religion and Education, 1848–1860

Scope and content:: The Jewish-related parts of this collection are the records of and records pertaining to Jewish religious communities and schools, which generally arranged into separate archival units. Unit 16 (Conversions) includes the issues of mixed marriages and children from these marriages and complaints about the violations of religious tolerance (Fasc.2-3.); Units no. D1-16 (Hungary, Jews), include the issues of the regulations concerning the Israelite religion, election of rabbis, building of synagogues, school matters, marriages, conversions, cemeteries, regulations concerning trade on Sabbath and on holidays, removing rabbis from their position, awards, widows of rabbis, and kosher butchery (Fasc.61.); Units no. D1-8 (Transylvania, Jews), includes the issues of the regulations concerning the Israelite religion, election of rabbis, building of synagogues, and conversions (Fasc. 73.); Units 23 and 23/A (Jewish Schools, Fasc.127., 150). Key person in the collection is Minister of Religion and Education Leo Thun (1849–1860).

Archival history:: The files of the dissolved Vienna-based ministries of the absolutist era were handed over to the reorganised Locotenential Council and the Court Chancelleries with the exception of presidential and certain classified records. After 1867, all documents were taken to the newly established Royal Hungarian Ministry of the Interior (1867-1945). The part of the collections that had remained in Vienna were handed over to Hungary (Baden agreement, 1926). The material from the years 1849-1860 had been incorporated into the medieval (feudal) section of the archives until 1949, when the National Archives started to re-arrange and systematise the files pertaining to this historical period. The Section D (Records of the Era of Absolutism) was created in 1952. The first finding aid was published in 1959. Since then, the collection has been rearranged and selected several times.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Hungarian term era of absolutism (abszolutizmuskor) refers to the attempt of Emperor Franz Joseph I to incorporate Hungary into the Habsburg Empire after the defeat of the Hungarian War of Independence in 1849. The administrative bodies of the previous period, including the Locotenential Council (Helytartótanács/Ungarische Statthalterei), the Hungarian and Transylvanian Court Chancelleries (Magyar és Erdélyi Udvari Kancellária) and the local autonomies were dissolved and replaced by imperial ministries seated in Vienna. The so-called October Diploma (imperial decree) of October 20, 1860 signalled the end of the era of centralisation. The Vienna-based ministries were disbanded and their function was taken over by the reorganised Locotenential Council and the Court Chancelleries.

Subject terms:: Education; Education--Schools and universities; Jewish community; Rabbis; Synagogues; Taxation

Finding aids:: Sashegyi Oszkár, ed. Az abszolutizmuskori levéltár. Repertórium. Vol 1. Budapest: MOL, 1984.