Metadata: Old File Archive
Collection
- Country:
- Germany
- Holding institution:
- Göttingen Municipal Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Stadtarchiv Göttingen
- Postal address:
- Stadtarchiv Göttingen, Hiroshimaplatz 4, 37083 Göttingen
- Phone number:
- +49 551 400 3122
- Web address:
- www.stadtarchiv.goettingen.de
- Email:
- stadtarchiv@goettingen.de
- Reference number:
- AA
- Title:
- Old File Archive
- Title (official language):
- Altes Aktenarchiv
- Creator/accumulator:
- Göttingen City Council
- Date(s):
- 1400/1899
- Date note:
- 15th century/19th century
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 260 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- This collection covers a wide range of the city council's concerns and actions, including those regarding the Jewish population of Göttingen. Much of the material deals with Jewish traders and businessmen and the status of Jews as “Schutzjuden“, but it also contains records relating to conflicts with local guilds and concerns about Jewish beggars (“Betteljuden“). The collection also includes a civil registry of the Israelite congregation with a register of marriages 1810-1812 (Personenstandsachen, No. 7a).
- Archival history:
-
On 1 April 1900, the magistrate transferred the position of an archivist from Dr. Priesack to Dr. Ferdinand Wagner. In the winter of 1902-1903, Wagner's first major archival act was the move from the Hardenberger Hof to the new townhouse. Here, Wagner devoted himself primarily to the cataloguing of the letter collections and provided for the extension of the archive library. In 1934, Dr. Wilhelm van Kempen became Wagner’s successor, the first archivist to practice this profession on a full-time basis. In 1935, the archive was able to expand its premises by purchasing the building of the fraternity "Saxonia" and in 1936 the archive was relocated to the so-called "Sachsenhaus". A reorganisation of the archive followed until June 1936,. With few exceptions, since 1850 no more files had been transferred to the archive. Therefore much had to be made up after the enlargement of the premises. In June 1942 many collections were stored outside the city due to the danger of air raids. After the war, these collections were brought back without losses. Volunteers and part-time employees helped with the inventory of the material in the following years. From 1974 to 1996, the archivist and historian Helga-Maria Kühn was head of the Municipal Archive of Göttingen. At present time (2018), the archivist and historian Ernst Boehme is in charge of the Municipal Archive and the Municipal Museum in Göttingen.
The collection was catalogued with the help of the EDP archive program "AIDA". The data sets were transferred in May 2015 by AIDA into the archive software "Arcinsys".
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Göttingen was officially recognised as a town in 1230 as a subject of the duchy (later electorate) of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, but the settlement was already at least 500 years old. Though being a subject of Braunschweig-Lüneburg with a governor residing in the town, it had also been granted self-administration to some degree. As early as the 12th century the town was thus semi-autonomously self-administered by a municipal council consisting of 24 councillors. Jews settled in the town in the late 13th century. On 1 March 1289 the dukes of Braunschweig and Lüneburg gave permission to the Göttingen council to accept the Jew Moses in the city. The Jews lived mainly near the St. Jacobi Church in today's Jüdenstraße. The history of the Jews in Göttingen in the Middle Ages was marked by great suffering. After duke Otto III. had ceded the right of jurisdiction over the Jews to the city in 1369-70, it repeatedly came to bloody pogroms and evictions. From 1460 to 1599 no Jews lived in Göttingen. From 1611 the city councillors were elected by all Göttingen residents with citizen rights. The council elected the mayor. As of 1669 there were only 16 councillors, later twelve. From 1690 on there was a more differentiated government of eight councillors, a city secretary, a special counsel (“Syndikus“), two mayors and a court official (“Gerichtsschulze“). During the existence of the Napoleonic satellite state “Kingdom of Westphalia“ the city was governed by a “Maire“. In 1814 it became a part of the kingdom of Hannover, which in turn became a Prussian province in 1866. During the years of National Socialism (1933-1945) the NSDAP appointed the mayor. After that the British military government formed in 1946 a communal administration based on the British model, when the city became a part of the new German state of Lower Saxony. From then on the heads of the city were an elected “Oberbürgermeister“ (“General Mayor“) and an “Oberstadtdirektor“ (“General City Director“) as head of the administration. The latter position was abolished in the year 2000.
- Access points: locations:
- Göttingen
- Subject terms:
- Guilds
- Legal status of Jews
- Marriage and divorce
- Poverty
- Trade and commerce
- System of arrangement:
- The material is arranged in thematic order.
- Finding aids:
- An online finding aid (Arcinsys) exists. Printed finding aid: “BÜ AA“.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.arcinsys.niedersachsen.de/arcinsys/detailAction.action?detailid=v6281529
- Yerusha Network member:
- Institute for the History of German Jews
- Author of the description:
- Matthias Springborn, 2018
