Metadata: Acts and Charters
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:
- B 1
- Title:
- Acts and Charters
- Title (official language):
- Urkunden
- Creator/accumulator:
- Göttingen City Council
- Date(s):
- 1225/1788
- Date note:
- ca. 1230/1788
- Language:
- German
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains the parchment charters in the City Archives of Göttingen, namely imperial, royal and papal charters as well as so-called private documents. The extensive “letter collection” contains approx. 6,300 records and includes at least 14 certificates and parchments with a reference to mostly individual Jews, sometimes Jews in general (no. 75 N; 141 N verso; 145 N; 228; 852; 950.57; 1099; 1309 N; 1325 N; 1699; 1712; 1841.73; 1842 C.14; 1928.21).
To give one example from the years 1369-70: duke Otto of Braunschweig, son of the deceased duke Ernst, concludes the following contract with the Göttingen council regarding the Jews: the council may take in any number of Jews and defend them inside and outside like other citizens. The duke, his officials and servants will also defend them. The council may, if it so wishes, expel Jews without objection from the Duke. If Jews violate the law or arbitrary use of words or deeds, they must repent before the ducal court and the council like any other citizen. If becomes active against the Jews, this should be punished according to the statutes. Clergymen living in the country of the duke should not summon the Jews to a foreign court, unless they have not obtained their rights at the ducal court in Göttingen or before the council. The duke wants to demand from the Jews only the taxes and duties agreed with them, unless the Jews agree to an increase in these taxes and duties. They should comply with agreed obligations to the council. If they are tried before the ducal court in Göttingen, they should swear the usual oaths in the presence of the mayor before the “Jewish school“ [synagogue]. (B 1, No. 1699)
- Archival history:
-
The order of the collection remains the same as was established by Dr Seidensticker in the years 1798-1804, laid down in the three volumes of the "Neueste Specificatio Documentorum" (Ms 10,1).
History of the Municipal Archive: On 1 April 1900 the magistrate transferred the position of an archivist from Dr. Priesack to Dr. Ferdinand Wagner. In the winter of 1902-3, Wagner's first major 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". Until June 1936, a reorganisation of the archive followed. With few exceptions no more files had been transferred to the archive since 1850. Therefore much had to be made up after the enlargement of the premises. In June 1942 many collections were stored outside the city to protect them from air raids. After the war, the 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 the time of writing (2018), the archivist and historian Ernst Böhme heads the Municipal Archive and the Municipal Museum in Göttingen.
- 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:
- Correspondence
- Expulsion
- Legal status of Jews
- Pogroms
- Synagogues
- System of arrangement:
- The material is arranged in thematic order.
- Finding aids:
- An online finding aid is available (Arcinsys). There is also a printed finding aid “BÜ B 1“.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.arcinsys.niedersachsen.de/arcinsys/detailAction.action?detailid=v6387867
- Yerusha Network member:
- Institute for the History of German Jews
- Author of the description:
- Matthias Springborn, 2018
