Metadata: Systematic standards
Collection
- Country:
- Austria
- Holding institution:
- Tyrolean Regional Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Tiroler Landesarchiv
- Postal address:
- Michael-Gaismair-Straße 1, 6020 Innsbruck
- Phone number:
- 0043 512 508 3502
- Web address:
- https://www.tirol.gv.at/kunst-kultur/landesarchiv/
- Email:
- landesarchiv@tirol.gv.at
- Reference number:
- Jüngeres Gubernium - Systematische Normalien
- Title:
- Systematic standards
- Title (official language):
- Systematische Normalien
- Creator/accumulator:
- Younger Gubernium
- Date(s):
- 1490/1872
- Date note:
- ca. 1495/1867
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 57 fascicles
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection “Systematic standards” of the Younger Gubernium, held by the Tyrolean regional archive of Innsbruck, is a non-Jewish assemblage with several Jewish-related documents.
The collection covers the period c.1495–1867 and contains laws and regulations bound in fascicles sorted into subjects including Construction, Forestry, Fisheries, Funds, Hunting, Mail, Religion, Trade, History and Statistics, Justice, Credit, Culture, Military, Coinage, Police, Public, School and Studies, Provincial and Medical Services [q.v. Beimrohr, Das Tiroler Landesarchiv und seine Bestände, 98–99].
Records regarding Jewish life may be found under Religion with the signature “Normalien, 12, Geistl. und Religion (Klöster)”. (Note: 12 is the number of the whole fascicle of religious matters, which contains a sub-fascicle “Juden” with the number 38.)
The Jewish sub-fascicle is composed of regulations, mandates, extracts and copies of resolutions. These include not only handwritten documents, but also printed mandates or regulations. Jewish-related content consists of regulations concerning birth, marriage and death registers, toleration and acceptance, fees and taxes, treatment of Jewish children in school and civil marriages and divorces. There are instructions from Empress Maria Theresa, her son Emperor Joseph II and officials of the Gubernium. Examples of this extensive fascicle include a record of 15 August 1750 concerning Jewish people in Vorarlberg in which Maria Theresa ordered that the aristocracy should receive collected Jewish protection fees of 600 guilders per year for 1748–50 for their efforts to remove Jews from their Vorarlberg domains. Maria Theresa supported these efforts because she had received complaints about Jews from the aristocrats. Jewish people in Vorarlberg were given three months to pay their fees and debts. In the same record Maria Theresa refused the petition of the medical student Mathiaß Johannes Perthaner for exemption from the fourth year of his studies.
The next standard, issued by Joseph II, is from 1781 and deals with the “better education and cultivation” of Jewish people in Bohemia. Joseph wanted to make the Jews of Bohemia and Silesia useful through education and enlightenment and ordered that if Jewish children could not be educated at Jewish schools for any reason, they should be permitted to learn reading, writing and arithmetic at Christian schools. He also ordered the abolition of the yellow sign that Jews had to wear on their clothes for recognition.
Another record of Joseph II from 1781 deals with the benefits and privileges of Jews in Inner Austria. Jewish academics in Steyr, Carinthia and Carniola were permitted to receive doctorates in medicine and law. Concerning the Jews of Görz/Gorizia and Trieste, Joseph sought advice from the authorities about banning the sourcing of foreign Jewish books. He also ordered the abolition of the Jewish provost of the Ghetto of Gorizia. Generally, the authority tried to ghettoise Jewish people and build “Jewish cities” were they were forced to live, but exemptions were also made: the same record states that wealthy foreign Jewish families could be permitted to settle.
A further regulation of 1871 instructs high-school teachers to protect Jewish children from discrimination and mistreatment. The record lists six points: Jewish and Christian children should be treated equally; teachers should be impartial and fair and encourage the same behaviour from Christian pupils; if they did not obey the rules, they were to be punished; Jewish parents should be encouraged by teachers to clothe their children without Jewish symbols so they could not be distinguished from Christian pupils; trading and bartering were forbidden at schools; and Jewish students were to avoid fights and disagreements between pupils of different religions.
A standard issued on 31 March 1782 by Joseph II concerns regulation of birth, marriage and death registers. This record also orders local rabbis to keep these registers in the same way as Christian priests. Another mandate of Joseph II, issued on 3 May 1786, contains regulations in matters of the civil marriage and a further mandate concerns name changes.
In addition to regulations and mandates, the record contains circulars and announcements. One announcement concerns procedures for officials conducting Jewish marriages and how to make a Jewish marriage legal. It was first necessary to obtain a marriage permit from the regional authority (“Kreisamt”). Secondly, legal regulations for the validity of a Jewish marriage were to be obeyed. There is also a circular referring to Jewish divorces in cases of religious conversion of spouses.
This sub-fascicle contains extensive Jewish-related material and as such has great potential value to researchers. Repertories B 323 and B 204 should be consulted first for an overview of the collection and to find the necessary signatures to order the fascicles.
- Archival history:
- This collection was transferred to the Tyrolean Regional Archive according to the regular document transfer process stipulated by national archival regulations.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Gubernium was established in 1763 to replace the former authority “Repräsentation and Kammer” (Representation and chamber) established by Empress Maria Theresa in the administrative reforms of 1749. It was the highest authority of the general administration of Tyrol and, from 1782, Vorarlberg. It was subordinated to the central authorities of the Habsburg territories in Vienna. As well as general administration, the Gubernium was responsible for matters of religion, education and the policing of trade and security. From 1782, political matters and the political police, which had been responsibilities of the Gubernium, were assigned to the governor or rectorate. Related documents are “Records of the Presidium” (“Akten des Präsidiums”) and “Secret records of the Presidium” (“Geheime Präsidialakten”). In 1782 the Austrian Anterior and Superior Board of Appeal (“O. ö. und v. ö. Revisorium”) were separated from the Gubernium, meaning that the administration and the judiciary were treated separately at the state level. Between 1806 and 1814 the Gubernium did not operate due to the Bavarian domination of Tyrol. In 1814, administrative responsibilities were reassigned to the Gubernium. In 1850 the Gubernium was superseded by the new authority “Governor’s Office for Tyrol and Vorarlberg” (“Statthalterei für Tirol und Vorarlberg”) [q.v. Beimrohr, Das Tiroler Landesarchiv und seine Bestände, 92].
- Access points: locations:
- Bohemia
- Upper Austria
- Vorarlberg
- Access points: persons/families:
- Perthaner, Mathiaß Johannes
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is composed of laws and regulations bound into fascicles, which were arranged according to subject matter.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is publicly accessible.
- Finding aids:
- Rep. B 323
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Rebecca Muršec; Tyrolean Regional Archive Innsbruck; 2018
