Metadata: Records of the City of Walbrzych
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- State Archive of Wroclaw, Kamieniec-Ząbkowicki branch
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu, Oddział Kamieniec Ząbkowicki
- Postal address:
- Plac Kościelny 4, 57-230, Kamieniec Ząbkowicki
- Phone number:
- (+48 74) 8173540
- Web address:
- http://www.ap.wroc.pl/
- Email:
- kamieniec@ap.wroc.pl
- Reference number:
- PL 84/545
- Title:
- Records of the City of Walbrzych
- Title (official language):
- Akta miasta Wałbrzycha
- Creator/accumulator:
- City of Walbrzych
- Date(s):
- 1654/1945
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 64.81 linear metres (3,259 folders)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection is divided into twenty-two groups, each of which contains subgroups: nationwide affairs (formation of a constitutional/political system in Prussia in the former half of the nineteenth century); the authorities of the province, regency, and district; other authorities/institutions; legal cases; safety/security issues (fire protection/safety, police activities); war-related and military affairs; area/compass of the city; population; organisational and administrative affairs involving municipal authorities; city’s financial economy; economic affairs; municipal services; land/territory and proprietorship affairs; social care; health care; education and school system; sports and tourism; arts and culture; religious (denominational/confessional) affairs; organisations, unions, societies/associations; workers’ affairs.
There are some Jewish-related items in most of the groups/subgroups. The following are of particular interest:
XIII. Municipal services (and management thereof): Cemetery, zoological garden, green areas. Ref. no. 2122 Begräbnisplätze. Totengräber, Vol. I (1803–68): Memos regarding the local Jewish cemetery, dated 1861–3, plus related site plans.
XX. Religious/confessional matters. The Jewish religious community. Ref. no. 2992: Religionsverhältnisse der Dissidenten und Juden, Vol. I (1841–53): Lists of Jewish children, specifying dates of birth, parents’ first names and surnames, ages, abodes, and professions.
Ref. no. 2993: Religionsverhältnisse der Dissidenten und Juden, Vol. II (1853–68): Lists of Jewish children, specifying dates of birth, parents’ first names and surnames, ages, abodes, and professions.
Ref. no. 2994: Synagogengemeinde (1928–9): Materials related to the functioning of the Jewish religious community, comprising letters, notifications of Board/College of Representatives’ meetings, obituaries, celebrations held at the synagogue, new liturgical elements (choir), elections, Chewra Kadischa [Verein für Krankenpflege und Totenbestattung], cemetery management.
Ref. no. 2995: Wahl jüdischer Gemeinderepräsentanten, Vol. I. (1881/1891). Correspondence (quoting the recipients’ addresses, family status and profession), notification of elections and reports on how they proceeded (date/time/place), lists of attendees with voting rights, the candidates and the elected (specifying the share of vote received).
Ref. no. 2996: Wahl jüdischer Gemeinderepräsentanten, Vol. II (1893–1912).
Correspondence (quoting the recipients’ addresses, family status and profession), notification of elections and reports on how they proceeded (date/time/place), lists of attendees with voting rights, the candidates and the elected (specifying the share of vote received).
Ref. no. 2997 Wahl jüdischer Gemeinderepräsentanten und deren Stellvertreter, Bd. I (1914/1924). Correspondence (quoting the recipients’ addresses, family status and profession), notification of elections and reports on how they proceeded (date/time/place), lists of attendees with voting rights, the candidates and the elected (specifying the share of vote received).
XXI Organisations, unions, associations/societies: Ref. no. 3024: Central-Verein Deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens Ortsgruppe Breslau (correspondence). Letters exchanged in the years 1927–9 between the branch of Waldenburg and the headquarters in Berlin and Breslau (Wroclaw): conferences/assemblies, lectures, subscriptions of periodicals, condition of the Breslau branch, membership fees, manifestations of antisemitism, plus list of members of the Waldenburg branch.
- Archival history:
- The dossiers of the City of Wałbrzych/Waldenburg fund were amassed by administrative units and organisational sections, and subsequently transferred to the municipal archive associated with the local Regional Museum (Heimatmuseum). The initially gathered archival material formed a basic resource that was systematically complemented by files taken over from the communes located within the city’s vicinity, as their autonomy was dissolved and they were made part of the urban area. The municipal archive took over the first batch of archival material in 1927, and the last in 1935. A collection was formed based thereon, with the groups including: documents dated 1659 to 1868; city of Wałbrzych/Waldenburg records; the records of formerly autonomous communes incorporated into the city; and, materials of above-communal-level administrative offices in charge of police affairs (Amstverwaltung, Polizeiverwaltung). The 1930s saw the formation of a cartography and press documentation section. The State Archive of Wroclaw received the resource after World War 2. Rearranged in 1965, the resource was inventoried in 1968. In 2003, the collection was joined by archival material of the Polish Press Agency’s Boguszów team (a ‘Collection’, 0.6 linear m, 58 archival units); in 2013, a unit related to municipal secretary Ottokar Klasske (from the State Archive of Wroclaw) was added.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The municipal authority (Magistrat) of Waldenburg was instituted as the managing authority following the changes introduced under the municipal regulations of 1808. According to the specific rules-and-regulations dated 1809, the Magistrat wielded executive power within the urban commune of Waldenburg. It exercised its supervisory function over the administration for public affairs, performed police tasks and oversaw the trade, manufactories, industries, financial economy of the municipal treasuries, movement of the population, and acquisitions of land. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the municipality’s responsibilities were altered due to the city’s developing economic, social/political and spatial relations.
- Subject terms:
- Antisemitism
- Cemeteries
- Hevrah kadisha
- Jewish community
- Synagogues
- Vital records
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is divided into twenty-two groups based on administrative functions.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is available in the reading room of the State Archive of Wroclaw, Kamieniec-Ząbkowicki branch.
- Finding aids:
- A register, edited by Eugeniusz Kobzdaj and Janusz Konopka (1984), is available at the archive.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Author of the description:
- Anna Grużlewska, Leszek Ziątkowski; University of Wroclaw; 2015
