Metadata: Świdnica District Court
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 84/582
- Title:
- Świdnica District Court
- Title (official language):
- Sąd Obwodowy w Świdnicy
- Creator/accumulator:
- Świdnica District Court
- Date(s):
- 1842/1945
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 247.24 linear metres (20,910 folders)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the District Court of Świdnica is large, with a small number of Jewish-related items.
The records date, for the most part, from the period 1742–1945. The Court’s jurisdiction encompassed the District of Świdnica (Schweidnitz). It is organised in subject-related groups, with units related to minor criminal as well as civil cases: tenancy/lease, alimonies, adoption, guardianship, damages/losses, inheritance/bequeath, testament/will-related, land registers/deeds. Registers of associations and partnerships/companies can also be found. The most abundant dossiers are the land files related to localities (alphabetically, by locality; within the locality by item number) as well as testaments or last wills (by name; ref. nos. 11859–13376). The other extant types of file are rather scarce.
Jewish-related elements are dispersed across various groups. Of special interest are the units listing the births, marriages and deaths as well as testament/will matters (ref. nos. 11859–13376):
Ref. no. 11850: Amtsgericht Schweidnitz. Acta betr. Geburten der hiesigen Judengemeinde, 1865–84.
Ref. no. 11855: Amtsgericht Schweidnitz. Acta betr. die Begleubigung der Heirathen der hiesigen Judengemeinde, 1847–57.
Ref. no. 11856: Amtsgericht Schweidnitz. Acta betr. die Begleubigung der Heirathen der hiesigen Judengemeinde, 1862–73.
Ref. no. 11857: Amtsgericht Schweidnitz. Acta betr. die Begleubigung der Heirathen der hiesigen Judengemeinde, 1866–92.
Ref. no. 11858: Amtsgericht Schweidnitz. Acta betr. die Begleubigung der Sterbefälle der hiesigen Judengemeinde.
Ref. no. 12286: Testament: Fabrikdirektor Dr Heinz Gertrud geb. Cohn aus Ida & Marienhütte bei Saarau, 1887–1936.
Ref. no. 12287: Testament: Fabrikdirektor Dr Heinz Arnold aus Ida u. Marienhütte, 1887–1900.
Ref. no. 12325: Testament: Amtsgericht Schweidnitz, Destillateur Heinrich Hirschfeld zu Schweidnitz, 1847–62.
Ref. no. 12644: Testament, Zimmermeister Samuel Melcher zu Zobten, 1844.
Ref. no. 13146: Testament des Aron Sterns, 1831–59.
Other interesting material includes registers and indices (ref. nos. 13377–13452), including registers of families (file nos. 13377–13401), real property owners (file nos. 13402–13418) and enterprises operating within the District of Świdnica:
Ref. no. 13429 Alphabetische Verzeichnis zum Firmenregister.
Ref. no. 13430 Alphabetische Verzeichnis zum Firmenregister.
Ref. no. 13431 Nachlass Register zum Firmenregister, 1897–9.
Ref. no. 13433 Firmenregister Bd. I, 1862–93.
Ref. no. 13434 Firmenregister, 1862–99.
Ref. no. 13435 Gesellschaftsregister, Bd. I, 1862–96.
Ref. no. 13437 Handelsregister, Bd. I 1900–26.
These records offer information regarding Jewish enterprises: dates of incorporation/dissolution, capital/equity, goodwill (corporate value) and the (consecutive) owners or shareholders.
- Archival history:
- The records were accumulated by the chancellery of the first-instance court in Świdnica which operated until 1945. They were transferred to the State Archive of Wroclaw in 1959 and are presently stored at the Archive’s branch in Kamieniec-Ząbkowicki. The resource was edited by Burchard, Baryczko, Stolier (1960, 1964)and C. Kwiatkowska (1965).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- After the seizure of Silesia, the Prussian authorities introduced in 1742 a patrimonial and municipal judicature, which were due to be supervised by Court-of-Law Regencies of Breslau (Wroclaw) and Glogau (Głogów). Being courts of first instance, they resolved disputes between the estates (social classes) and the authorities, as well as frontier disputes. After the Prussian judiciary was reorganised, district and municipal courts of the first instance were set up in 1808. State courts were launched under Frederick William IV’s (Friedrich Wilhelm IV’s) ordinance of 1849, in lieu of private judicature (municipal, patrimonial and ecclesiastical judiciary handling civil cases) and court services for the privileged. The first-instance district court covered the district’s area, and was formed of a criminal and a civil unit. 1879, following the amended Constitution of the Reich, a new set of regulations was introduced for the courts-of-law, based whereon district courts (Amtsgerichts), which operated until 1945.
- Access points: locations:
- Świdnica
- Access points: persons/families:
- Arnold, Heinz
- Gertrud, Heinz
- Hirschfeld, Heinrich
- Melcher, Samuel
- Stern, Aron
- Subject terms:
- Legal matters
- Real estate
- Trade and commerce
- Vital records
- Wills
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged thematically.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is available in the reading room of the State Archive of Wroclaw, Kamieniec-Ząbkowicki branch.
- Finding aids:
- A register is available at the archives.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Author of the description:
- Anna Grużlewska, Leszek Ziątkowski; University of Wroclaw; 2015
