Metadata: District Court in Krakow. Commercial register
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- National Archives in Krakow
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie
- Postal address:
- ul. Sienna 16, 30-960 Kraków
- Phone number:
- (+48 12) 4224094
- Web address:
- http://ank.gov.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ank.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- 29/1989/42
- Title:
- District Court in Krakow. Commercial register
- Title (official language):
- Sąd Okręgowy w Krakowie. Rejestr Handlowy
- Creator/accumulator:
- District court in Krakow
- Date(s):
- 1811/1993
- Date note:
- 1811; 1855-1950; 1993
- Language:
- Polish
- German
- Extent:
- 8,988 units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The files of the commercial register of the regional court in Krakow form part of a larger collection of the district court in Krakow. Most of them are personnel files of judicial staff (judges, notaries, bailiffs, etc.). The commercial register is treated as a separate collection. The geographical scope corresponds to the local jurisdiction of the national court in Krakow and regional courts, i.e. Lesser Poland: Krakow, Jasło, Nowy Sącz, Rzeszów, Tarnów, Wadowice. Most Jewish-related records concern companies, unions and cooperatives in Krakow and the surrounding area. Due to the increasing industrialisation of the country, most of the information on Jewish enterprises is from the 1920s. Registration judges included in the register such information as: name and registered office of the company, date of establishment of the enterprise, its branches, name, surname and place of residence of individual owners or the trading company partners, information on commercial proxies, legal relations of traders or companies, judges' decisions, information on founding capital, stocks, shares, data on persons authorised to manage the company's assets and the scope of their rights, data on members of supervisory boards and liquidators, information on the type of company, date of approval of the statute, date of dissolution of the company, duration of the company, bankruptcy and judicial supervision. It is the most important collection for research on the economic history of Jews in Lesser Poland during the Galician period, during the First and Second World War, and in the interwar period. Data on about two-three thousand enterprises owned by Jews was entered in the register. The registration records themselves are of varying importance, some of them are lists of receipts of delivered correspondence (so-called “filura”) and court notices. Changes in the management board of companies were noted in magazines under economic headings, hence part of the register files are newspaper clippings, e.g. from Gazeta Lwowska (Lwów Gazette), Gazeta Wiedeńska (Vienna Gazette), and Nowa Reforma (New Reform). Company statutes and more detailed information on employment structures have been preserved for selected large enterprises.
29/1989/24555 Samuel Hirsch Opoczyński i Baruch Hersch Loewenstein company (1896).
29/1989/24443 Mojżesz Blankstein and Getzel Bornstein on the registration of their company (1894).
29/1989/24428 Dawid Szymon Mandel on the registration of his company (1893).
29/1989/21677 M. Blatteis on the closing of commercial activities (1861-1895).
29/1989/20824 “Zdrój” soda water factory, Weinberg and Goldfinger (1900-1936).
29/1989/20720 Płaszowska roof tiles and brick factory (1898-1935).
29/1989/17876 Pinkus Landau and Józef Rabinowicz steam mill (1907-1935).
29/1989/18615 Markus Heublum and Wincenty Heublum – “Heublum Brothers” general commercial partnership (1922-1938).
29/1989/17942 A J. Spira coldcuts factory, owner H. Majerczyk (1908).
29/1989/26765 Markus Goldman, alcohol production and spice trade in Krakow.
29/1989/26586 Eliza Ameisen technical commercial enterprise in Krakow.
29/1989/26536 Hirsch Weinheber steam lumber mill and marble milling factory in Krzeszowice.
29/1989/18689 Izydor Beer in Krakow (trading in coal and lumber).
29/1989/18691 Suesser, Wernet and Karliner in Krakow (trading in textile products).
29/1989/18667 Markus and Schenirer in Krakow (trading in leather).
29/1989/18653 Wholesale paper factory, Kilbert and Eisenstein in Krakow (wholesale and retail).
29/1989/18640 Wertheimer and Dusawiecki in Krakow (trading in leather and shoes).
29/1989/18646 Maurycy Horowitz in Krakow (sale of construction materials).
29/1989/18605 "Liban Brothers and Co. in Krakow (construction company, concrete production and trading in concrete materials)”.
- Archival history:
- The records of the District Court in Krakow were stored in the court archives at Senacka Street 1. After the Second World War, the records were successively transferred to the State Archives in Krakow. Records from the 1950s and later were stored in the building of the Court Archives in Krakow at Przy Rondzie Street 7 (inter-institutional archives that held records jointly for the provincial, regional, and county courts).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Common courts for Krakow and Galicia were introduced in 1855, and in 1868 the Central and eastern district courts (renamed after Poland regained independence) were created. In 1898, the county court in Krakow divided into two separate courts: civil and criminal. The appeals court was the Imperial Royal national court. During the Second Polish Republic, the regional courts were courts of first instance in major criminal and civil cases; they considered appeals from the municipal courts. Cases were decided by a three-person collegiate body (including cases in which the State Treasury was a party, in bankruptcy and settlement proceedings, for claims exceeding 10,000 zlotys) or one-person body. They were divided into departments. Special jury courts were created to deliberate on crimes liable to more severe penalties and on political issues. In addition, trade departments were established for commercial cases, which consisted of one district judge and two jurors (designated by the chambers of commerce and industry). In the years 1919-1922, district judges were appointed by the Chief of State, and then, in accordance with the March Constitution of 1921, by the President of the Republic of Poland. To become admitted as a judge, it was necessary to complete a legal training period and pass the examination for judges. Registration activities (of enterprises) were performed by a regional court judge. The register was divided into divisions: A (sole traders, company companies, limited partnerships), B (limited liability companies, companies joint-stock and limited joint-stock partnerships) and C (associations and unions).
- System of arrangement:
-
The records of the Krakow regional court are divided into 3 large collections: 29/442/0 (1919–1939), 29/1988/0 (1939–1945), 29/1989/0 (1945–1949).
This collection has not been processed. Each folder found in the card index contains the documentation of a specific company (partnership), association or cooperative. Documents in each separate folder are sorted in chronological order.
- Finding aids:
-
A card catalogue, simplified inventory and list of enterprises exist.
A digital inventory in Excel is available; permission of the director of the Archive Department is required to access it.
Online finding aids are also available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Przemysław Zarubin, Kraków, 2020