Metadata: Archive of the Free City of Krakow
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:
- 29/200/0
- Title:
- Archive of the Free City of Krakow
- Title (official language):
- Archiwum Wolnego Miasta Krakowa
- Creator/accumulator:
- Organising Committee of the Free City of Krakow; Ruling Senate of the Free City of Krakow; Police Department of the Home Office; Conference of Residents; Representatives’ Assembly; Administrative and Civil Council; Department of Public Revenues and Treasury
- Date(s):
- 1783/1872
- Date note:
- 1783-1783, 1815-1848, 1822, 1872
- Language:
- French
- Polish
- German
- Extent:
- 239.93 linear metres (3,630 units)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Graphic material
- Cartographic material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The Archive of the Free City of Krakow (abbreviated below as WMK - Wolne Miasto Kraków) is one of the most valuable and extensive archival collections for studying the history of the Jews of Krakow, Chrzanów and Trzebinia in the first half of the 19th century. Its geographical scope includes the Free City of Krakow district (cities: Kraków, Chrzanów, Trzebinia, Jaworzno, Nowa Góra, villages and boroughs/communes (gminy) in the vicinity of Krakow).
Records relevant for Jewish history are found in each of the archival collections, with the most valuable in the records of the Organisational Commission, among others in the minutes of meetings of 1815-1818 (statutes and other legal acts passed by communities and Jewish religious committees of the Kazimierz and Chrzanów districts). In particular, in facsimile: 11 (Public Revenues) 14 (Police), 15 (Judiciary), 24 (Trade and Handicrafts) (catalogue nos. WMK I 1-8, WMK I 11-16). As a result of political changes in the WMK, Judaica can also be found in the records of the Reorganisation Commission of 1833, in particular in the minutes of proceedings regarding Jewish matters (cat. nos. WMK I 18-20), parliamentary proceedings and budgetary rulings (cat. nos. WMK II 1-45; WM 15 -24). Judaica are also found in the records of the Governing Senate from 1815-1848, which includes minutes of the Senate (cat. nos. WMK IV 1-37) and the Administrative Council 1847-1853 (cat. nos. WMK IV 38-39) and records of the President of the Senate (cat. nos. WMK III 1-3, 7-88). The most diverse and numerous materials are found in the General Acts containing extensive Judaica concerning private individuals and individual Jewish communities, grouped in bundles (fascykuły) corresponding to specific issues: 1. Organisation and structure of the political system, 7. Schools, 8. Judiciary, 10. Citizenship, 15 Jews, 16. Guilds, 17. Hospitals, care of the poor, 19. Cemeteries, 32. Printing houses, censorship 37. Fairs, 40-41. Permanent and non-permanent dues, 42. Tollgate, 43. Slaughterhouse, 47. Salt, 48. Tobacco and snuff. 54. Mines, 55. Government depots, 58. Customs, 60. Military, national militia, 62-63. Criminal and police, 65. Vagabonds, 66. Immigration and emigration. 67-68 Night watchmen and fire safety, 70. City sanitation, 72. Taverns and inns, 75. Accidents, natural disasters, 79. Handicrafts and factories, 82. Trade fairs, 83. Measures and weights, 84. Censuses, 85. Trade, 86. Mills (cat. nos. WMK V 1-585).
Due to the broad powers of the Department of Internal Affairs and Police 1816-1848, much Jewish material can be found in the following bundles: 6. Internal trade, 7. Schools, 12. Taverns 15. Industry and trade, 16. Jews, 17. Public order penalties, 19. Servants and vagabonds, 20. Supplies for the army, mines in Jaworzno, 23. Death certificates, 24. Guilds, 25. Homeless persons, 26. Religious matters, 27. Liquidation, 31. Mortgages, 33. Municipal construction, 35. Mills and fulling mills, 36. Hospitals and poor houses, 37. Social services, 38. Taxes, military supplies, contributions, 40. Debts, 42. Arrest, 43. Sanitation, 44. Fires, 46. Land matters, 47. Emigration, 49. Fire safety, 50. Tollgates, 54. Markets and fairs, 55. Slaughterhouse, 56. Statistics, 57. Mortgages, 60. Population. 62. Foundations, guardianship matters (cat. nos. WMK VI 1-18, 20-203).
The records of the Department of Internal Affairs and Police are valuable for researching Jewish crime (criminal and public order records), the Free City of Krakow’s administrative policy regarding Jews, Jewish emigration, Jewish education and hospital organisation, Jewish commercial activities and crafts, as well as statistics.
The records of the Department of Public Income and the Treasury are predominantly financial records regarding the taxes paid by the Jewish population, tax records regarding Jewish innkeeping, the participation of Jews in the salt and wool trade and their involvement in the extraction industry and coal mining) (cat. nos. WMK VII 1-73; WMK 1104-1144, 1210a, 1211-1278).
For the history of real estate ownership by Jews a rich source of information are the records of the Mortgage Committee of the Free City of Krakow from 1820-1837, especially regarding mortgaged real estate in Jewish Kazimierz, Kleparz, Piasek, Stradom (cat. nos. WMK 390-394) as well as cadastral and mortgage registers (cat. nos. WMK 396-397, cat. nos. WMK Hip. 1-21; Dep. 222-234).
A very important source for research on the development of Jewish education are the records of the Main Inspection Office of Primary Schools containing meeting minutes, mail registers from 1817-1838 (cat. nos. WMK XIV 1-35), and the records of individual Jewish schools from 1817-1853 (cat. nos. WMK XIV 66 -133, 140) and personal files of teachers, including Jewish schools from 1826-1853 (cat. nos. WMK XIV 134-136).
- Archival history:
- The Senate Central Archive was created in 1816. The records of the Senate of the Free City of Krakow were stored at ul. Grodzka in the city in the church of St. Peter. They remained there until 1856, after which they were transferred to the Carmelite monastery on Sand (na Piasku). The records were absorbed into the collection of the Imperial and Royal (kaiserlich und königlich, k.u.k.) Starostwo in Krakow in 1870, at which point some of the records were lost. Then the files were transferred to the archives in The Spiski Palace on the Main Square. Some of them were taken by the Austrians to Vienna (Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv). In 1900, the records of the Free City of Krakow (the so-called Senate Archives) were transferred to Holy Cross church. In 1906, the records were absorber into the Archive of Historical Records of the City of Krakow.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Free City of Krakow together with its surrounding district was created in 1815 during the Congress of Vienna by Austria, Prussia and Russia and was popularly known as the Republic of Krakow. It included the capital, that is Krakow, as well as the towns of Chrzanów, Trzebinia and Nowa Góra and 224 villages. The Free City of Krakow operated on the basis of constitutions of 1815, 1818 and 1833 with amendments, organic statutes and transitional laws regulating citizens' lives, the economy, etc.
The Organisational Commission worked on policies concerning the Jewish population. The Free City of Krakow had a unicameral parliament, the so-called Assembly of Representatives with 30-41 representatives (deputies from urban and rural communes, senators, delegates from the church and the Jagiellonian University, judges). It was divided into three commissions: Qualifying (Kwalifikacyjna) Treasury and Budget, and Codification. The ruling Senate was composed of 10-13 senators under the chairmanship of the president.Organisationally, it was divided into 3-5 government departments (including Administration and Internal Affairs, the Treasury and National Assets, the Police, and Justice). The so-called Administrative and Civil Council ruled from 1846. Power was in the hands of the so-called residents (representatives of the founding states) who closely supervised central administration bodies, i.e., the Police Home Office.
Local administration was managed by commune bailiffs (wójtowie) The administrative (Jewish-Christian) unit supervising the Jewish communities were the committees of the Jewish districts of Kazimierz and Chrzanów.
- System of arrangement:
-
1.1 Minutes of the Organising Committee proceedings 1815-1818
1.2 Records 1815-1838
2 Reorganisation Commission 1833-1833
3.1 Minutes of proceedings 1810-1844
3.2 Budgets 1802-1849
4 Ruling Senate
4.1.1 Minutes of proceedings of the Senate 1815-1846
4.1.2 Reports on the proceedings of the Administrative Council 1847-1853
4.1.3 Records of the Presidium of the Senate 1815-1848
4.1.4 General records 1797-1864
4.2 Department of Internal Affairs and Police 1816-1851
4.3 Public Income and Treasury Department 1786-1849
5.3 Records on the statutory acts of individual villages 1760-1847
6 Economic Committee 1821-1849
7.1 Mortgage Committee 1802-1833
7.5 Records of mortgaged real estate 1820-1828
7.6 Mortgage cadastre 1820-1830
7.7 Land registers of municipal districts 1822-1826
7.8 Mortgage registers of urban districts 1826-1826
8 Cadastre of the city of Krakow and its surroundings 1794-1877
- Finding aids:
-
Bieniarzówna J., Małecki J.M., Dzieje Krakowa, t. 3, Kraków w latach 1796-1918, Kraków 1985.
W. Bartel, Ustrój i prawo Wolnego Miasta Krakowa, Kraków 1976.
A. Jakimyszyn, Żydzi krakowscy w dobie Rzeczypospolitej Krakowskiej. Statut prawny, przeobrażenia gminy, system edukacyjny, Kraków 2008.
Bałaban M., Historia Żydów w Krakowie i na Kazimierzu 1304-1868, t. 2: 1656-1868, Kraków 1936 [reprint Kraków 1991, 2013].
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Przemysław Zarubin, Kraków, 2019
