Archives Council (title)
An archives council is a title or an official title for civil servants archivists of the higher service. The name has been around since the end of the Middle Ages.
Archives Council in Germany
The official title of archivist and the training for this was regulated in Germany for federal civil servants in § 1 of the “Ordinance on the career, training and examination for the federal archives service”. The current revision as the “Ordinance on the preparatory service for the higher federal archive service” no longer recognizes this designation. For the most part, the Länder have issued similar regulations.
The job title in the preparatory service or in the probationary period up to employment is:
- Archives trainee,
- Archives Council for Employment (z. A.)
The official titles of the career are:
- Archives Council (A 13),
- Senior Archives Council (A 14),
- Archive director (A 15),
- Chief archive director (A 16),
- President (at least B 2), only for larger state archives and the federal archive.
The prerequisite for the appointment to the archives council is usually the successful completion of the career examination for the higher archives service ( Assessor of the archives service ) at the archives school Marburg or the Bavarian archives school Munich . The required position as an archive trainee requires a formal master’s degree (or equivalent), but in practice it almost always requires a dissertation in history . Graduates from other disciplines, mostly lawyers, are rare exceptions among archivists and archivists.
In state archives, archive councils are mostly active as archival specialists, i.e. they fulfill the core archiving tasks in the sense of the archive laws (assessment, indexing, preservation, mediation and evaluation of archive material). In addition, there are conceptual activities (evaluation models, archiving principles, cross-sectional tasks) and specific management tasks of the higher service. In other archives, such as the municipal archives, management functions are often reserved for archives councils or archives councilors (A 13/14).
Depending on the principles of the archive in question, it is primarily the archivists of the higher service who participate in historical research in the form of publications and lectures. Traditionally, this primarily includes national and regional history, auxiliary historical sciences, administrative and archive history. Archive directors are often involved in leading functions in historical associations and commissions. The question of the extent to which an archivist may or should also be a historian ( historian-archivist ) is still a controversial point within the profession and affects - as historians with a doctorate - in particular the archivists of the higher service.
Archives Council in the GDR
"Archivrat" was a title that was given in the GDR in recognition of meritorious work in archives to archivists , academic staff and managers who worked in archives or who participated in the training and further education of academic staff in archives. In addition, the titles "Senior archivist" and "Senior archivist" could be awarded.
Prerequisites for the award of the title are many years of successful work in an archive, in state organs or in social organizations that promote archiving to a high degree, and demonstrable excellent results in solving the tasks of archiving to increase the archival scientific work and effectiveness the archives in public.
A five-year activity was required to be awarded the title of "senior archivist", ten years for the title of "archivist" and fifteen years in archives for the title of "senior archivist". After German reunification in 1990, the use of the title was partially prohibited.
Allocation mode
The titles were awarded by the Minister of the Interior and Chief of the German People's Police of the GDR on October 7th, the GDR's national holiday. The winner received a certificate as well as a one-time financial recognition and was entitled to use the title in connection with his name. It was the last title awarded to lead.