Lower Saxony State Archives (Hanover location)

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The Hanover department of the Lower Saxony State Archives is responsible for the old Guelph principalities of Calenberg , Grubenhagen and Lüneburg , for the smaller territories that have merged into these principalities (Counties Diepholz and Hoya , Herrschaft Plesse etc.) as well as for the former Hochstift Hildesheim . She takes over and keeps it with the Lower SaxonyMinistries, supreme state authorities, state authorities of the middle and local authorities, courts and subordinate federal authorities within his district and also secures historically important documents from the non-state area. A branch of the department is the Clausthal mountain archive .

Lower Saxony State Archives Hanover

history

Although the old territorial archives kept in Hanover today are much older, the archive in Hanover owes its creation primarily to the establishment of the residence of the Principality of Calenberg in the city of Hanover, which was rebuilt in 1635 as part of the last Guelph land division . Along with the lordly chancellery, the lordly archives also moved into the castle, which was built in 1637 on the site of the submerged Minorite monastery on the Leine .

Around 1825: On the left the Friederikenschlösschen , in the middle the Leibniz Temple and on the right the archive building without the porch from the 1890s

The union of the Principality of Lüneburg with the Principality of Calenberg, which was elevated to an electorate in 1692, took place in 1705 after the death of Duke Georg Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg zu Celle. The Principality of Lüneburg was integrated into the Electorate, its highest state authorities dissolved. To accommodate the archive to be transferred from the previous residence in Celle to Hanover, as well as the Calenberg archive, a separate archive building was built in Hanover from 1712. After the building was largely completed, the Celle archives were first transferred to Hanover in 1722/1723.

In the 19th century, the Hanover Archives - royal since 1815 - received numerous records, including the files of the German Chancellery in London , the personal office of the sovereign during the period of personal union with Great Britain , were handed over to the archive .

The archive and library building from 1889 to 1893 before it was raised and expanded;
the Brückmühle can be seen in the background ; Recording from 1890 from the library of the Berlin Architects' Association

The annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by Prussia in 1866 resulted in the incorporation of the Royal Archives in Hanover into the Prussian Archives Administration as the Royal Prussian State Archives in 1867. At the same time, this gave the archive, which had previously only taken over files from the court and central authorities, extensive access to archives. The old registries of the dissolved Hanoverian ministries were handed over to the archive; After the government archives in Stade and Hildesheim were dissolved, the holdings of these archives were transferred to Hanover in 1869/1870. Furthermore, the expansion of the archive's jurisdiction to include all state authorities and courts within its now clearly defined archival area ensured a continuous increase in the number of records. The extensive access to the archive made an expansion of the archive building inevitable. In the years 1889-1893 an extension and extension took place, to which the building essentially owes its present appearance.

The damaged service building of the main state archive in Hanover after the bombing of 8/9 October 1943

During the Second World War it happened on 8/9. October 1943 by fire bombs during an air raid on Hanover to a considerable decimation of the stocks. Among other things, the west wing of the building burned down completely. This fire disaster destroyed around 20 percent of the archive's holdings. These included the document holdings of the bishopric and cathedral chapter of Hildesheim as well as the city of Hildesheim monasteries and monasteries, the documents of the archbishopric Bremen up to and including 1569, almost the complete tradition of the electoral Hanoverian secret councils of the 18th and the royal ministries of the 19th century as well as all manuscripts and copies of documents. In addition, the archive lost all finding aids due to the fire. As a result of the catastrophic fire, the holdings still in the building were completely relocated and the archive office was relocated to Söder Castle near Bockenem .

Flooding of the main state archive in Hanover in February 1946

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, in September / October 1945, the repatriation of the evacuated inventory to the heavily destroyed office building in Hanover began because the evacuation locations seized for the archives - especially school buildings - were needed for other purposes.

On February 9, 1946, the main state archive was hit by another disaster when a surprising flood of the Leine flooded the archive building for three days at a height of two meters. This resulted in partly irreparable water damage to 2.5 km of files and around 40,000 parchment documents .

Only after the currency reform of 1948 was the repair of the badly damaged archive building started in 1949 and completed at the end of 1952. A bunker in Hanover-Bothfeld had already been rented as a temporary storage facility in 1946 . This bunker was only replaced in 1972 by the construction of a new storage building for the main state archive in Pattensen , in which the majority of the records from the main state archive are now kept. After the state library moved out in 1976, the interior of the building was redesigned between 1979 and 1987 exclusively for the purposes of the main state archive, and the exterior was completely renovated. The archive building is a listed building .

Magazine building of the main state archive from 1972 in Pattensen

From 1971 onwards, the Hanover Archives, as the institution responsible for the transmission of the Lower Saxony state ministries, officially bore the designation "Main State Archives". On January 1, 2005, all Lower Saxony state archives and the main state archive in Hanover merged to form the Lower Saxony State Archive.

Service building

The service building of the main state archive in Hanover from the early 18th century is probably the oldest purpose-built state archive in Germany that was still used according to its original purpose. After the dissolution of the central authorities in Celle as part of the unification of the Principality of Lüneburg with the Electorate of Hanover, from 1712 the Calenberg Archives, which had previously been kept in the Leineschloss, and the Lüneburg Archives to be transferred from Celle according to the plans of the architect Louis Remy de la Fosse were merged in the Calenberger Neustadt built a new archive building. The structure, which was essentially completed by 1721 under the direction of de la Fosse's successor Johann Christian Böhme , was a two-story massive building about 82 meters long and 14 meters wide with a hunched mansard roof . It also served to keep the Electoral Library (today: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library (GWLB)).

In the two decades after the Prussian annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1866, the existing magazine capacities were quickly depleted by extensive access to archives. A temporary spatial relief took place through extensive renovation measures in the years 1889 to 1893, during which the old baroque building was raised by two floors and a new south wing was added so that the entire complex now has a T-shaped floor plan.

Jurisdiction

The archives of the departments of the Lower Saxony State Archives

The main state archive of Hanover, which essentially grew out of the amalgamation of the territorial archives of the Welf partial principalities of Calenberg and Lüneburg, initially served as an archive for the records of the central authorities of the electorate established in 1692 and the Kingdom of Hanover (from 1814). As part of the Prussian provincial administration from 1866/1867 was the Central State Archive of the central authorities of the Province of Hanover , especially the tradition of the Provincial President , and for the central and local authorities and courts in the four eastern Weser regencies Hannover , Hildesheim , Lüneburg and Stade responsible.

As part of the restructuring of the state archive landscape of the state of Lower Saxony, which was newly founded in 1946, a new state archive was set up in Stade (1959) and the corresponding old stocks stored in Hanover were handed over. In addition, the schaumburg-Lippe holdings temporarily deposited in Hanover were handed over to the Bückeburg State Archives established in 1961 . At the same time, the main state archive handed over the responsibility it had previously held for the care of the authorities in the districts of the newly established state archives (Stade administrative district and Schaumburg district ).

The district reform of 1978 brought about a further change in responsibility: after the dissolution of the Hildesheim administrative district, the amalgamation of the Lüneburg and Stade administrative districts and the expansion of the Braunschweig administrative district , the district of the main state archive extended to the archival care of the ministries and the highest state authorities in Lower Saxony and for everyone other offices of the state administration and the subordinate federal authorities in the five districts of Diepholz , Hameln-Pyrmont , Hildesheim , Holzminden and Nienburg as well as in the region (= city and district ) of Hanover. The archive district thus essentially corresponds to the size of the former administrative district of Hanover excluding the district of Schaumburg, which is looked after by the Bückeburg department. Today, the Hanover department is responsible for the highest state authorities, the higher state authorities with state-wide jurisdiction and their decentralized offices as well as for all offices of the state administration and courts in the area described.

Stocks

Director Christine van den Heuvel on Archive Day 2014 with a facsimile of the succession deed from 1706 for Electress Sophie

The Hanover Department's holdings include 41,000 documents , 40,000 running meters of files and 90,000 cards from eleven centuries of Lower Saxony's history. In addition, there are actually around 10,000 other documents, 2,500 manuscripts and almost 4,000 linear meters of files - the war losses of the archive in 1943.

The holdings are divided into seven main groups:

  1. Cal. Or./Cal. Br .: The Calenberg archive contains the archival material of the Principality of Calenberg and the territories that were merged in this prior to the unification with the Principality of Celle in 1705, especially the Principality of Grubenhagen (until 1595) and Wolfenbüttel (until 1634/35).
  2. Celle Or./Celle Br .: The Celle archive contains the archives of the Principality of Lüneburg , which was independent until 1705, and of the territories that had been absorbed into this Principality until then, such as the Counties of Diepholz and Hoya and the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg .
  3. Hild. Or./Hild. Br .: The Hildesheim archive contains the archives of the Bishopric of Hildesheim , the Hildesheim Cathedral Chapter, of the Bishopric of Hildesheim and in the territory of the imperial city of Goslar nearby Abbeys and the Hildesheim landscape .
  4. Hann .: The Hanover department includes the records of the central authorities of the Electorate of Hanover and the Kingdom of Hanover as well as the Prussian province of Hanover from 1705 to 1945 as well as the central and local authorities of the Landdrosteien and administrative districts of Hanover, Hildesheim and Lüneburg.
  5. Lower Saxony: The Lower Saxony department contains the records of the ministries and the highest regional authorities of Lower Saxony as well as the central and local authorities of the administrative districts of Hanover , Hildesheim and Lüneburg , with responsibility for the old administrative district of Lüneburg from 1978 on the Stade State Archives.
  6. VVP: The existing group of associations, unions, private individuals contains, in particular, political legacies and documents from the regional associations of parties.
  7. Deposit: In addition to the archives of state authorities, the main state archive also stores documents and files of non-state origin. It is the tradition of smaller cities, rural and knighthoods, aristocratic families and associations. The most important deposit of the main state archive is the archive of the former Hanoverian royal house (Dep. 84 and Dep. 103).

In addition, there are various collections, especially the map collection, the contemporary history collection and the collection of images.

use

In principle, within the framework of the provisions of the Lower Saxony Archives Act (law on the safeguarding and use of archival material in Lower Saxony of May 25, 1993), anyone can use the archival material stored in Hanover, provided they are more than 30 years old. Use is restricted by data protection and personal protection regulations. In the context of use for scientific purposes, a shortening of the blocking period can be permitted upon request.

Users can in the Online - finding aid research of the Lower Saxony State Archive. Unless otherwise provided by data protection or personal protection regulations, the holdings can be viewed almost completely here. The offer is also constantly being expanded.

The majority of the Hanoverian inventory is kept in the Pattensen external storage facility. For archival users in the main building in Hanover, the desired archival material should be ordered in advance in writing or by telephone five working days before a planned visit. The archive material can also be used in Pattensen itself. In the main building, mainly the archives of the offices (until 1885) and the older district courts and the map collection are kept. For reasons of conservation, some archival material that is often requested can no longer be used in the original. Here, however, microfilms, microfiches or digital copies are available for the users.

Archive manager

  • Johann Gottfried von Miere

  • Anton Zeller : Wilhelm August Rudloff (1795)

literature

  • Max Bär : History of the Royal State Archives in Hanover. (= Communications from the K. Prussian Archive Administration, Volume 3), Leipzig 1900.
  • Max Bär: Overview of the holdings of the Royal State Archives in Hanover. (= Communications from the K. Prussian Archive Administration, Volume 3), Leipzig 1900.
  • Hans Goetting: Forty years ago. The main state archive in Hanover and the flood disaster from 9-11. February 1946. In: Lower Saxony Yearbook for State History. Volume 58, 1986, pp. 253-278.
  • Carl Haase , Walter Deeters (edit.): Overview of the holdings of the Lower Saxony Main State Archives Hanover. Volume 1 (Dept. Cal., Celle and Hild.) (= Publications of the Lower Saxony archive administration, Volume 19), Göttingen 1965.
  • Manfred Hamann (edit.): Overview of the holdings of the Lower Saxony Main State Archives Hanover. Volume 3: Central and sub-authorities in the Landdrostei- or administrative districts of Hanover, Hildesheim and Lüneburg until 1945. 2 parts (= publications of the Lower Saxony archive administration, volume 42 / 1–2). Göttingen 1983.
  • Manfred Hamann: History of the Lower Saxony Main State Archives in Hanover. 2 parts, In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter. New series volume 41, 1987, pp. 39-87 and new series volume 42, 1988, pp. 35-119.
  • Manfred Hamann, Christine van den Heuvel, Peter Bardehle (edit.): Overview of the holdings of the Lower Saxony Main State Archives Hanover. Volume 4: Deposit, map department and collections up to 1945 (= publications of the Lower Saxony archive administration, volume 47), Göttingen 1992.
  • Christian Hoffmann: State Archives, Historical Associations and Archive Use in the 19th Century: The Example of Hanover. In: Peter Wiegand, Jürgen Rainer Wolf (Red.): Archival specialist work from a historical perspective. Ceremony of the Saxon State Archives on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the Main State Archives Dresden and specialist conference. Archival specialist work in historical perspective 'organized by the Saxon State Archives in association with Section 1 of the VdA - Association of German Archivists, Dresden, 22. – 24. April 2009, Dresden 2010, pp. 113–128.
  • Kirsten Hoffmann: From sovereign act of grace to general civil rights - The development of archive use in the main state archive of Hanover from 1867 to 1945. In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter. New Volume 64, 2010, pp. 39–62.
  • Ernst Pitz (edit.): Overview of the holdings of the Lower Saxony Main State Archives Hanover. Volume 2 (Central Authorities of the Hann. Dept.) (= publications of the Lower Saxony Archive Administration, Volume 25), Göttingen 1968.
  • Georg Schnath : An old archivist's memories of the Hanover State Archives from 1920 to 1938. In: Dieter Brosius , Martin Last (ed.): Contributions to the history of the state of Lower Saxony. For Hans Patze's 65th birthday. (= Publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen , special volume), Hildesheim 1984, pp. 454–474.

Web links

Commons : Lower Saxony State Archive - Main State Archive Hanover  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The art monuments of the province of Hanover. I: Region of Hanover, Volume 2: City of Hanover, Part 1: Monuments of the "old" city area of ​​Hanover, edit. v. Arnold Nöldeke, Hannover 1932, pp. 261–303.
  2. ^ Georg Schnath: History of Hanover in the age of the ninth cure and the English succession 1674–1714. Volume 3, pp. 255-257.
  3. ^ Rudolf Grieser: The German Chancellery in London, its emergence and beginnings. In: sheets for German national history. Volume 89, 1952, pp. 153-168.
  4. ^ Heide Barmeyer : Hanover's incorporation into the Prussian state. Annexation and administrative integration 1866–1868. Hildesheim 1983.
  5. ^ Manfred Hamann: History of the Lower Saxony Main State Archives in Hanover, Part Two. In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter. New Series Volume 42, 1988, pp. 35-119; here p. 118f.
  6. ↑ Hans Goetting: Forty years ago. The main state archive in Hanover and the flood disaster from February 9 to 11, 1946. In: Lower Saxony yearbook for regional history. Volume 58, 1986, pp. 253-278.
  7. ^ The art monuments of the province of Hanover. I: Region of Hanover, Volume 2: City of Hanover, Part 1: Monuments of the "old" city area of ​​Hanover, edit. v. Arnold Nöldeke , Hannover 1932, pp. 331–336.
  8. ^ Werner Ohnsorge: Two hundred years of history of the Royal Library in Hanover (1665–1866). Goettingen 1962.
  9. ^ Manfred Hamann: History of the Lower Saxony Main State Archive in Hanover, Part One. In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter. New Series Volume 41, 1987, pp. 39-87; here pp. 81–86.
  10. ↑ Erich Weise : History of the Lower Saxony State Archives in Stade along with an overview of its holdings. Göttingen 1964, pp. 177-180. As well as: Franz Engel: The Schaumburg-Lippischen Archives and Registrations. Their story and their content. Göttingen 1955.
  11. ^ Hugo Thielen : Kestner, (6), Johann Georg Christian , in: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , p. 197
  12. ↑ Compare New management of the Hanover location appointed on the nla.niedersachsen.de page , last accessed on November 24, 2016

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 11 "  N , 9 ° 43 ′ 50"  E