State archive North Rhine-Westphalia Westphalia department

State archive North Rhine-Westphalia Westphalia department
State level	State of North Rhine-Westphalia
position	State Archives
Supervisory authority	Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
founding	1832
Headquarters	Duisburg
Authority management	Frank M. Bischoff
Servants	192
Web presence	State archive NRW

The magazine of the “State Archives” from 1889.

The North Rhine-Westphalia State Archive, Westphalia Department , until 2008 Münster State Archive , is the department of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Archive located in the Westphalian city of Münster . It is located in the listed building on Bohlweg in the immediate vicinity of the promenade, which was built between 1885 and 1889 by Karl Friedrich Endell in the style of the Dutch Neo-Renaissance .

history

The north side of the magazine.

The history of the State Archives in Münster goes back to the year 1821 when it was decided to set up five regional archive depots in the Prussian province of Westphalia . The original aim was to preserve the holdings of the territories and the secularized monasteries that were dissolved during the period of French occupation under Napoléon Bonaparte in the years 1803 to 1814. In 1829 the archive depot in Münster was converted into a provincial archive for the province. The archive in Münster, which up to this point mainly kept the holdings of the former prince-bishopric and the city of Münster, should from now on also contain the holdings of the other four regional archive depots. This centralization of the archives was to drag on until 1852.

In 1867 the name was changed to "Royal Prussian State Archives Münster", which from that point on took over responsibility for the archives of the administrative districts of Arnsberg , Minden and Münster . Since the archive, which was distributed over several provisional premises across the city of Münster, suffered from space problems, a new building was built on Bohlweg in the east of the city, which could be moved into in 1889. This building was the first archive in Prussia to be built using the magazine system and served as a model for other archives at home and abroad.

During the air raids on Münster in the Second World War , the adjoining administration building was destroyed, but the magazine remained almost undamaged. After the end of the war, the dissolution of the Province of Westphalia and the founding of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia , the name was changed to “North Rhine-Westphalian State Archive” in 1946. When the state of Lippe was annexed to North Rhine-Westphalia in 1947 and formed the new administrative district of Detmold together with the former administrative district of Minden , the archive in Münster was only responsible for the administrative districts of Arnsberg and Münster. In 1963, the files relating to the Minden administrative district were accordingly transferred to Detmold. However, this only affected the files after 1816, the older ones remained in Münster.

Nevertheless, space problems arose as early as 1952, so plans were made to expand the magazine. These dragged on for several years, so that the extension could only be started in 1972.

In 2004, 175 years after the archive was founded, the State Archive was incorporated as Department 5 into the new North Rhine-Westphalia State Archive. On December 1, 2008, the name was changed to the name that is valid today. Mechthild Black-Veldtrup has been the director of the archive since 2004 .

tasks

The employees of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Archives advise state authorities, courts and institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia on the management and security of their documents. In addition, they decide which of the large number of documents accumulating there is to be permanently retained as archival material and transfer these documents to the archive. In addition, documents from non-governmental institutions, such as political parties, associations and private individuals, are collected to supplement the state tradition. Other tasks include the restoration and conservation of archival materials and damaged cultural assets.

The Westphalia department is responsible for the area of the administrative districts of Arnsberg and Münster.

Stocks

The holdings of the Westphalia department are divided into four groups. They include around 100,000 documents from the year 813, 30 km of files, 80,000 maps and plans, 3,400 evocation boards, 2,000 manuscripts, 4,500 posters and 2,000 pictures and photos.

Old Kingdom territories until 1802/1803

This group contains archives from the Electoral Cologne Duchy of Westphalia with Vest Recklinghausen , the Duchy of Münster , the Duchy of Paderborn , the Duchy of Minden , the County of Ravensberg , as well as the Princes of Corvey and Herford , the Principality of Siegen and the County of Mark with their respective monasteries and monasteries. Documents of non-Westphalian origin can also be found here, for example files from the Reich Chamber of Commerce .

Authorities of the transition period 1802 to 1816

The group of authorities from the transition period from 1802 to 1816 includes archives from the Prussian and other compensation countries (including the hereditary principalities of Münster and Paderborn, the Grand Duchy of Hesse , the Duchy of Nassau ), the founding of Napoleonic states ( Grand Duchy of Berg , Kingdom of Westphalia , French Empire ) and their successors and resolution authorities.

Authorities and institutions of the state and self-government after 1816

This group contains archive material from the administration, including internal administration, financial administration, economic administration, labor, social and health administration, traffic administration, cultural administration and justice administration.

Non-governmental archival material

The fourth group contains non-governmental archival material, i.e. documents from political parties and groups, from organizations, associations and clubs, businesses, noble houses, families and courts. This also includes bequests and collections.

use

In principle, everyone can use the archives of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Archives in accordance with the regulations of the North Rhine-Westphalian Archives Act. However, there are legally regulated blocking periods, in particular to protect the rights of individuals. Most of these deadlines can be shortened on request for scientific purposes.

Users can do research on the Internet in the inventory overviews, in the catalogs of the service libraries and increasingly also in the finding aids. The archives and holdings of the service library can be viewed in the reading room of the Westphalia department on Bohlweg. Microfilms or microfiches and digital copies are available for many documents, which enable careful use.

Library

The library of the Westphalia department comprises around 180,000 volumes, which mainly relate to the history of Westphalia and North Rhine-Westphalia. There is an extensive collection of official printed matter. A special feature is the collection of around 45,000 school programs from the 19th and 20th centuries, which come from the entire German-speaking area in the borders before 1945.

Web links

Commons : Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen (Münster) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

51.965486111111 7.6344444444444Coordinates: 51 ° 57 ′ 55.8 " N , 7 ° 38 ′ 4" E