City Archives Münster
| City Archives Münster
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 Exterior view of the Münster City Archives in the historic Speicher 8 in the Coerde district. |
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| Archive type | Municipal Archives |
| place | Muenster |
| Visitor address | At the Speicher 8, 48157 Münster |
| founding | 1913 |
| scope | 4.6 kilometers |
| ISIL | DE-Mue304 |
| carrier | City of Munster |
| Website | https://www.stadt-muenster.de/archiv/startseite.html |
The Münster City Archive is the archive of the independent city of Münster in Westphalia .
It archives documents from the historical tradition of Münster from the Middle Ages until today. It makes the archive material accessible to the public and supports citizens in researching and using the archive material. It promotes local and regional historical research and the cultural and historical identity of the city through events, publications and historical educational work. The total stock of archive material comprises approx. 4,600 running meters. The archive has a library with around 20,000 volumes on the city and regional history. The city archive has been headed by Peter Worm since 2019.
Urban establishment
Tasks and responsibilities
The Münster City Archives are part of the city administration and the municipal department for social affairs and culture. It takes over and archives the documents of the council, the city administration, the subordinate companies and foundations as well as the former district of Münster . In addition to the administrative tradition, it also preserves the historical documents of more than fifty former religious and secular foundations, poor houses and hospitals in the city of the Middle Ages and early modern times. Provided that separate agreements have been made, it also archives collections and estates from private property, documents from city companies organized under private law, as well as archives of associations, crafts and companies. In addition, the city archives hold extensive image collections, collections of posters, maps and plans and newspapers ready for use. In addition to taking over the archive material, its safekeeping, maintenance and preservation as well as the utilization and evaluation of the material belong to the tasks of the city archive. Since 2015, the city archive has been managing most of the city's intermediate archive ("Speicher 14") with more than 5,800 linear meters of documents.
The Münster City Archives conduct intensive historical educational work with regular offers for schoolchildren and students. It carries out its own urban history research projects and publishes local history articles in two series of publications: Sources and research on the history of the city of Münster and small writings from the Münster city archive . The sources and research publish results of urban history research and are geared towards source editions. The second series of publications, Kleine Schriften, was launched in 1998 for the publication of smaller scientific studies or of excellent examination, master's or master's theses .
Location and use
The city archive has been based in the An den Speicher 8 building in the Speicherstadt in the Coerde district of Münster since 2003 . The memory is vivid testimony to the city targeted preparation for war the Nazis after 1936. At that time the army garrison administration built on the traffic-convenient meter site a military boarding main office, which included a large bakery in addition to the nine granaries. The magazines, administration and also the reading room , which is available to users during opening hours, are located in such a historical warehouse . There, archival materials can be researched and viewed with the help of the available finding aids . 15 workstations as well as reading devices for digital copies and microfilms are available for this. The employees of the city archives advise users in their search for information on topics relating to the history of the city and can provide more detailed information about the holdings. Archival material can be ordered in advance.
The use of archival material is basically free of charge for everyone in accordance with the NRW Archives Act and the Archive Statute. If necessary, protection periods and other restrictions must be observed, about which the employees can provide information. Fees are to be paid for the granting of usage and publication rights as well as reproductions.
Stocks
Archives and finding aids
The total inventory of archival materials in the Münster City Archives comprises approx. 4,600 meters of shelf space with a duration from the High Middle Ages to the present day. The oldest document from the Magdalenenhospital collection dates from 1184. Over 5,800 medieval and early modern documents, 160,000 files, 10,000 maps and plans, 5,000 posters and 70,000 photographs and 3,500 postcards and 1,100 cityscapes are archived here.
The Munster City Archives survived the extensive destruction of the inner city of Munster in World War II largely without loss of tradition, as the entire holdings had already been moved to the Wöbbel moated castle near Detmold in 1942 . On the other hand, however, stands the almost complete destruction of the medieval city tradition during the Anabaptist rule in the 16th century. These losses can be partially compensated for by parallel records from other institutions based in the city and later acquisitions. It is believed that a fire in the cathedral castle and the merchant settlement in 1121 as a result of the siege of the city by the Saxon Duke Lothar von Supplinburg during the investiture dispute destroyed significant parts of the archives of the bishop and cathedral chapter . As a result, only a few certificates and documents from the early city history have survived.
Apart from these two events with significant consequences for the city's tradition, the city archive was largely spared any further losses. The early modern and modern scriptural tradition is therefore almost completely preserved. The inventory of the city of Münster itself includes the documents of the prince-bishop's time from the Anabaptist rule to 1802 and subsequently the registries of the Prussian city administration from 1802 to 1945 as well as the modern administrative records from 1945 to the present day. The archives of the former district of Münster and the archives of the formerly independent offices of St. Mauritz , Roxel and Wolbeck in the vicinity of the city are added to this genuinely urban tradition with the losses described (1816–1975). In addition, the city archives preserve the tradition of the foundations and a large number of private associations, brotherhoods and associations of citizens.
Detailed information on the individual holdings of the city archive can be found in the printed inventory overview. It is also available digitally in a more up-to-date form via the archive.nrw.de portal . Finding aids are available in the reading room for researching individual archive materials and order signatures. Almost 200 finding aids are also freely accessible on the Internet via the aforementioned portal.
Of particular interest to the genealogy archived in the municipal archives are civil register , Inhabitants register and documents and address books. With the Theissing personal index, the genealogical collection and various publications on the topic, various aids are available for independent indexing of the holdings.
The city archive also maintains a thematically structured collection of newspaper clippings with articles on politically, socially and culturally relevant events and debates in the city. These are mostly complete copies and excerpts from local daily newspapers from 1754 in the original and as microfilm. The collection can be viewed hands-free in the reading room.
Library
The library of the city archive with around 20,000 volumes is available as a reference library in the reading room for use by academics and the general public. The thematic focus is on publications on urban and regional history. The oldest book was written in 1516. Festschriften, school newspapers, examination papers, etc. relating to the city's history are also collected. This also applies to a selection of student works created within the framework of archive education and almost all contributions to the history competition of the Federal President made in the city .
Public relations and archival education
As a municipal cultural institution, the Münster City Archives are part of the diverse cultural and scientific landscape of the university city of Münster. Once a month, the so-called themed evenings offer a public lecture evening on the city's history, which is often related to the archive material in the city archive. Guided tours give the opportunity to gain insight into otherwise closed areas and to obtain information on the use of the holdings. Guided tours to places of the city's history outside the archive are also offered on specific topics. The Münster City Archive also cooperates with the other archives located in the city and, among other things, organizes the Archive Day, which takes place every two years.
With the Stadtgeschichte Online portal, the city archive provides a digital platform on which interested parties can find out more about various aspects of recent city history. The focus is on historical events and thematic complexes from the early modern period and the first half of the 20th century, which are related to current issues in urban society and the historical culture of remembrance.
A special feature of the Münster City Archives is the focus on archive pedagogy as part of public relations work. It is aimed at pupils of all school types and grades in cooperation with schools in the city. It maintains u. a. five educational partnerships with the Paulinum grammar school , the Marienschule , the Städt. High School Wolbeck , the Städt. Ratsgymnasium , and since 2020 with the Overbergkolleg and has supervised numerous student projects for the history competition of the Federal President. This intensive preparation and support of the participation in the history competition of the Federal President has led to the fact that the schools of Münster, in cooperation with the city archives, regularly have by far the highest participation in this competition with more than one hundred submissions. Numerous state and federal winners have emerged from this collaboration.
History of the city archive
The city archive traces its own history back to the last third of the 16th century. Around 1570, Hermann von Kerssenbrock first mentioned the Schriverie as a council office in his account of the history of Münster , in which, in all probability, the city's documents were also kept. In 1636 the archive was evidently housed in its own premises in the forge tower of the town hall. The first surviving inventory is from this time. With the dissolution of the Münster Hochstift in 1802/03 and the secularization of many religious institutions and foundations, their files and documents came into the possession of the city archive. In the now Prussian cathedral, the archive remained an integral part of the city administration and located in the town hall.
The Ratsarchiv, which is sometimes also called the Old Archive or the more vague Historical Archive , was given its present form and structure between 1855 and 1860. A certain Krab is considered to be the creator, presumably as Domrendant or Domwerkmeister Anton Krabbe , who from 1851 to 1875 as a cathedral chapter archivist can be identified. He formed 18 subject groups (I-XVIII) and assigned the archive units, if possible chronologically, if necessary according to further subject subdivisions. He numbered the units with Arabic numerals. The subject groups or sub-collections AI to A XVII that exist today were still formed and recorded by Krabbe in this way. Originally there was part A XVIII "Senate Protocol". This was later dissolved and the protocol volumes were attached to sub-inventory A II "Council Matters", which until then had been called "Council Elections". The sub-inventory A XVII "Miscellanea" comprised only 79 units in Krabbe's time; it has been expanded considerably over time. In the 20th century, further, minor changes were made to the council archives.
Around 1870 there seems to have been structural improvements to the archive space. The magistrate and city council decided to employ an archivist on a part-time basis from September 1870. High school senior teacher Adolph Hechelmann could be won over for a fee of 100 thalers a year . An “archive commission” prepared a “service instruction” for the archivist and “provisions on the use of the city archive”. The main task of the first city archivists was to keep a city chronicle. The office was subsequently filled by various personalities who had received a historical or legal education at the university and were full-time teachers or lawyers. The series of sources and research on the history of the city of Münster iW , which is continued with interruptions to this day, has been published since 1898 .
After more than 40 years of part-time management, a full-time archivist was appointed to the management of the city archives for the first time in 1913, which at the same time was established as an independent institution and separated from the closer city administration. Eduard Schulte, who was appointed city archivist, combined the qualifications of his predecessors as a historian and lawyer and filled the office until 1945. In retrospect, the assessment of his person turns out to be ambivalent. After the end of the Third Reich , Schulte was removed from service and temporarily imprisoned, as he had been involved in the NSDAP since 1930 and held important party offices. During his long term of office, however, he also laid important foundations for the further work of the city archive and made a contribution to researching and publishing the history of the city of Münster. The systematic development of the holdings began under him. The holdings of medieval documents, which had largely been lost until then, were partly rebuilt through purchases (today part of the general collection of documents ). His decision to outsource the archives together with the historical furnishings of the Friedenssaal in the town hall in 1942 presumably saved the city's important historical heritage from complete destruction. The intensive public relations and publication activities carried out by the city archive to this day also began during his term of office, when city chronicles created with the archive's holdings were first published and exhibitions were held.
The city archive has been part of the city's cultural administration since 1945. After the end of the Second World War, it was initially housed in the historic Krameramtshaus on Alten Steinweg, but in 1978 it moved into the chapel building of the Lotharinger Monastery on Hörsterstrasse, which was preserved during the war , in the immediate vicinity of the then State Archives, now the State Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia , Westphalia department , on Bohlweg. In addition, various properties spread across the city were used as additional storage space. The increasing need for space for employees, users and archives, which could not be realized in the historical building, led to another profound change in 2003. With the move to a new location in Speicherstadt warehouse district 8 in the outskirts of Coerde , the urgently needed work and storage space was gained and long-term development potential secured. Since then, a modern reading room has been available to users. Since 2016, the city archive has had additional storage space in the An den Speicher 14 building for holdings from the intermediate and final archives.
management
| Part-time archive manager | Term of office | |
|---|---|---|
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High school senior teacher Adolph Hechelmann | 1870-1874 |
| Court assessor Heinrich Geisberg | 1874-1895 | |
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Otto Hellinghaus | 1895-1899 |
| Viktor Huyskens | 1899-1913 | |
| Full-time archive manager | Term of office | |
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Eduard Schulte | 1913-1945 |
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Ernst Hövel | 1945-1954 |
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Joseph Prince | 1954-1961 |
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Helmut Lahrkamp | 1961-1985 |
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Franz-Josef Jakobi | 1985-2005 |
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Hannes Lambacher | 2005-2018 |
| Peter Worm | since 2019 | |
literature
- Franz-Josef Jakobi / Hannes Lambacher / Christa Wilbrand (eds.), The Münster City Archive and its holdings (Münster 1998).
- The Münster City Archives. Balance sheet and new beginning. Ed .: The Lord Mayor of the City of Münster - City Archives (Münster 2003).
- Karl Ditt, cultural policy out of opportunism? The city archivist Dr. Eduard Schulte in Munster. 1933-1945. In: Franz-Josef Jakobi / Thomas Sternberg, cultural policy in Münster during the National Socialist era. Münster 1990, pp. 39-61
Web links
- Website of the Münster City Archives
- Holdings of the Münster City Archives in the archive.nrw.de portal
Individual evidence
- ^ City of Münster: City Archives - Services & Offers - Fees. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
- ^ A b c Franz-Josef Jakobi, Hannes Lambacher, Christa Wilbrand (eds.): The Münster city archive and its holdings . Druckhaus Aschendorff, Münster 1998.
- ↑ a b City of Münster: City Archives - What can you find in the City Archives? - Holdings & research. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
- ↑ Welcome to the portal of the archives in NRW. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
- ↑ Welcome to the portal of the archives in NRW. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
- ↑ VdA - Association of German Archivists eV Accessed on April 30, 2020 .
- ↑ Method case - Participatory survey methods for children and young people . In: Open all-day school - school as a place to live from the children's perspective . Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2018, ISBN 978-3-8474-1009-6 , pp. 185–218 (dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvdf0btc.11 [accessed April 30, 2020]).
- ↑ Carl A. Cornelius: Reports of the eyewitnesses about the Munster Anabaptist Empire . In: The historical sources of the Diocese of Münster . tape 2 . Munster 1853.