Speyer City Archives

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Speyer City Archives, building

The Speyer city archive is the oldest municipal archive in the Palatinate .

The earliest document kept in the archive is a certificate from Emperor Friedrich I from 1182, in which the privileges granted by Emperor Heinrich V to the city of Speyer in 1111 were confirmed and expanded. The tradition of the archive goes back a long way to the time of the imperial city , making it one of the oldest offices in the city of Speyer. In addition to a large number of historically important documents and archive holdings, it also offers a large collection of photos and newspaper clippings, as well as unique objects that are shown in regularly changing exhibitions in the city archive. This includes, for example, an archive chest from the times of the imperial city, the “Red Ark”.

history

The beginnings of the archive of the imperial city of Speyer are already in the 14th / 15th centuries. Century. On December 18, 1498, Emperor Maximilian I asked the Speyer City Council to send him the oldest original German script from their archive. Other personalities, such as the writer and Speyer town clerk Christoph Lehmann , made extensive use of the archive. Later its importance declined and few people in the know knew about it. Over time, the rumor developed that the sources on the city's history had been lost in the chaos of war of the previous years (1689). In order to correct this, the (Bavarian) archivist Franz Xaver Glasschröder gave a short report to the public about the holdings and the history of the city archive in the “Palatina” (fiction supplement of the Pfälzer Zeitung of January 28th). Armin Tille reproduced this in the second volume of his "Deutsche Geschichtsblätter" as follows:

Speyer city archives, federal letter of the 13 guilds of March 20, 1327

“While the aforementioned state archives unfortunately contain nothing but fragments which, when put together, result in an almost complete whole, the old imperial and current Bavarian district capital Speier, despite the devastation and fire, has its city archive as a result of a lucky coincidence - the city archive was on March 14th In 1689, a good two months before the great city fire (May 31, 1689), it was brought to Strasbourg via Landau on the orders of Louis XIV. Compare "Celebration hour" (entertainment paper for the "Palatinate Press") 1893, no. 70 - preserved in a completeness that not too many cities in Germany can show. It is precisely because of its completeness that the Speier City Archive counts among the sights of the old Nemeterstadt as well as the venerable imperial dome, which shines in its old splendor thanks to the royal munificence and the Palatinate district museum, which is so in need of its excellent value of a dignified and fire-proof home. In the thousands of thousands of documents and fascicles kept here, we see, as if in a mirror, the external and internal development, the heyday and decay of a free German imperial city, and no less the reasons and causes which brought about its growth, prosperity and eventual wilting to have. We are captivated by the imperial privileges of Kaiser Rotbart, Friedrich I, down to the astrologer on the imperial throne Rudolf II - the support of the Speier citizenry in their long struggle for freedom against the sovereign power of the prince-bishop. The fierce battles between the patriciate and the guilds for the city regiment, between the council and the clergy over the power boundaries on both sides are well illustrated by documentary evidence. [...]. As in these things, also in all branches of the city administration, in the judiciary, church and school system, as no less in trade and change of the citizenry, a surprising insight is offered. The archive's holdings for the history of foreign relations, for the position of the city in relation to the empire, the neighboring territories and other imperial cities, the Reformation and the great wars of the XVII. and XVIII. Century. For the history of the German empire in particular, the files on state peace agreements, Upper Rhine district affairs, war and military matters have preserved some things that one would look for in vain in other German archives. "

In the appendix to a treatise by Hanns Oberseider, a detailed overview of the holdings of the city archive was published in a specialist journal for the first time. In this article, Oberseider explained the circumstances that enabled the city archive to be saved through the turmoil of the War of the Palatinate Succession .

City Archives Speyer, "Red Ark"

The most important documents were kept in the so-called “red box”, a massive metal chest with a complicated locking mechanism that is still in the city archive to this day. The key to this archive chest was in the care of city officials. The respective "Archivarius" belonged to the town and council clerks , the council consultants and the Syndici .

administration

From 1892, city ​​archivists are again documented. The administration of the archive was entrusted to an official of the royal district archives Speyer as a paid office. As a result of the care provided by experts, there was a change in the order, preservation and use of the archive material.

Over time, the establishment of the old archive no longer met the requirements of the early 20th century for the storage of archive materials. Due to incorrect storage, fungi, animal pests and other problems, a solution had to be found as quickly as possible in order to preserve the old documents. This was presented to the city administration, which took up this problem and complied with the suggestions of the archive management. On the one hand, a new type of storage was decided, through which the archive material was better protected against external influences. On the other hand, a city council resolution of March 22, 1904 approved the installation of a fireproof magazine in the rooms near the town hall, which used to be used by the police. After setting up these premises for the city archive, the move to the new archive took place in 1909.

Speyer City Archives, reading room

The archive today

In March 1995, the city archive finally moved into its current premises at Johannesstraße 22a. This former factory building was previously used by the Palatinate State Library. Since then, the “memory of the city” has had a large reading room, which is also used as a lecture room, as well as two magazines and offices. By participating in the DFG project "Virtual German Document Network" (VdU), in connection with which all documents were digitized, the user has the opportunity to view Speyer documents in the virtual document archive "Monasterium". The archive is currently also involved in the EU project "European network on archival cooperation" ("ENArC") and the Interreg project "Archivum Rhenanum". In addition, the Speyer City Archive offers regularly changing exhibitions that provide information about old and new collections and innovations. Since 2011, the Speyer City Archive, which is active on Twitter , Facebook and Slideshare, among other things , has been one of the comparatively few German archives that are intensively involved in Web 2.0 . As a result of a restructuring of the departments of the Speyer city administration, the city archive has been operating as a separate department since May 2012: Cultural heritage department (city archive, museums, memorials) .

management

literature

  • Albert Pfeiffer : The archive of the city of Speier . Speier 1912.
  • Dorothee Menrath: "Memory" of the city. Archive holds valuable history on 1,500 meters of shelving . In: SPEYER. The quarterly magazine of the tourist association in cooperation with the city administration . Winter 1994, pp. 3-19.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hanns Oberseider: The archive of the city Speier at the time of the destruction of the city by the French in 1689, its escape and repatriation 1698-99. With the appendix: overview of the current status of the Speier city archive. In: Archival Journal . New series, Volume 13, pages 160–218.
  2. ↑ Joachim Kemper: Message in the Archivalia weblog, November 5, 2013
  3. ^ Speyer city archives under new management: Christiane Pfanz-Sponagel officially taken into office . (March 22, 2016)

Web links

Commons : Stadtarchiv Speyer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 19 ′ 10.6 ″  N , 8 ° 26 ′ 11.9 ″  E