Legal bases
Tasks and organization of the Bavarian State Archives
According to the Bavarian Archives Act of December 22, 1989 (BayRS 2241-1-WK, GVBl. p. 710), last amended by the Act of December 23, 2025 (GVBl. p. 652), the State Archives have the task of collecting, acquiring, permanently storing, and securing the archival material that has accumulated at authorities, courts, and other public bodies of the Free State of Bavaria and its predecessors since the advent of written records in administration and legal life in the early Middle Ages. Archival material refers to documents such as deeds, files, and other individual documents, maps, images, and other data carriers that are of lasting value for scientific research, for safeguarding the legitimate interests of affected parties or third parties, or for purposes of legislation, jurisprudence, or administration. Non-governmental institutions and private individuals may also entrust their archival material to the state archives, either as a deposit or by way of transfer.
The use of state archives is governed by the Regulations for the Use of Bavarian State Archives of January 16, 1990 (BayRS 2241-1-1-K, GVBl p. 6, last amended by Regulation of July 6, 2001, GVBl p. 371). Use of the archives for scientific, local history, family history, and educational purposes is free of charge.
Sorting, offering, accepting, and destroying documents (sorting notice - Aussond-Bek)
Enforcement of the Bavarian Archives Act; Municipal archive maintenance.
The Bavarian State Archives are divided into the General Directorate of the Bavarian State Archives, the Bavarian Main State Archives, and the State Archives. The General Directorate of the Bavarian State Archives is a mid-level authority subordinate to the State Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, and the Arts. The Bavarian Main State Archives and the eight State Archives in Amberg, Augsburg, Bamberg, Coburg, Landshut, Munich, Nuremberg, and Würzburg are subordinate to it. The General Directorate is the central state authority for all matters relating to archiving (Regulation on the Structure of the Bavarian State Archives of May 28, 1990, GVBl p. 175).
Fee schedules of the Bavarian State Archives
Archival materials (files, documents, plans, and other administrative records) are unique items. Individual archival materials may have special characteristics:
- Not all types of reproduction are possible for every item.
- For conservation reasons, there is no entitlement to the production of reproductions in every case.
- Each order must be discussed individually with the relevant state archive with regard to reproduction options and expected costs.
- It is not possible to place general orders for the selection of archival materials by subject area through the archive. As a rule, the user first selects the archival materials to be reproduced in the reading room of the state archive.
- Reproductions are generally only made by the laboratories and workshops of the Bavarian State Archives and may take a long time.