What is an archive and who can use it?

An archive preserves documents, files, official books, maps and plans (and models), photos, films, files and databases and much more.

Why is this information kept? Why do you even raise something?

There are various reasons for this. The most important reason is to secure legal claims – to prove. Another important reason is remembering. What is not handed over in writing is forgotten. To remember an event, e.g. a political rally, a medal rental or a private birthday party or a wedding, you take photos. Later the photos prove who participated in the event. Sometimes you can't remember exactly who the people were on the photos. Well, if someone wrote down who to see. There are photographs only since the first half of the 19th century. Century. Before that, you have to resort to other visual sources. Since the Middle Ages, certificates have been issued for the purchase or sale of land and land which prove that the sale has taken place and the purchase price has been paid. Today it is not done: a land purchase is also held in an official register, the land register. If you own or manage many things, you have to keep an overview. At different times, people have developed different strategies to arrange their written records. One possibility is the installation of a book with a table of contents and a register that opens up various accesses to the content. Another possibility is the summary of the individual documents in files. As in the administrations, most people carry files in which they store important documents. In contrast to the books in a library, the tradition that holds an archive is usually only present once. In the event of a conclusion of the contract, each Contracting Party shall receive a copy of a document. Perhaps you can still create a copy for security and be certified, but the original should not be lost. Every time it has found its own form of secure storage: including thick walls, heavy doors, double locks, metal cassettes. Today we rely on facial recognition, fingerprint scanners, passwords, alarm systems, armored doors, concrete walls, tight windows and doors and air conditioning systems. For what is useful if no thief comes in, but pests, dirt and mold destroy the originals. The important documents of a state, its authorities and courts are kept in particularly well protected archives. For today's Bavaria are the State Archives of Bavaria responsible. As a memory of the country, they preserve the most important written sources of Bavarian history, starting in the 8th. century to present. In addition to the Bavarian Main State Archive in Munich, there is a state archive (Amberg, Augsburg, Bamberg, Coburg, Landshut, Munich, Nuremberg, Würzburg). Due to special historical circumstances, the administrative district of Oberfranken with Coburg and Bamberg has two state archives. The Bavarian State Archive is the central archive for the Duchy, Electoral Republic, Kingdom and the Free State of Bavaria. As soon as ministries (e.g. Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Culture) and state authorities (e.g. Landesanstalt für Bodenkultur und Pflanzenbau) no longer need their documents in the daily business, they offer them to the main state archive. The archivists decide which documents come to the archive and which can be destroyed. In addition, the archives of secularisation and mediatisation – that is to say the abolition and collection of ecclesiastical and landscaping – are located in the Bavarian Main State Archives at the beginning of 19th. Century – Bavaria’s fallen spiritual and secular institutions of Upper Bavaria and Lower Bavaria (the so-called Bavarian Reich Circle without the Oberpfalz). Examples are the archives of Hochstiften Freising and Passau and the monasteries Tegernsee and Seeon. But also documents and official books from the Ranshofen monastery in today's Austria are located in the main state archive. The Bayerische Hauptstaatsarchiv also retains the written tradition of the former Bavarian army until 1919. In addition to the state documents, further documents are taken over. Examples are the documents of important associations, associations and bodies of public law (e.g. Bayerischer Gemeindetag, Bayerischer Lehrer- und Lehrerinnenverband). In addition, there are discounts of important Bavarian personalities from politics and administration (e.g. Minister Maximilian Graf von Montgelas, Prime Minister Hans Ehard, Minister Mathilde Berghofer-Weichner, Prime Minister Max Stfril). The state archives are responsible for the central authorities (e.g. governments of the seven governmental districts) and sub-authorities (e.g. state council offices) in their government district. It must be noted that the current competence differs from the historical competence before 1800. The State Archive Munich is now responsible for the administrative district of Oberbayern. Among other things, the historic explosives are the pensioner offices (former administrative districts) Munich and Burghausen in the Duchy or Kurfürstentum Bayern. Before 1779, Burghausen was the Austrian Innviertel. The Bavarian regions of Tyrol and Salzburg, which are temporarily Bavarian in Napoleonic times between 1805 and 1816, are also part of the historical competence of the State Archive Munich. The state archive Bamberg, which today is responsible for the Upper Franconian government district (without the Coburg County), is one of its historical explosives the territories of the Hochstifts Bamberg and the Markgraftum Brandenburg-Kulmbach-Bayreuth. The State Archive Coburg is responsible for city and county of Coburg and historically for parts of the former Duchy of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha. The exact responsibilities and structure of the holdings are best informed about the homepage of the State Archives of Bavaria. In addition to the state archives, Bavaria has a wealth of other archives, e.g. the Bavarian Economic Archives, Church and Diocesan Archives, municipal archives, noble archives, university and literature archives. Unlike a museum whose objects can be viewed, a state archive can also be used by anyone, but a written request must be made beforehand. It must indicate why one wants to research in a state archive (e.g. home research, family history, other scientific research, legal reasons). Minor users need a written consent of their parents. The Bavarian Archives Act and the Use Code for the State Archives are the legal basis for the state archives. It is regulated, inter alia, that documents which are not older than thirty years or which relate to a person who is not yet dead for at least ten years may not be submitted. In special exceptional cases, these periods of protection may be shortened, but this must be requested and justified in writing.