What sources are stored in an archive?
Which sources hold an archive depends on the owner or Support of the archive. In a large state archive such as the Bavarian Main State Archive, you will find the full range of sources: documents, files, official books, maps and plans, photos, films and tapes as well as files and databases. The tradition begins in the Middle Ages (8th century) with the documents and extends up to the digital documents of the 21st century. Century. In addition, you can also find three-dimensional objects with a direct reference to written documents: architectural models such as the model of the Olympic grounds in Munich, confiscated objects such as card games or firearms, seeds in small paper bags or material samples, which were attached to the files for illustration. In principle, sources can be distinguished according to their external appearance and according to their content or purpose. In the past, the documents available in an archive were combined with the trination of “deeds, official books and files”. However, this is not completely complete. For example, you will find maps and plans that have often arisen in connection with disputes. For example, if two parties could not agree, a plan of the disputed property, territory, border or crime scene was drawn and taken to the files. Certificates are important to the right and the oldest sources. They confirm a contract or documented another legal transaction. The result is recorded in writing and kept safe as proof. Official Journals by administrative trade. They follow the documents and are already known in the Middle Ages. If, for example, a landlord requests and drives charges from his landlords, this is recorded in a book with numbered pages. It would appear immediately when pages are torn out. Both sides have a legally binding evidence of the paid debt. Documents, maps and plans will be added in the new administration. Files are used in authorities and courts as memory support, maps and plans to illustrate relationships. An act consists of single-letters belonging to one another. They can be loose or stapled. Maps and plans were placed as required. With the invention of book printing, the birth hour of the leaflets. The main purpose was political agitation and advertising, rare official announcements. Since the industrial production of cheap paper, it became a mass medium. The leaflet develops Posterfrom the pure text stop the image poster. Posters and leaflets are conscriptions, which are usually printed on bad paper. They were read and thrown away or glued on and overcoated again. In times without television, radio and Internet they were an important information medium. For reasons of security and order policy, local authorities have always dealt with posters and leaflets and secured them. Like private individuals, archives began at the turn of 19 to 20. Century to collect these printing works. This activity was intensified in the 20th century. Relatively young sources Photos, sound and video recordings. Their history begins in the 19th century. At the turn from 19 to 20 Century photography becomes affordable for everyone and thus becomes a widespread documentation technology. Today more is photographed and filmed than ever. However, the photo and the film as an analog carrier medium have largely been used. Glass plates, photo- and film-negative, exposed photos, sound and video recordings and digitalisates share the problem of durability. The worst threat to get is chemical changes and degradation processes. One of the biggest challenges for the archives is currently in the field of Digital documents (files, e-mail accounts, databases, electronic files, e-publications and digital image collections). Since the 1980s, justice and administration have been conducting digital documents. Since the turn of the millennium, this change has accelerated: government and administration become the “eGovernment” to take account of a digitally shaped society and economy. Here, too, there is the problem of availability of storage media, data formats, drives, hardware and software, simply media diversity. If the timely transfer is missed, the complete loss of information threatens. Analog photos can still be viewed directly, but suitable playback devices are needed for sound and video recordings; files are useless without appropriate hardware and software. For the classification of analogue genera of written tradition, there have been long standards of archival science and source science. On the other hand, digital writing is still in the river. Archives of scientific institutions such as the archives of the Institute of Contemporary History, University Archives, as well as Economic Archives have other priorities. Here you will find examination documents, patents, advertising posters, design drawings, publications or estates of scientists or executives. With Discounts are usually the written documents of important personalities. Discounts reflect the opinion and attitude of the estate agent and thus provide a personal view of the past. The administrative files of the public authorities are thus supplemented. For this reason (purchase, donation, landfilling) also acquire state archives estates, mostly by politicians or persons whose activities were significant for state and society.
1. Early middle age (before 900)
The archives of the Bavarian State Archives date back to the outgoing 8th century. Among the kings of the Frankenreich from the House of Merowinger and then especially the Karolinger, an amazing quality and density of writtenness was achieved in connection with administrative traditions of the late Roman colonial period. In Bavaria, however, almost only documents surpassed the centuries of the early Middle Ages as the legally binding and prosperous conclusion of a legal transaction. Only a few administrative manuscripts have been obtained from the offices of the Bischofssitz Salzburg, Freising, Regensburg and Passau, which however only provide documents in written form. Thus, for the period between 744 and 903, a total of 1038 private certificates are handed over from the Diocese of Freising, which are not included in royal and pope certificates. The Certificate was the main and – from today’s point of view – almost the only document of early-medieval legal and administrative life.
Two. High Middle Ages (900-1250)
The decay of the Karolinger Empire by 900 also led to a deep break in Scripture. With the political upheavals and the many warring events, a cultural decline occurred which could only be stopped by the turn of the millennium and an upsurge be initiated. Now noble nobles founded new monasteries, settled underlying, and in the scriptories of monasteries and dominions the monks wrote richly illuminated manuscripts, which today form the most precious treasure from this time. The turnaround in legal and administrative life is also to be taken into account; the complaints are rapidly increasing and are reflected in the traditional notes which have replaced the early-medium-term model of the Charter. Thousands of them are written into the traditional books of the spiritual institutions and reflect the legal life of the population. But also the documents of the kings, princes and bishops grow rapidly.
In the 11th century, then strengthened from the 12th century, a new generation of sources comes up, which in principle had already known and used the Karolinger era: Official Journal. In Bavaria, it is the traditional book, which inscribes the many exhibited traditional notes for the future. Then follow their own, i.e. specialized copial books for the documents of the emperors and kings, in the following time also other rulers such as princes, bishops, counts etc., because the traditional notes are clearly different from the privileges of the rulers. Also in 12 century the book and Handwriting form used for further legal areas. Urbar books are created within the framework of the landlord to fix the property of a landlord in writing and legally binding.
3. Late average age (1250-1500)
From the middle of the 13th The literacy once again experiences a significant expansion and compaction. In parallel with the emergence of the universities in Europe, writing and reading continue to penetrate and conquer new areas in administrative life. The number of documents increases sharply again and reaches the 15th. century its absolute highlight. In addition to numerous copial books, outgoing registers are also created in order to secure the self-manufactured documents in their text before they are handed out. These are not the only official books. Specialized types of fief (life books), accounting (books), tax collection (tax books), participation in the landscape (land panels). The law firms as the administrative centers create their own tools in the form of form books (formers for the collection of documents) and oath books (eides services of the landlord servants). In the courts too, the literacy gains space. According to the legal mirrors of the 13. In the Upper Bavarian Land Law Emperor Ludwigs des Bayern of 1346 for the first time national law is authentically codified. It will soon be followed by court records which reproduce the court proceedings in tight protocols.
A quantum leap represents the use of Letter (in the sense of today's letter or letter) during administrative procedures. The letters spread throughout the 14th century. more and more centuries and have established themselves in Bavaria from the 1420s. Incidentally associated documents become Files and this is now also included in the archives and kept there permanently. Thus, with the letters or Documents in the typology of the archives, besides the documents and official books, entered a third column, which since then dominates all administrative processes.
4. Early modern times (1500-1800)
At the beginning of the modern period, the compaction of fontity continues to progress, both in the files and in the official books. The protocol is now becoming increasingly important, particularly with the collegially organised administrative authorities; On the basis of the protocols, the activities of some authorities can be monitored day by day. In the field of primordial administration, in addition to the original books, the pen or valid books are now guided, which record the annual release of the riches of the landholds to the landlords. The logbooks record the court handovers and the fees due. Also in court, the range of fontity becomes broader and more colorful. Separate protocol series are created for criminal justice and voluntary jurisdiction, which in turn splits into different subseries (e.g. the estate inventory). The ducal reindeer carries the reindeer treasury protocols in his disputes (= official visas). The entire population is recorded statistically and descriptively in the cookery registers and charworks books, as well as in the tax books. Even the body rule becomes more clearly visible in the body property books and sale protocols.
Shortly before 1500 you will discover the possibility of drawing for administrative operations. In particular, controversial boundaries are now visualized in drawings and taken to the files. In the case of construction projects, the construction plans are also included in the cost proposals. From about 1600 a consistent briefing has become self-evident. The types of documents are finely differentiated, with the over-, equal- or sub-ordination of the exhibitor to the addressee playing a great role and dictating the design of the document.
5. Current and Latest Time (1800-2000)
Precisely abruptly decreases the significance of the document. Although the population is still forced to observe decisive steps of life in the courts in documents (heirats' contract, inheritance and transfer contract, etc.), which lead to massive series of protocols in the courts and towns (until 1862). However, with the introduction of the younger Notariat in 1862, the administration system, in so far as certain legal procedures are formal, is moved into the semi-private area of the Notariat. Since then, document roles and notariat certificates have been constants that have shaped today's legal life and have led to enormous quantities of documents. The installation of official books undergoes modifications. New types are created (most well-known: tax cataster, mortgage book, land register), which are equipped with an extremely high level of legal binding. The legality seems to have been best guaranteed in the form of the official book, because according to this model, further series of official books are formed: Erbhöferolle (Third Reich), Bergbuch, Prisoner Book and others.
There are also innovations in the file, which are initially technical. The lithography (also called autography) made it possible to reproduce writing mechanically and, above all, to design letterheads, tables and forms. In this case, it detached the previously used copper engraving. A large revolution brought the invention of the typewriter, which holds in all administrative offices around 1900. It leads to many punches on thin paper produced by means of carbon paper. In formal terms, attempts were made to reduce the culminating writing and bureaucracy through reform measures (word: office reform), mostly with only moderate success. After all, the wide range of fonts it became in the 18th and 19th century, gradually reduced to the one font form “writing” which has since been universally used.
A real innovation is the hallway map and topographic map, both of which go back to revolutionary inventions in the surveying of the years around 1800. Now it was possible for the first time to accurately measure lands scientifically. The invention of lithography at the same time allowed efficient pressure in high quantities. From 1808 on this new basis, the hallway map is created in Bavaria, which is intended to provide the basic tax collection on a just basis, and in the following years the topographic map of Bavaria, which has military roots, is soon regarded as indispensable for various uses.
In the middle of the 19. Photography invented in the first century remains without a major impact on the administrative work of the authorities. Only the military education in the First World War helps her to achieve sustainable use.
Because the activities of the authorities and courts cannot capture and depict the whole range of human life and work, the archives have been transferred since the time around 1900, so-called. To collect additional material from time-historical collections. In this way, poster and flyer collections, photo and film collections, newspaper collections and collections of small prints were created (Pamphlete any content whose main feature is that they cannot be bought in bookstores but are distributed directly to the people). This is a very heterogeneous material which goes far beyond the classical canon of official documents and often escapes from a strict classification. Also preferred since 20. The archives acquire the written estates of outstanding personalities of public life, because they often contain some things that the files held by the authorities cannot offer (tag books, personal documents, photos, etc.).