Communal Archival Holdings of the Vienna City Archives

Archival holdings and collections concerning the town constitute the historical nucleus of the archives. From time out of mind it was one of the duties of archives to keep Vienna's most important privilege charters and documents safe and to make them available. Since no municipal administration registries in the precise sense of the word existed before the 17th century, this is mainly a matter of single items, such as documents, records with legal contants - especially land registers and manuscripts dealing with legal affairs - as well as books of accounts.

Alte Registratur

In the 18th century a central registry Alte Registratur (1700 to 1783) had been established. It took care of files traffic with the offices of the Court and of the Provincial Government as well as with the parties.
Also since the 18th century some registrars and archivists were trying both to draw up lists of what had been handed down and to make sure that the various offices turn over files of the registry so that these records eventually would come into the possession of the archives. To these efforts we owe the first inventories.

Hauptregistratur

Emperor Joseph II was striving for standardisation of the constitutions of towns in his crown-lands. Resulting from this, the Municipal Council Constitution (valid from 1783 to 1850) was established in the form of three senates, the division was reflected in the conduct of the registry, too. Established in 1783, the Hauptregistratur was kept up until 1901. The tasks of the city government as the judicial authority were terminated in 1850 when law-courts were established.
The Hauptregistratur comprises all the records of central administration in the 19th century. Due both to the collegial conduct of office until 1850 and to the repeated practice of discarding documents, however, only a few of them are preserved to this day. Especially those dating from early times are missing.
In the wake of an administrative reform the Municipal Departments took up their activities in 1902. From then on, they themselves managed their registries.

Städtische Ämter

Vienna's oldest administrative institutions were the municipal offices (Städtische Ämter), with the earliest ones having existed since the 15th century. From their conduct of affairs documents have been preserved, covering the whole period from the 15th century to the 20th.

Magistratisches Zivilgericht

Preserved are extensive series of records arising from the activities of the Municipal Council as the judicial authority. The numerous testaments and estate proceedings go far back to the 16th century (1548). Especially the period of the Municipal Civil Court (1783 to 1856) is documented very well. From this period the archives also has records of the Criminal Court whereas, unfortunately, those of this predecessor, the Town Court, have been lost.

Magistratsabteilungen

In view of the existence of the Hauptregistratur, the municipal offices ("departments") - established after 1850 - did not do any filing themselves. In 1902, the "departments" were replaced by Magistratsabteilungen, henceforth operating their own registries. In the course of the 20th century these departments several times underwent radical change in the distribution of their tasks and in their overall organisation. This was the case especially in 1920, 1934, 1939, 1945 and 1946. Very extensive records originating from these departments and concerning all the spheres of municipal administration are being kept today by the Archives of the City and Province of Vienna. They range from 1902 to right now.

Magistratische Bezirkssämter

As a consequence of Vienna becoming much larger due to the incorporation of so-called suburbs in 1890/92, with the districts 11 to 19 getting integrated a decentral administrative unit was established in the form of the Magistratische Bezirksämter. As time went by, also this institution underwent several organisational reforms. The Archives of the City and Province of Vienna keeps extensive records coming from the old registries and dating above all from the period between 1890 and 1938.

Stadtrat, Gemeinderat, Landtag

Unfortunately, nothing has been preserved of the documents regarding the activities of the Stadtrat (City Council) in very early times. These records begin only in 1750.
In 1783 the City Council was replaced by the Magistratsgremium. Since that year, its records have been preserved and so are those of its Presidium which as the leading institution has continued to exist (since 1892 as the Presidial Office, having become in 1924 a part of the Magistratsdirektion. The latter institution as the central office in the system of Vienna's administration was given several subsections in the course of time and was repeatedly reformed as an organisation. Most of the Magistratsdirektion records, being of great importance, were kept in the archives. Kept there are also old registry holdings of the Städtische Kontrollamt, of the Stadtsenat as well as of the office of the Stadträte and of institutions no longer existing, such as the Stadtkanzlei (1891 to 1920) and the Kanzleidirektion (1883 to 1928).

The preservation of the original minutes of the meetings of Vienna's parliament and of the Provincial Diet, inclusive of the sessions of their committees and commissions, is entrusted to the Archives, as determined by the city constitution. Kept are also the records of not freely elected representation groups from the 20th century, such as the Bürgerschaft (1934 to 1938) or Ratsherren (1938 to 1945).
Still existing are also records of the Districts Representations, the lower level of representative democracy.

Public Institutions and Funds

As for municipal public institutions and funds, the both most extensive and most remarkable records originate from the former Bürgerspital , going as far back as to the 14th century. This is complemented by documents about other hospitals (Pilgramhaus, St. Marx) and about orphanages, reformatories, nursing-homes and charitable institutions.
Concerning municipal enterprises, the Archives keeps records of the former Municipal Brewery (1905 to 1959) and of the Municipal Undertakers' Establishment (from 1954 on).

From 1850 on, the metropolitan area of Vienna became much larger repeatedly as a result of incorporations. The biggest one took place in 1938, but it was partially rescinded in 1954. When the former independent municipalities were incorporated into Vienna, their archives were taken over by the city government. The size and the contents differ very much, dependent on which municipality this is. The oldest documents date from the closing years of the 18th century.

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