Archives introduce themselves - The Frankfurt (Oder) city archives

By Stadtarchiv Frankfurt an der Oder

The beginnings of the Frankfurt (Oder) city archives date back to the 13th century, when the Brandenburg Margrave Johann I elevated the market town on the Oder to the status of a city. In the 14th century, the electors of the House of Wittelsbach chose the town hall archive as the repository for important documents of Brandenburg's sovereignty. As a council house organizational unit, the archive primarily served the municipal government and administration. Next to the council chamber were “eleven lockable lockers, ‘in which the files were kept according to the ABC’”. The documents were stored in a locked iron privilege box. With the introduction of the “Town Hall Regulations” in 1719, a linguistic distinction was made for the first time between currentscript and older archive material. While the “Registratur bey dem Rathause” had previously been the responsibility of the Secretarius, a registrar was appointed in addition, who was responsible for ensuring that the “Alte als Neue Sachen” did not fall into “confusion and disorder”. There have always been efforts to catalog them. The oldest archival register available today dates back to 1546. In 1653, the Brandenburg Elector and Prussian Duke Friedrich Wilhelm ordered “all registries, books and documenta [...] to be recorded with diligence [...]”. The first external user was the Frankfurt university professor Johann Christoph Beckmann (1641-1717), who analyzed the city's archives as part of his work as a city and regional historian.

The professionalization of the municipal archive system only began in the 19th century. In 1822, judicial commissioner Heinrich Karl Ludwig Bardeleben (1775-1852) found the archive material in the attic of the town hall “as a pile of books and loose papers mixed with dirt”. Professional indexing and storage took place at the end of the 1880s, after Mayor Hermann Friedrich Wilhelm von Kemnitz offered the municipal archives to the Prussian Geheimes Staatsarchiv in Berlin for transfer. Director General of the Prussian Archive Administration Heinrich Karl Ludolf von Sybel convened an archive commission in agreement with the Frankfurt government to examine the city's archive system. Although the commission's final report also suggested handing them over as a deposit, both the city councillors and the members of the Historical Society were in favor of the archives remaining in Frankfurt. As a result, the Prussian archive administration obliged the magistrate to provide suitable rooms and trained staff. Dr. Robert Arnold from the Prussian Geheimen Staatsarchiv was seconded to Frankfurt several times for several months to carry out the cataloging work. Arnold drew up the first archive regulations, oversaw the relocation of the archives from the town hall to the sacristy of the Franciscan monastery church and opened the archive to external users. He also instructed employees of the city administration in the sorting and archiving of documents that were no longer required. The first archivist paid by the city was the grammar school professor Dr. Adolf Gurnik. Under his successors, grammar school professor Dr. Reinhold Kubo (city archivist 1903-1925) and Dr. Bruno Binder (city archivist 1925-1945), the city archive first moved to the rectorate building of the old Frankfurt University and finally to the converted tower of the Marienkirche.

Main room of the city archives in the south tower of the Marienkirche, photo: L. Haase & Co., in: Frankfurter Oderzeitung 15.01.1936
Main room of the city archives in the south tower of the Marienkirche, photo: L. Haase & Co., in: Frankfurter Oderzeitung 15.01.1936 |

The destruction of Frankfurt's city center during World War II was a major turning point in the history of the city archive. A large part of the holdings were removed in 1944, but this was not documented. City archivist Dr. Bruno Binder died in May 1945 without leaving any meaningful records. Other parts were stored in the armored cabinet of the town hall, others remained in the storerooms of Marienkirche. After the end of the war, the armored cupboard in the destroyed town hall was broken open and some documents and official records were subsequently found in private ownership. Under the rubble of the burnt down and collapsed Marienkirche, some holdings survived badly damaged.

Historic documents in the undestroyed part of the city hall after the Second World War, photo: Fricke
Stadtarchiv Frankfurt (Oder) 3-300 GP 789 - Historic documents in the undestroyed part of the city hall after the Second World War, photo: Fricke |

Librarian Elfriede Schirrmacher (1894-1978) was in charge of the salvage work from 1946 onwards and was appointed director following further archival training at the Prussian Geheimes Staatsarchiv. She began rebuilding the city archive in a school building in Halbe Stadt. Because all the finding aids were missing, she had to catalog the archive and library material again. In 1952, she oversaw the move to the municipal library building and integrated the 62 meters of archive material that had returned from Poland in 1962. After her retirement in 1976, Ralf-Rüdiger Targiel, a qualified archivist trained at the Humboldt University of Berlin, took over as director. He organized the move to the baroque double rectory on Untermarkt, which had been restored for archival purposes, and expanded the range of cultural educational work on offer with exhibitions, guided tours and lectures. Among the events, the exhibition on the 500th birthday of Ulrich von Hutten stands out, which met with a great response beyond the borders of the GDR.

Since 1989, the archives' remit has expanded considerably, primarily due to the documentation of the social transformations. The activities of political groups and actors during the period of reunification had to be passed on for posterity and subsequently the masses of documents from municipal departments and closed registries had to be evaluated, archived and made accessible and usable for future research projects. The acquisitions and collections have significantly increased the archive holdings. The rededicated double rectory hardly offered any space and proved to be increasingly unsuitable for conveying Frankfurt's written and audiovisual cultural heritage. With federal and state funding for urban renewal, the listed Bürgerschule am Lennépark, which had been vacant since 1999, was converted into an archive building. 

Exterior of the city archive in the former Bürgerschule in 2020, photo: Tobias Tanzyna
Exterior of the city archive in the former Bürgerschule in 2020, photo: Tobias Tanzyna |
Reading romm of the city archive in the former Bürgerschule in 2020, photo: Tobias Tanzyna
Reading romm of the city archive in the former Bürgerschule in 2020, photo: Tobias Tanzyna |

Even before completion of the archives' new housing, city archivist Ralf-Rüdiger Targiel handed over the reins to Dr. Denny Becker in February 2019 after 43 years. After completing his traineeship in archives and working as a scientific archivist at Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, he focused on developing the city archive into a research institution and supporting the city administration with digitization. Reducing the indexing backlog, making the archive material usable and available online are the high-priority tasks of the city archive.

The Frankfurt (Oder) city archive holds a total of 3.2 linear kilometers of archive material. The oldest document is a Greek manuscript in the so-called “Codex Seidelianus Novi Testamenti”, estimated to be from around the year 1000, which was in the estate of the Frankfurt university professor Nikolaus Westermann (1678-1758). The oldest surviving document of the town dates back to November 19, 1287, in which the Brandenburg Margraves Otto and Konrad enfeoffed the Schulzen of Frankfurt with the village of Mahlisch.

In 2023, the city archive processed 4,540 archival records for conservation and 439 archival records for restoration. There were 28 offers from official departments. Of the 5,632 file units offered, 632 were assessed as worthy of archiving. In addition to the non-official holdings, 13 individual items, two partial bequests, two association bequests and one company bequest were taken over. 805 archive items have been newly indexed and 6,485 indexing units have been editorially revised. The archive library took on 139 media units and approx. 200 units of small publications and recorded 705 newspaper articles. 617 research inquiries were answered and 238 reading room consultations took place.

 

Holdings of the Frankfurt (Oder) city archives on Archivportal-D.

 

Contact information

Stadtarchiv Frankfurt (Oder)

Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 43 

15230 Frankfurt (Oder)

Phone: +49 335 552-4300

E-Mail: stadtarchiv [at] frankfurt-oder.de (stadtarchiv[at]frankfurt-oder[dot]de)

Website: https://www.stadtarchiv-ffo.de/ 

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