Records of Empire, Monarchy, Or Nation? the Archival Heritage of the Habsburgs in East Central Europe

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Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? The Archival Heritage of the Habsburgs in East Central Europe

Niessen, James P. https://scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/discovery/delivery/01RUT_INST:ResearchRepository/12643381710004646?l#13643549140004646

Niessen, J. P. (2007). Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? The Archival Heritage of the Habsburgs in East Central Europe. Ab Imperio, 2007(3), 265–290. https://doi.org/10.7282/T3GF0RX4

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Germany, Austria, and greater (pre- 1918) Hungary existed for centuries in a relationship that we may call imperial: they were held or brought into connection by various dynasties' ambitions. In the modem era, however, this ambition took on a new, national light as subject peoples asserted their rights. Hungarians led the way in contesting Habsburg absolutist rule in Hungary, inspiring in turn the self-emancipation of its peoples who came to see Hungary itself as a multinational empire. In speaking of imperial archives in the region between the Alps and the Carpathians one must immediately define terms. For most of the modem era this region was not an empire at all, if by that we mean that its ruler exercised authority over the entire region by virtue of the title of emperor. Until 1806 the head of the Habsburg house was Holy Roman Emperor, but

* I would like to thank the forum's editorsfor their encouragingcomments on the initial text, and Al's anonymousreviewer for helpful suggestionsas well as valuable information and his own recent articles provided by Imre Ress. In addition to the sources I cite below, my knowledgeof the subject derives fromyears of research in the archivesof the former Habsburg region and the preparation of two archival studles on Hungary (co- authored by Ress) and Romania for the volume edited by CharlesW. Ingrao, A Guideto East-Central Archives. Minneapolis, 1998 (=Austrian History Yearbook. 1998.Vol. 29. Pt. 2). Pp. 43-8 1 and 105-121. J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Imperio, 312007 most of this empire was to the west and north of our region in what we ment of archives was often practiced by archivists in the eighteenth and would today call Germany proper. Aswe will see, this empire had archives nineteenth century,but by the eve of World War I provenance had officially that would come under the administration of its Austrian successor state. become the dominant principle in the archivesof Austria-Hungary. Today After 1804 there arose an Emperor of Austria with formal title over the archivists see original order as an important aspect of archives' value for entire intrarnontane region, but then after 1867 thisemperor's realm was research. This theoretical distinction had dramatic implications for Hab- merely the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy west of the Leitha River, sburg archives in the modern era. Cisleithania or "the kingdoms and lands representedin the imperial council." The individual lands had their own systems of government ("constitu- Archives of Empire tions"), ruling classes, and archives that we might call royal or provincial The fundamental raison d'ttre of medieval and early modern archives rather than imperial. Legally Hungary wasa kingdom, only rarely and col- was the assertion of rights of succession, ownership, and rule. For centuries loquially using the term Hungarianempire (magyarbirodalorn) for its own the monasteries were the chief repositories of these chartersor privileges, assemblage of crown lands. followed by the royal treasuries, noble landowners,and city halls. The sem- So much for formal titles. The historian of political ideas and move- inal event in the prehistory of modern Austrian archiveswas the effort of ments still speaks, as did contemporaries, of the old German empireor of Emperor Maximilian (ruled 1493-15 19) to consolidate his far-flung do- the Austrian imperial ideaor simply "Austrian idea," the latter two con- mains and dynastic marriages through governmental reformand propagan- cepts meaning an aspirationto establish a uniform system of rule over the da. His ambition to create an imperial archive at his court in Innsbruck lands in personal unionwith the Habsburg dynasty- or more idealistically failed, but he did manage to centralize the preservationof Tyrolean records to propagate a dominant ethos that would cementthe ties of the subject there as well as to enlist documentsfor somewhat fanciful accountsof his peopIes to the ruling house or at least make their coexistence within a com- personal exploits and descent from the emperors of Rome. His grandson mon state seem more desirable than its dissolution.The goal of Austrian and successor as Austrian archduke, FerdinandI, took time out from the political uniformity withina greater Germany or Austrian empire had only contest for Habsburg dominance in Germany and Hungaryto order that an evanescent success, but the later ideal gained supporters not only among official named Wilhelm Putsch collect and create an inventoryfor the ar- civil servants but also increasingly among historians. Like everywhere, the chives in Innsbruck and Vienna. Ferdinand and his successorshad recourse first imperial archives arose here outof the rulers' efforts to buttress their to these archives for official purpose^.^ claims. We will see that they later became workshopsfor historical research The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were not conduciveto the cen- in the modern sense, open not onlyto adherents of the Austrian idea but tralization and ordering of records. Not only did the Protestant states in also to apostles of the incipient national states. Germany, the Ottoman Turks, and Christian dynastic rivals in Hungary The meaning of archives is also less than obvious. In the simplest sense contest the dominance of the senior Habsburg, but within Austria in its they are buildings or repositories for records or documents. Archival pro- narrower sense the junior lines of the ruling family also insisted upon their fessionals then distinguishthem from office files by the requirement that separate courts and archives. Bohemia and Moraviaat least recognized archives must be organized and staffed to facilitate access and researchby Habsburg kingship, but their estates and diets maintained separate lawsand outsiders. Finally, archives are distinguishedfrom manuscripls as consti- institutions. The Peace of Westphalia at the end of the Thirty Years War tuting the product of the normal activity of an organized institution. Mod- ern archival theory expresses a preference for the preservation of original Walter Goldinger. Geschichte desiisterreichischen Archivwesens. WienEIorn, 1957; order and institutional integrityof archives (respect de fonds, the principle Mitteilungen des Osterreichischen Staatsarchivs.Erganzungsband 5. S. 11- 13. The most of original order or provenance) rather than the thematic arrangementof thorough historiesof the three central Austrianarchives are the introductory studies to records of varying provenance.' The purposeful assemblage and arrange- their published inventories:Ludwig Bittner, Lothar Gross, andFritz Reinohl.Gesamtin- ventar des Wiener Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, aufgebautauf der Geschichte desAr- chivs und seiner Bestande. Bd. 1-5. Wien, 1936-1940; Inventardes Kriegsarchivs Wien. ' James M. O'Toole. UnderstandingManuscripts and Archives. Chicago, 1990. Pp. 55- Bd. 1-2. Wien, 1953; and Inventardes Wiener Hofiammerarchivs Wien, 1951. 58; LevCltari ~smeretekkkzikonyve. Budapest, 1980.Pp. 220-225. 266 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Zmperio, 312007 forced the emperor to renounce his most ambitious pretensions in Germany an occupation of Bucovina and Galicia in 1775-95, but the archives of and seek consolidation of power in his hereditary lands as an alternative. Austrian provincial administration remained in Chernivtsy and Lviv re- The crackdown on Bohemian-Moravian separatism after the Battleof White spectively, and survive today in Ukraine. Mountain in 1618, the reunification of Habsburg Austrian lands in 1665, Below the level of the three imperial archives, Austrian administrative then the repulse of the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 and ensuing recon- reform had a decisive impact on record keeping outside Vienna. Beginning quest of Hungary opened the wayto this consolidation. in 1756 a series of regulations directed offices to record all incoming corre- The eighteenth century was the birth hour of Austrian imperial state- spondence and associated records undera unique number in annual register hood. The foundation of the new state and itsfirst imperial archives was the books. This innovation, calledNova Mnnipulntio, broke with the earlier series of brilliant military victoriesby Prince Eugen of Savoy. To organize practice whereby offices often separated material accordingto subject mat- access to the records of his Court War Council (Hofkriegsrat) since the ter, and as a result greatly facilitated the coherency and integrity of the time of its creation in 1556 and provide accessto maps and reports of his historical record. Registers, often supplementedby protocol books, made it marshals' campaigns in Germany, Italy, and the Balkans, he founded the more likely that records of anoffice stayed together.The progressive spread predecessor of the War Archives (Archivum bellicum: Hofkriegsratliches of Nova Manip~~latioto lower state bodies, churches, and other organiza- Archiv) in 1711. It was not only a repository of records for officialdom and tions throughout the Habsburg realm created a remarkable web of records soldiers, but a place for historical research and writing: the archive was whose relationship is signaled by the ever-present register numbers that required to produce campaign histories that would draw lessonsfor future identify not only that document but its antecedents and later documents operations. The most important imperial archivewas founded later: the (Vor- und Nachakten) and correspondence with other offices. With the help secret house archives, later named Archive of House, Court, and State of this numerical web it is often possible to track informationthat was thought (H~LLs-,Hof- und Staatsarchiv, henceforth in this article: HHSA) arosein lost by consulting secondary and tertiary archives that may existtoday in a 1749, in the aftermath of the bitter War of Austrian Succession when the variety of countrie~.~ importance of rapid access to documentation became painfully clear.The It is important to distinguish the originsand organizational principlesof tightly organized Prussian state had embarrassed Austria and deprived it of the three central archives. The Kriegsarchiv and HoJlcammerarchivwere its lucrative Lower Silesian possessions; EmpressMaria Theresa drew the classical organizationalor ministerial archives, arisingfrom the operations conclusion that the defense of dynastic rights required not onlythe docu- of more or less coherent, functional agencies and possessingfrom the be- mentation of these rights but also centralizedtax collecting and regulation ginning long, nearly complete series of administrative records. For many of land tenure to support a standing army, with a corresponding increasein years this could notbe said of the HHSA. The original instructions to Tau- administration and record keeping.The empress sent an official named low von Rosenthal, which guided his successorsfor over a century, defined Theodor Anton Taulow von Rosenthal (1702-1779) to Prague, Graz, and its mission as the collection in oneplace of individual documents of impor- Innsbruck to collect older documents. As the administration grew,court tance for the defense of the rights of the imperial house and the governance chanceries emergedas arms of the imperial government, with regional com- of its states as a whole. The HHSA was to seek out these documents wher- petence but residing in Vienna and depositing their archivesin the HHSA. ever it found them, in isolationfrom if not together with the other records The third component of the imperial archives was the Court Chamber Ar- - chives (Hofiammerarchiv),whose parent body arosein 1578 to preserve merarchiv. Pp. 22-38; and Rainer Egger. The Kriegsarchiv. Pp. 39-66. There is also a financial records, butgrew rapidly after the financial reforms of 1749. Here history of the HHSA in Arthur J. May. Austria N Daniel H. Thomas and Lynn M. Case. Guide to the Diplomatic Archivesof Western Europe. Philadelphia, 1959. Pp. 3-20. the focus was on land records and labor services, loans and bonds, taxes LevCltariismeretek kkzikonyve.Pp. 161-164, traces the origin and philosophyof Nova and revenue.) The central archives would serve laterto document the Austri- Munip~tlatio.I experienced itsbenefit for researchers whileconsulting Austrian, Hun- garian, and Romanianarchives in the course of research for my doctoral dissertation on j Austrian History Yearbook(vols. 6-7, 1970-1971)has articles on the history and hold- Transylvania in the 1860s:Battling Bishops: Religion and Politics in Transylvaniaon ings of the threeimperial archives: Rudolph Neck.The Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv: Its the Eve of the "Ausgleich" 1Ph.D. Dissertation; Bloornington:Indiana University, 1989. History, Holdings, and Use.Pp. 3-16; Hanns Leo Mikoletzky. The Finanz- andHofkam- 268 269 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Imperio, 3/2007 of the agency that created or received them.The HHSA (like many other he meant the history of the old German empire, not Austria in the narrow central archives of this era) arranged its oldest charters and privilegesin a sense. After 1806 the HHSA acquired the records of the defunct Holy Ro- single chronological collection.It sometimes passed up the opportunityto man Empire and Venetia, which were a great attraction for Ranke whose acquire old archives because they were unimportantfor dynastic interests lasting contribution to historiography was his insistence onthe value of or imperial governance, or traded records thatfell outside these criteria for archives for research. Beginning in the 1820s hehad been one of the hand- other archives that did. The HHSA also acquired series of organizational ful of researchers who enjoyed regular access tothe HHSA. The archive records like those of the medieval kings, and such series became prepon- was proud of his 1868 letter, including it in its public exhibition for de- derant with the passageof time as the records of the chanceries and foreign cades. But even he was denied researchaccess in 1863 - to the correspon- office came into the archives.On the other hand there were record seriesof dence of Chancellor Kaunitz with his Paris ambassador in1756-7. Presum- the utmost central importance,like those of the Council of State and the ably the Austrian Foreign Minister feared the repercussionsfor Austria's chancery of the ruler, which it acquired only after 1900 becausethe central image in Germany of "fresh" revelations about Austria's anti-Prussianco- government chose not to relinquish direct control overthem.5 alition a century earlier.' The Austro-Prussian contest for leadership in The three central archives were essentially repositoriesfor the use of the Germany was settled three years laterat the Battle of Koniggratz/Sidova. state itself. Yet, because the HHSA dealt with the most far-reaching issues The limitations on access thatRanke and many other researchersexpe- and was the wealthiest in older material, it quickly attracted outside re- rienced in the HHSA make it ironic that the absolutist state afforded the searchers and granted them access. The permission for use by outsiders dramatist Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872), who was frustrated in his literary was always conditioned by the interest of the state, and denied if the re- career by bouts with censorship and was also no admirer of ChanceIIor searcher sought accessto information that might be injurious to that inter- Metternich, the directorship of the Hoj7cammerarchivin 1832, which he held until his retirement in 1856. Evenif his literary career wasmore im- ' est. According to statute, permission depended uponthe foreign minister himself, could only be granted for individual documents identified in ad- portant to him, we can conclude from a report he wrote in 1840 that he took vance, and all documents had tobe examined for dangerous content and some pride in his archival work:'"the mission of the archives is to illumi- withheld if it was found. In practice, these rules were waived in individual nate matters that it is permitted even the most experienced official notto cases. Leopold von Ranke (1795-1896) made very extensive use of the know."8 Archivists were civil servants (Beamten) who provided research HHSA for his sixteenth century histories aftera favorable interview with service for their parent ministry. But severalof Grillparzer's memoranda Prince Metternich in 1827 caused the chancellorto waive the rule against reveal a non-bureaucratic, indeed prescient appreciationof original order the provision of entire fascicles (bundles) of records. Despite his opposi- when he rejected proposals by the HHSA that some of his archive's records tion to contemporary liberal movements, Metternich contributedto the emer- be ceded to the latter, writing:"I would find it completely unscholarly and gence of the HHSA as a center for historical research.The director and his- destructive of all historical value were two archives placed inthe posses- torian Chmel, whohimself played a direct role in this trend, wrotewith some sion of unrelated fragments, isolated rarities through renewed dismember- exaggeration in 1849: "His Excellency State Chancellor Prince Metternich ment of this interesting colle~tion."~He was mindful of the fragile state of granted access in the most liberal manner, indeedon his orders many archi- ' Leopold Auer. Das Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchivund die Geschichtswissenschaft.Zum val officials became practically the assistantsof the researcher^."^ 250-jahrigen Jubilaum seinerGriindung 11 Mitteilungen des Osterreichischen Staatsar- In an 1868 letter to the director, Ranke praised theHHSA as the most chivs. 2000. Bd. 48. S. 66; Bittner. S. 163"-170". important archive forGerman history CfLir die decttsche Historie), by which Goldinger. S. 23. Gottfried Mraz. Franz Grillparzer - Finanzbeamterund Archivdirektor /IFranz Grill- Ludwig Bittner's history of the HHSA in vol. 1 of Gesarntinventar has this collecting parzer. Finanzbeamterund Archivdirektor: Festschriftzum 200. Geburtstag. Berwang, practice and the frequent neglect of original order as a central theme. As we will see, 1991. S. 74. According to Mraz, "Grillparzer wurde wider Erwarten ein sehr guter Ar- respect de fonds was crucial for the disputes concerning the controlof archives after chivdirektor" (S. 73). On his archival career see also Hanns LeoMikoletzky. Der Ar- World WarI in which he was directly involved. chivdirektor Franz Grillparzer(anlal3lich der Wiederkehr seines 80. Todestages)I/ Der Bittner. Bd. 1.S. 169". Archivar. 1952.Bd. 5. S. 49-54. 270 27 1 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Imperio, 312007 Austrian statehood; perhaps the most famous verse about Austria in 1848 to a number of professionally run archives, imperial, royal, and provincial, came from his pen, a tribute to Field Marshal Radetzky's victory over with broader public access. Italian troops: "In your camp is Austria / we others are individual frag- The archives of medieval Hungary had been dispersed during the period ments."1° We can read the poem as a confession of Austria's weakness, of Turkish occupation and their remnants destroyed during the liberation of or as a declaration in favor of despotism over national particularities. Buda in 1686. In 1875 the National Archives of Hungary (literarally Ar- Grillparzer was a critic of contemporary nationalism and saw the dy- chives of the Land, Magyar Orsza'gos Leve'lta'l; MOL) opened. This repos- nasty, whatever the flaws of individual rulers and officials, as the guar- itory owed its foundation to the old national archives created by an act of antor of the unity of the state. the Hungarian diet in 1723 and finally founded in 1756 to house the records The years after the revolution put the old archival regime to the test. of Hungary's viceroy and diet, now supplemented by the transfer of the During the decade of absolutism the dominant Austrian minister was no records for the Hungarian and Transylvanian Court Chanceries and the longer the foreign minister but the minister of interior, Alexander Bach. provincial governments for Hungary and Tran~ylvania.'~The Kingdom of This champion of centralism and the suppression of local autonomy sought Croatia, which was associated with the Hungarian crown but had its own unsuccessfully to bring the central archives of the Austrian Empire together government and diet, established its national archives after 1870 with the in one building. The Imperial Archives (Reichsarchiv)would be one of the accession of records from the Hungarian provincial government and Court monumental new buildings on the RingstraBe." With the suppression of the Chamber archives. In the Austrian half, Bohemia founded separate archives Hungarian Court Chancery and its constitutional successor, imperial author- for its diet (Archives of the Land, 1862) and provincial government (1882), ities sought in 1858 to issue a special interdiction against the removal of and other crown lands followed suit. Contemporaries considered archives records from the Chancery records, and by extension any archives at a11.I2 an attribute of citizenship (nationhood) and statehood (sovereignty). The As late as 1860, HHSA director Erb would write that the HHSA should be prehistory of the Hungarian archives and the separate institutions in Prague "a well-organized arsenal of weapons for [the monarch's] struggle for his illustrate how these concepts did not necessarily coincide. The Hungarian historical and political rights" (ein moglichst wohlgeordnetes Arsenalfiir diet had led the way in creating archives of the land in contradistinction to die WafSen zum historisch-staatsrechtlichen Kampfe).I3 those of the ruler and bureaucracy. The compromise laws designated three ministries as imperial and royal Archives of Monarchy (kaiserlichkind koniglich, k. und k.), responsible to the two parliaments and charged with administering the Dual Monarchy's common affairs: the im- The Compromise laws of 1867-68 brought an end to the crisis with perial and royal Ministries of Foreign Affairs, War, and Finance. As we Hungary and introduced liberal constitutions in the two halves of the new saw, these common affairs already had their central archives in Vienna, Dual Monarchy. Hungarian resistance to the imperial vision of Bach and Emperor Franz Joseph led to a double renunciation of imperial rule in Hun- reporting to the respective ministries. Therefore they now became Austro- gary and of absolutism in Austria. Despite its imperial ambitions the Hab- Hungarian archives. In practice this meant that Hungarians (as well as Slavs) sburg realm had already contained elements of dualism and indeed multi- were added to the archival staff, and the adequate processingof and access polarity. Now, these elements combined with constitutionalismto give birth to records about Hungary in the central archives became a matter of public debate and the interpellations of the annual meetings between the imperial

'O "In deinem Lager ist Osterreich, / wir Andre sind einzelneTriimmer / Aus Torheit und and royal ministers and the parliamentary delegations that voted their bud- Eitelheit / sind wir zerfallen / Die Gott als Slav' und Magyaren schuf/ Sie streiten um gets. Two Hungarians even became directors of the imperial and royal ar- Worte nicht hamisch, / Sie folgen, ob Deutsch auch der Feldherrenruf / Denn: Vorwarts! 1st Ungrisch und Bohmisch." l4 Gyozo Ember. A kktszBzCvesOrszagos LevCltar // LevCltbi kozlemknyek. 1956. Vol. " Bittner. S. 26*-29*. 27. Pp. 3-30 provides an overview of the Hungarian archives' history. The recent book- l2 Goldinger. S. 72. length history was unavailableto me: Janos Lakos. A Magyar Orszagos LevCltartortenete. I' Gustav Winter. Das neue Gebaude des K. und K. Haus-, hof und staatsarchivs ZLI Budapest, 2006. Wien. Wien, 1903.S. 24. 272 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? I Ab Zmperio, 312007 chives: Lajos Thall6czy in the HojJzamrnerarchiv (1885-1916) and Arp6d well. The director of the HHSA opposed this proposal because he perceived Kirolyi in the HHSA (1909-13).15 it to be directed againsthim; Thall6czy appears to have been on the other Thall6czy's appointment was an indirect consequenceof the Habsburgs' side. Then in 1896 the delegations proposed that Hungarian records in the last imperial acquisition, themilitary occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Hojkammerarchiv be sent to Hungary.17 1878. Administration of the territory by either Austria or Hungary would Institutional and political interests werevery important for the failure of have destabilized the delicatebalance between the two halvesof the Mon- these proposals, but the growing adherenceto original order among archi- archy, so it was placed under the authorityof imperial and royal ministry of vists was also a factor. Avid Kirolyi and his predecessor for most of the finance. Gyula Andrissy, as joint foreign minister, had advocated the occu- dualist period, Alfred von Arneth (1 868-1897), took opposing positions on pation but the unpopularityof this move contributed to his resignation. Now original order. Arneth began his long career as directorof the HHSA in there was no longera Hungarian among the three joint ministers, butone of 1868 by announcing its openingto historical research, whichhe had advo- Andrissy's diplomatic appointments would fill the bill.In 1882 BCni Kil- cated earlier but was anchored in article 17 ofthe new Austrian constitu- lay (1839-1903), a Hungarian former diplomat who had studied Slavic lan- tion: "Scholarship and teachingis free" (i.e., unfettered).18He set an exam- guages, served as ambassadorin Belgrade, and written historical studiesof ple for the increasing use of the HHSA by contemporary historians in his Serbia, became joint minister of finance and governor of Bosnia-Herze- authoritative life of Maria Theresa in nine volumes.19The work is by no govina. Killay appointed Thallbczy, a young historian and archivist at the means a hagiography, but its portrayalof the architect of modern empire MOL, as director of the Hofiammerarchiv. Like his minister, Thall6czy undeniably served asa model formulationof the Austrian idea embodied in was interested in Serbian affairs anda supporter of Habsburg expansion in the dynasty, army, and progressive legislation.Ameth's preoccupation with the Balkans. Killay also assigned Thall6czy a role in the ongoing contest Maria Theresa no doubt also heightenedhis awareness of her charge to the for the possession of the numerous records about Hungarian administration HHSA that it focus on the procurementof individual documents that were in the Hofkamrnerarchiv. The new director proceeded to separateout Hun- important for the defense of imperial unity. garian records with the surreptitious help of Hungarian researchers, but he There were still limits to the freedomof research in the HHSA. First, the took no further action.16 end point by year of creation for records that were closedto research was Hungarian ultras wanted all recordsof Hungarian administration moved very far back by our current standards:from 1841to 1885 it was 1740, then to Hungary.The most sensitive of these, to which Franz Joseph would never until 1905 it was 1830, and the until the end of the Monarchy it was 1847.20 agree because they involved him personally, were the archivesof the revo- In practice Arneth could waive this limit,as in the case of a princess who lutionary government that was suppressed militarily in1849, and then the justified her interest inthe records of the Austrian occupationof Bukovina subsequent military government beforethe partial restoration of the Court in 1775 by research in the history of her family. When a work entitled The Chancery and provincial government in1860. In 1884 the Hungarian dele- Theft of Bzikovina appeared anonymously in Bucharest in1875, Franz gation presented a very different proposal tocreate a central Austro-Hun- Joseph himself reproachedArneth for his mistake.21Five years later Ar- garian archives that would include material from the HHSA and others still " Bittner. S. 32*-35*. under the control of the dynasty, and the Austrian delegation supported it as l8Ibld. S. 171*.

l9 Geschichte Marla Theresias. Bd. I-X. W~en,1863-1 879. Is On Hungarians in the central archives see Imre Ress. A Badeni IevCltiri egyezmeny 20 Blttner. S. 173*. 16tre~~tte.A levkltiri jogvita tortheti gyokerei - a nemzetl IevCltirak 6s a Monarchla 21 Bittner. S. 176*. The only contemporary Romanian works with the title Rcprrea BLL- leviltiri orokskge, which is the introductory study to A badenz osztrrik-rnagyarlevkltriri covinei I could identify were by the much better known M1ha11Eminescu and Mlhail szerzb'dks okmrinytrira, a document collection now in press. Kogilniceanu rather than Massalsky. She might have supplied her information to either l6Eva Somogyi. Hagyomany Cs atalalkulis a Ballhausplatzon. A kiiliigyminisztCrium one of them. Emlnescu also translated volume 7, pertaining to the occupation of Bucovi- vezeto magyar tisztviseloi /I Somogyi. Hagyomany Cs atalalkulis: Allam Cs biirokricla a dualista Habsburg Monarchikban. Budapest, 2006. Pp. 100-101; Ferenc Glatz. na, of the collect~onof documents on Romanian history by Eudoxiu Hurmuzaki, Docu- rnenteprrvitoure la istorra Rombnilor. The comp~lerof this collection was a Romanian I TortCnetir6 es politika: Szekfii, Steier, Thim Cs Miskolczy nemzetrol Cs 811amr61. Budap- I est, 1980. Pp. 127-130. from Austrian Bucovlna who also conducted research in the HHSA; cf. Auer. Das

274 275 I J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? neth denied access to the Prussian historian Heinrich von Treitschke, ar- same year, and the MOI, two years later.25As director of the HHSA Kirolyi guing in his note to the foreign minister that therewas little hope his anti- rejected the joint foreignminister's proposed exchange of documents with Austrian views could be modified by examination of Austrian documents the Bavarian State Archives on the eve of World War I, despite the opportu- because he "systematically debased history writing into a handmaidenof nity it presented to acquire documentsof IstvAn Bbcskai, the Prince of Tran- partisan politics.22Archivists were required in principle to examine every sylvania and rival of the Habsburgs in the early seventeenth century.He individual document for dangerous content, which was extremely time- wrote: "the applicationof the completely improper and harmful geograph- consuming. ical principle to the degree proposed by the royal Bavarian government It was during the Arneth yearsthat the Institute for Austrian Historical would in some cases cause heavy losses to certain holdingsof the imperial Research (Institutfur ~sterreichischeGeschichtsforschung, IOG) at the and royal Haus-, Hof- and Staat~archiv."~~ University of Vienna became the requisite training groundfor archivists in Not only the theory, but the buildings of the principal archivesof Aus- tria-Hungary began totake on familiar, modem contours as the state itself the central archives and many other archives as well. It was founded in neared its dissolution.In the last years of the Monarchy the chief archives 1854 with the goal of propagating a historical consciousness centered in of Vienna and Budapest gained state of the art facilities with office and greater Austria. With the passageof time this goal would takea back seat to reading space separatedfrom stack space for more efficient operationsand the particular strengthof the institute in the auxiliary sciencesof history on greater security. The HHSA had operated in a section of the joint foreign the model of the Parisian ~coledes Chartres: diplomatics, paleography, ministry building on the Ballhausplatz, a short walkfrom the imperial heraldics, and related disciplines. The program was strong in medieval his- palace, for decades. In 1899-1902 the new building, well knownto histori- tory, but also closely attuned to contemporarydevelopments in libraries ans of the Habsburg Monarchy,arose on the other side of the same block, and archives. Archivists were still civil servants, but also professionalsand on the Minoritenplatz. The researcher is consciousof his close proximity to historians who conducted research and published theirfindings and often the Hoiburg as he approaches the reading rooms ona grand staircase dom- taught in the IOG. inated by turn of the century paintings of Franz Joseph receiving his minis- The fourteen Hungariangraduates of the program included&pbd KBro- ters and dignitaries in festive costume. There were generously appointed lyi.23Original order was becoming the predominant principleof archival reading rooms and secure access to the section of the stacks where the thinking in this period: IOG director Theodor Sickel pronounced his sup- records of the imperial and royal dynasty were stored.27 port for it already in 1869. Arneth was highly regardedamong historians The director responsible for this project, Gustav Winter, drewa connec- for his opening of the HHSA to researchers, but his view of original order tion between this achievement and the openingof the archives in 1868 and was increasingly anachronistic. Bittner writes that according to oral tradi- the foundation in 1895 of the Austrian Council on Archives for archives: tion in the HHSA the Hungarian historian and close colleague of Sickel, these actions were not only beneficial for the internal organizationof our Vilmos Fraknbi, was the Hungarians' choice to head the proposed Austro- archives. "That they contain not just old plunder, but treasures that will not Hungarian archive^.'^In 1910 the International ArchivalCongress declared fall into decay as tiredinslm et glirium pabula, that for their content to serve its support for the principle of provenance; the HHSA followed suit in the as the seed of rich scholarly harvests they require professional care:we

Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarch~v.S. 65. The brochure Ripzrea Bz~covinelthat is attributed 25 LevCltiri ismeretek kezikonyve. P. 225. Lo Eminescu appeared in 1875. lh Ress. Pp. 5-6, citing Fritz Koller. Bayern-~alzburg-Osterreich:Das Projekt des Ar- 22 Bittner. S. 186*. chivalientauschs 19 10-1914 I/ Festschrift Hermann Rumschottel zum 65. Geburtstag; 23 Manfred Stoy. Die Ausbildung von ungarischen Historikem am Institutfir Osterre- Archivalische Zeitschrift. 2006. Bd. 88. H. 1. Teilband. S. 472. ichische Geshichtsforschung 11 Das Institutionserbe der Monarchie. Das Fortleben der " Winter, passim. The photographs in this work reveal paintings that were still visible gemeinsamen Vergangenheit in den Archrven. Horn, 1998 (Mitteilungen des Osterre- when I used the HHSA in 1983. All archival stacks were closed to the public and sepa- ichischen Staatsarchivs, Sonderband 4). S. 47-63. rated from the public and office space by iron doors; in addition, the part of [he stacks 24 Bittner. S. 34*; Stoy. S 50. Bittner was unable to find documentary support for this for the Haznarchiv (imperial family) possessed locked doors in front of the stack rows tradition, however. themselves. 276 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy,or Nation? Ab Imperio, 312007 survived the round trip when his plancame to naught.30As we have seen, may hope that these views have become since 1868and 1895 the inalienable the HHSA gained the records of the defunct HolyRoman Empire and Re- property of the state institutions that possessarchives."28 In asserting the public of Venice in the same period. Yet at the conclusion of the war of commitment to public access Winter was evidently sensitiveto contempo- 1866 Austria had to surrender both its rule and its archives for the Italian rary criticism of the manner in which theHHSA had amassed its holdings. The MOL in Budapest struggled increasingly with space shortagesin states of Lombardy andVenetia. Archives were treasured booty for theAustro-Hungarian army in World various buildings in the medievalcastle district of Buda overlooking the War I. In November 1915 troops discovered the recordsof the Serbian for- Danube. The new building, on a promontory at the Vienna Gate, was planned eign office, prime minister, and Belgrade police upto 1914 that had been and begun in 1913 but only completed in 1923.Its location at the opposite placed for safekeepingin a monastery. Within a month the first parts of the end of the district from the massive royal palace overlooking theDanube archive were in Vienna, and a "Serbian documents commission" including symbolized the dichotomy of crown and land in the Hungarian constitu- two foreign service officers andfive archivists of the HHSA set to work tion. In contrast to the Viennese palace in which historians conduct research selecting documents for publication that would justify theAustro-Hungar- on the empire, historians of Hungary are reminded through the MOL's cas- ian ultimatum to Serbia in 1914. The first product of their work was a pri- tle-like neo-Romanesque exteriorand the paintings inside that Hungary vate print publication of the joint foreign ministry in 1916.Formal publica- began as a medieval hngdom. The frescoes that researchers passon the tion was halted in 1917 in considerationof the reputation of Serbian politi- way to the reading rooms depictevents like King BCla I11 decreeing the cians during the secret Habsburg peace negotiations. Manyof these contro- keeping of records in 1181, while stained glass windows withthe coats of versial documents were published in Berlin twelve yearslater.3' The occu- arms of the former royal cities, mostof them by 1923 outside Hungary in pation of Bucharest by the Central Powers in December, 1916also brought Slovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia, dominate the stairwells. an archival windfall in theform of Romanian archives that the Hungarians Contested Archives hoped would document the government's support for Romanian irredentism in Transylvania before its entryinto the war in August, 1916.A large quan- There is much precedent for the transfer of archives as the result of tity of documents were transferred to Budapest wherethey were never pub- territorial change. An avowedly incomplete listof treaties about such trans- lished, but apparently provided some of the documentation for the very fers records 183 of them.29The legitimation of such transfers in interna- critical histories of the Romanian national movementby Benedek Jancs6 tional law is understandable not onlybecause of the documentation of rights that were published shortly thereafter. Romanian troops discovered and re- and privileges they contain, but because agencies' recordsare vital for the claimed the documentsin the courtyard of a government building,txposed modem administrationof the acquired territories.The Habsburgs stipulated to the elements, when they occupied Budapest in the summer of1919.32 such transfers in the Peaceof Westphalia that concludedthe Thirty Years This history of archival transfers that the landsof East Central Europe War, and deposited in theHHSA the archives of Lorraine owned by Maria had experienced helps explain the alacrity withwhich the successor states Theresa's late husband Stephen when he died in 1765. Emperor Napoleon of the dissolved Habsburg Monarchy laid claimto its archival legacy. Italy, carted off to Paris not only art treasures, but substantial old archivesof the the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia), Popes and Habsburgs from the Vatican and Vienna that would constitute

part of his planned imperial archives.It is remarkable that most of them 'O Charles KecskemCti. Displaced European Archives: Is it Time for a Post-War Settle- ment? // American Archivist. 1992. Vol. 55. Pp. 132-138. The author, as Executive l8 Ibid. S. 5. Director of the International Council on Archives, sought to bring about international 2"'Non-exhaustive table of treaties containing provisions relating to the transfer of ar- cooperation concerning captured archives. chives in case of succession of States," in Mohammed Bedaoui. Eleventh Report on '' Bittner. S. 198-199*; M. BoghitchCvitch.Die auswartige Politik Serbiens, 1903-1914. Succession in Respect of Matters Other than Treaties /I Yearbook of the International Bd. 1: Geheimakten aus serbischen Archiven. Berlin, 1928. Law Commission. 1979. Vol. 11. No. 1. P. 67; cited by Michael Silagi. Die Internation- 32 Benedek Jancso. ErdCly Cs a nagyromin aspiriciok. Budapest, 191 8; Idem. A romin alen Regelungen zum Archivgut der Habsburgermonarchie nach 191 8: Zum Schicksal irredentistsmozgalmak tort6nete. Budapest, 1920. von Archiven beim Staatsverfall /I Siidost-Forschungen. 1996.Bd. 55.S. 3 11. J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? 1 Ab Imperio, 3/2007 Romania, Poland,and Czechoslovakia all secured parts of the dissolved state I gardless of their presence in the records of territorial or central agencies. This, at least, is the argument of Austrian and Hungarian historians.The on the basis of secret wartime treaties that assured their leadersof the victo- I rious countries' support for their claims.The new territories had lived de- treaty does not use the word provenance, as the Austrians demanded,nor cades or centuries separate from theirnew compatriots, often in very differ- I does it use the word pertinence as their opponents desired.The disputed ent administrations and social structures; Czechoslovakia wasa new state article 93 requires the cession of all "archives.. . belonging to the adminis- I tration in the ceded territories"; could "belonging"also mean pertaining? whose territory came exclusively from the former Austrian and Hungarian halves of the Monarchy.The integration of the new territories was an adrnin- I The plenipotentiary for Austrian archival affairs atthe peace talks, Oswald Redlich, and his deputy Ludwig Bittner were certain it couldnot.34 In any istrative challenge forwhich they believed archival transfers were essential. I event the treaty stipulated that the successor states should regulate their Italy, the strongest of the successor states, moved first to claim its lega- I specific claims through bilateral agreements with Austria. cy. Italian troops presented themselves in Vienna and,by force of arms, Czechoslovakia was the first to reach agreement with Austria, and itset effected the surrender by powerless Austrian officialsof record series still I the precedent for the Italian and Romanian bilateral agreements thatfol- in Austrian hands after the transfersof 1866 that arose from the administration of lands now in Italy andof works of art that had come into Austrian / lowed. The agreement for Austria was not difficult, based on its recognition of provenance as its strongest negotiating position, tothe cession of possession, the Italians argued, unjustly. Austrian historians todayagree ( archival series originating in the Bohemian lands such as those removed that the origin of these record series on newly Italian territory makes their cession to Italy not very objectionable onthe principle of provenance, but ( from Prague by Taulow von Rosenthal in the eighteenth century or the Bohemia Court Chancery in the HHSA and Bohemian and Moravian ad- they take strong exception to the use of force and take issue with someof 1 ministrative records already residingin the ceded territories. Much more the claims to art works and regret the fact that the contemporary Austrian I painful was the agreement tocede individual documents from 1888 onward public demonstrated much more concernfor the art works than the archives. (with related earlier documents)pertaining excl~~sivelyto the Bohemia lands. In fact the use of force produced much negative publicityfor the Italian I According to Austrian historians this regrettable concession was extorted position and motivated it to conclude a cultural agreement with Austria in 1 as the price of desperately needed foodstuffsfor the hungry Austrian popu- 1919 that the latter found acceptable. By this agreement Italy recognized lation. To carry out this provision the agreement providedfor extraordinary the principle of provenance rather than pertinence as the proper criterion I archival delegates of the successor states in the Austrian archiveswho were for archival and artistic transfers and the adjudicationof a three-judge court I given full access to the archives for the purposeof identifying the docu- for future disputed cases.33 ments to be separated. Many of the Czech delegates were quite recentem- other successor states were not ina position to hasten their claimswith 1 ployees of the Austrian archives and knew their way around. Bittner writes military force, but enjoyed different sourcesof strength. At the peace con- 1 that despite the unhappiness on the Austrianside and disagreements that ference in St. Germain they argued successfullyfor the recognition of their I 1 had to be negotiated aboutmany individual documents, the process of sep- territorial claims and reparations from the property of Austria, whose claims 1 aration generally went forwardin a collegial and efficient fashion.15Simi- to be a new state rather than the legal successor of Austria-Hungary were ( lar bilateral agreements ensuedwith Italy and Romania about the cession rejected. Still, Austria won the same victory conceded by Italy on the prin- of archival material, with similar results. A similar agreement could not be ciple of archival provenance in the face of the successor states' claimsto / the transfer of all archival records pertaining to their new territories, re- '' Ludwig Bittner. Die zwischenstaatichen Verhandlungeniiber das Schicksal der osterreichischen Archive nach dem Zusarnmenbr~ichOsterreich-Ungarns N Archiv fur Poli- tik und Geschichte. 1925. Bd. 4. S. 73-76; Major Peace Treaties of Modern History '? Alphons Lhotsky. Die Verteidigung der Wiener Sammlungen kultur- und naturhis- torischer Denkmaler durch die Erste Republik 11 Aufsatze und Vortrage. Bd. 4: Die 1648- 1967. Vol. 3. New York, 1970. P. 1568. Haupt- und Residenzstadt Wien; Sammelwesen und Ikonographie; Der osterreichische 35 Walter Hummelberger. Das Osterreichisch-~schechoslowakischeArchivubereinkom- Mensch. Mdnchen, 1974.S. 164-2 11; Rudolf Neck. Zu den osterreichisch-italienischen men Vom 18. Mai 1920 N Scrinium. 1985. Bd. 32. S. 43-65; Bittner. Die zwischen- staatlichen Verhandlungen. S. 82-96; Bittner. Das Wiener Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv Archivverhandlungen nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg 11 Mitteilungen des Osterreich~schen in der Nachkriegszeit N Archivalische Zeitschrift. 1925. Bd. 35. S. 156-163. Staatsarchivs. 1978. Bd. 3 1. S. 434-441. 280 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Zmperio, 312007 an "based on considerationsof state and historical policy [theHungarian reached with the Kingdomof the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, although it did recover the Serbian documents that had been capturedin 1915. Due to successor states] renounced the acquisition, indeedthe research of Hungari- the nature of Austrian administration under the Monarchy mostof the doc- an source material. This was not of primary importance for the historical uments separated on the basisof pertinence came not from the HHSA, but syntheses justifying theexistence of the new national states,in the center of from the HoJkammerarchiv and the records of the imperial-royal (i.e., Cisle- which were the proof of the fictitious Czechoslovak nationalunity, the ithanian or Austrian) Archivesof Internal Affairs and Justice that later be- reality of the trilingual Yugoslav nation,and the eternal association of the came the core of the General Administrative Archive orAllgemeines Ver- three Romanian principalities.The intensive researchof Hungarian sources waltungsarchiv. would just lead to counterproductive results."38This is a partisan view of The postwar archival settlementfor Hungary involved both similarities the young nations' historiography.Like the historians of post-Trianon Hun- and differences. The Treaty of Trianon also ceded substantial territoriesto gary itself, the Slovak, Romanian, and South Slavic historians were com- the successor states, stipulated reparationsfrom state property, established ing to terms with the new configurationof the region and thehome country the principle of provenance for archives on the ceded territories, and invited in politically charged times. Allthese countries produced historical works Hungary to conclude bilateral archival agreements withthe successor states. in that period that are of lasting value, and others that were inspiredby a An interesting difference, however, was the concessionof a Hungarian claim polemical urge to set the record straight. to joint Austro-Hungarian institutions that contradictedthe identification Historians of the Austrian successor stateshad the benefit of transferred of Austria as the sole inheritor of joint property in the Treaty ofSt. Ger- archives, tom in many casesout of their historical context,but those of the main. This concept was consistent with Hungarian understanding of the Hungarian successor states did not dueto the lack of bilateral agreements. joint institutions. During 1918-1919 Hungarian cultural officialsand archi- The transfer of archives and the creation of new national archives didin- vists led by Arpiid Kiirolyi, in collaboration with some archivists of the deed strengthen the development of conflicting national historiographies, successor states, worked outan ambitious plan to establish under the aus- but these had already emerged in the time of the Monarchy with theadvan- pices of an International Archival Scholarly Institutea joint, international tage of access to the imperial (really joint imperial and royal) archives and administration for the former Austro-Hungarian archives. Underthis plan also the archives of incipient national institutionslike the provincial diets the archives would constitute the joint propertyof the successor states and and governments. We saw earlier that Hurmuzakiwas able to complete his all would send archival delegatesfor the purpose of participating in their document collection on Romanian historywith the full support of theHHSA, management. In this way the transfer of archives would become unneces- and non-Austrians continued to use the HHSA after 1918 whenall restric- sary. The promulgation of the Treaty of St. Germain, by granting Austria tions on use had beer1 lifted except those imposedby records' year of cre- the sole authority to cede transferred archives, made the proposal impossi- ation or depository agreements for personal papers that required permis- ble. In retrospect the relationships among the successor states were alsoa sion from the owner." Its user statistics in 1924 show its researchers in- powerful obstacle. The national principle wassupreme.)l cluded a substantial minority of citizensof Hungary, Czechoslovakia,Ro- Would joint access have provided for better cooperation among the re- mania, and Yug~slavia."~ gion's historians and preventedthe polarization of their historical visions? Hungary's successor states chose notto enact bilateral agreementswith it, '8 Ress. A Monarchia IevCltkri oroksige Cs a nemzeti levirltirak /I Eur6pai utas. 2007. with the sole exceptionof an agreement with Romania in 1924 that regulated No. 2. P. 60. the exchange of court, landholding and vital records,but not large record 39 An example of such depository agreementsis the one regulating the papers of Arch- duke Franz Ferdinand who diedin Sarajevo in 1914. My research in the papers in 1992 groups as in the Austrian agreements.)' Acordingto one Hungarian histori- - still required the HHSA to securepermission from a family member. Bittner. Das Wiener Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in der Zwischenkriegszeit.S. 176. 36 Ress. A Badeni IevCltAri egyezmkny. Pp. 18-22. In order of number, the countries with the most researchers were Austria and Germany Silagi. P. 3 18. The same study notes (Pp. 322-323) that after World WarI1 Hungary " with 281, Italy 110, Hungary 82, Czechoslovakia72, France 64, Yugoslavia 34... Thus, was obligated to cede to Yugoslavia certain record groupsthat allegedly pertainedto the the second, third, and fifth countries were all successor states. South Slavic region. 282 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Imperio, 312007 Future historians may determine whether its director exercisedhis new Austrian and Hungarian archivists reestablished their special relation- authority improperly, for instance, to acquire trophy archives or destroy ship despite the failure of Kbrolyi's proposal. In 1923 they concluded the records of criminal activity. Whatis known is that this distinguished archi- parameters of an agreement that was then formalizedat Baden bei Wien in vist of the old Monarchy and defenderof its heritage committed suicide in 1926. According to the Baden Agreement, Austria wouldmanage the ar- April 1945.43Under the name of Austrian State Archives, the administra- chival legacy of the Dual Monarchy according to its own laws, but recog- tive unity of central Austrian archives was perpetuated after 1945. nize the Hungarian concept of joint cultural heritage (patrimoine culturel) and accommodate the collaborationof Hungarian archival delegates inthe formerjoint archiveswho would be chosen by the Hungarian side and sworn Archives for Historians in by the Hungarian ambassador.The archival delegates in collaboration One of the problems with historians' reliance upon archives is that their with the newly established Vienna Hungarian Historical Institute produced analysis is limited to archives that actually survive.We know that not all forty volumes of a source collection on Hungarian history through their the Vatican records taken to Paris by Napoleon made it back to Romeat the work in the Vienna ar~hives.4~The Baden Agreement was in its way unique end of his era. Archives may intentionally destroy someof their holdings in and unprecedented. The concept of joint cultural heritage was a precedent the constant struggle for more storage space,or oppressive regimes may do for the recognitionof international cultural heritage establishedby UNESCO so at their end in order to protect the perpetrators.The Kriegsarchiv resorted many decades later, but because it contradicted the Treaty ofSt. Germain repeatedly to selective destruction or disposition(in German Skartierung and the official views of Austria, the Baden Agreement was not published or Ausscheid~lng)to ensure space for what was most important. Archival in the interwar period, noreven mentioned in Bittner's extensive writings histories do not reveal evidence of overtly political motives for disposition, on interwar archival issue^.^ but it may be supposed that offices were more interestedin preserving docu- It would be pleasant but misleading to enda survey of the interwar peri- mentation about central affairs than those pertaining to subaltern peoples od on this upbeat note. Austria and Hungary chose to steera collision course and everyday life. Sometimes disposition took on a scale, however, that with the successor states and procured the patronage of Nazi Gemany to aroused the concern and countermeasuresof the monarch.44Paper dealers this end. The destruction of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslaviaand and even private collectorsof documents also profited from the elimination the division of Transylvania in 1938-1940 led once again to the transferof of documents. Unfortunately for a time there were Austrian reguIations various archival series and the placementof cultural institutions undernew that gave the agencies destroying recordsthe first option to use the space administration. Ludwig Bittner, whohad defended Austrian archivesat the gained thereby, providing them with a direct motivation for such destruc- end of the war, published in 1925 the two long exposes on archival affairs tion, until countermeasures weretaken.45 cited here, and then his excellent historyof the HHSA in the first volume of The archives' criteria for the elimination of documents, while not al- the Gesamtinventar published in 1936, applauded the Anschluss with Ger- ways explicit, do seem to have preserved the series most valuable for re- many in 1938, and in 1941saw the realization of his longstanding proposal search, although the questions and kinds of sources valued by researchers for the administrative coordinationof Austria's central archives.The new have changed with time. Destructionof documents due to war and civil institution took the title Imperial Archivesof Vienna, Reichsarchiv Wien. unrest has been more disturbing because it affected entire record groups

43 J. 4' Fontes Historiae Hungaricae Aevi Recentoris- Magyarorszig ~jabbkoriTortCnetCnek Arthur May. Austria. P. 10. There may be some parallel in Bittner's later career to Forrisai. Budapest, 1921-. Most volumes appeared in the interwar period, but the series that of Hugo Andres KruR, the director the State Library in Berlin who committed sui- continued after 1945. On the history of the institute see Gibor irjviry. Klebelsberg cide during the Battle of Berlin in 1945. He seems to have played a role in the confisca- Kun6 Cs a bCcsi Magyar TijrtCneti IntCzet megalapitisa I/ Istvin Zombori (Ed.). Grdf tion of collections in the occupied territories as director of the Imperial Exchange Ser- Klebelsberg Kuno emlkkezete. Szeged, 1995. Pp. 64- 101. vice (Reichstn~~schstelle). 44 Oskar Regele. Die Aktenskartierungim Wiener Kriegsarchiv in alter und neuer Zeit N 42 Ress. Die Ungarische Archivdelegation; Silagi. Pp. 3 19-324; various articles in Das Institutionserbe der Monarchie. Das Fortleben der gemeinsamen Vergangenheit in den Archivalische Zeitschrift. 1955. Bd. 50-5 1. S. 217-221. Archiven. Silagi publishes the text of the Baden Agreement on pp. 324-333 of his study. 45 Goldinger. S. 57-76. J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Imperio, 312007 that were of undeniable imp~rtance.~~A riot on the Viennese RingstraBe in Wartime destruction helped inspirea renewed attention to archival pres- front of the Palace of Justice in 1927 caused the buildingto catch on fire, ervation and source publication.The archives of the successor states in the bringing very heavy losses for the Archives of Internal Affairs and Justice. Eastern Bloc incorporated extensive microfilminginto their five-year plans Fortunately, much of the information survived because these holdings were for bilateral cooperation. Atfirst the microfilming reflected individualre- prime targets of the pertinence-based transfers toCzechoslovakia, Italy, search projects and needs, and the resultingfilms were not very useful for and Romania a few years earlier, some had been selected for published others. To address this problem, after 1960 the microfilm plans became collections of documents, and Austrian offices often kept draftsand copies more systematic, targeting entire record groupsif they contained a signifi- of official correspondence that arenow preserved in other archives.The cant amount of material about the interested country. Hungary's archival Second World War was much more destructive of archives than the first. delegates in Vienna recommenced activity in this period, aftera politically The Viennese archives moved records into safekeeping as the front ap- inspired hiatus, and took the lead in identifying recordsfor microfilming in proached the city, but some were destroyed in their temporary locations. the Viennese archives. By 1990 Hungary had filmed 30 million frames of Destruction was much worsefor the Hungarian National Archives, in its material in Vienna, primarily from the sixteenth through eighteenthcentu- exposed position at the end of Buda's castle district that was the targetof ries. As impressive as this numbersounds, it still only accounted for 10% Soviet bombardment for rnonths in early 1945. Losses were even heavierin of material identifiedby the delegates as worthy of filming.As examples of 1956 when local fighting destroyed partof the building before there was other filming activity,it is known that the Hungarians also filmed in Roma- time to move records to a more secure location.47 nia, Czechoslovalua, and Yugoslavia, and the Romanians filmed recordsof Fortunately the other major cities and archivesof the Habsburg heritage the Serbian church in Yugoslavia that were importantfor its own history suffered far less substantial wartime damage. The failure of attempts to within the M~narchy.~~ centralize the archives in Viennaand the archival transfers after 1918 helped The primary training and qualificationsof archivists in Vienna and the preserve the archival legacyby decentralizing it. The archives of provin- successor states since 1945 have been in history.The historical activity of cial and local state bodies and especiallythe churches survive todayin the archivists in the HHSA benefits from the work space in the building since successor states to document the livesof the subject peoples. The diocesan 1902, which was designed to facilitate collaborative work like the general archives have been especially importantfor the reconstruction of their his- inventory volumes previously cited.The publication of the protocolsof the tory in the Habsburg Monarchy because they hada formative role in their Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Councilof Ministers have been two major cultural identity. Religion and ethnicity often coincided, church-adminis- collaborative projectsof Austrian and Hungarian archivistsand historian^.^^ tered schools were the principal outpostfor education in the national lan- Archivists of the HHSA take pride in their status as productive scholars, guages, and bishops for many years acted as political leaders beyond their arguing that it contributes fundamentally to their ability to advise research- religious functions. The wartime loss of Polish archives was uniquely cata- ers. As they write, thereis "a cooperative connection between archivalac- strophic, estimated at 74%. Fortunately for researchers on the history of tivity and scholarly research" and the archival interview isa "specialized Poles in the Habsburg Monarchy,this destruction did not affect the archives dialog of scholars."51 of the free city of Krak6w and the Galician provincial government, which 49 Ress. Die ungarischeArchivdelegation in W~en;Personal email messages of Imre survive- today in Poland and Ukraine.48 Ress, October 28 and 30,2007.Dr. Ress was Hungary'sarch~val delegate in the HHSA in 1980-1987. ''6 Leopold Auer. Archival Losses and their Impact on theWork of Archivists and Histo- 'O 'O Bittner. Einleitung" [historical introductionto the Gesarntinverztar].S. 198*; Helmut rians 11 Archivum. 1996.Vol. 42: Memory of the World at Risk: ArchivesDestroyed, Rumpler et al., Die Protokolle des osterreichischen Ministerrates, 1848- 1867.Wien, Archives Reconstituted.Pp. 1-10 (the special issueof the journal of the International 1970-;~va Somogyi. Die Protokolle des gemeinsamenMlnistei-rates der bsterre~chisch- Council on Archives). ungarischen Monarchie, 1867-19 18. Budapest, 1991-. "'Jinos Lakos.Die Zerstomng desArchivmaterials des Ungarischen KoniglichenJustizmin- j' Alfred Kohler, Leopold Kammerhofer, and Elisabeth Springer.Die Bedeutung des isteriums wahrend der Revolution von 195611 Archivum. 1996. Vol. 42. Pp. 255-266. Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Wien als Statte internationaler Forschung // Springer 4S Hanna Rajewska and Isabel Roskau-Riedel. Poland/I A Guide to East-Central Euro- and Kammerhofer (Hgs.).Archiv und Forschung: Das Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv In pean Archives. Pp. 83-86;Patricia Grimsted. Ukraine I/ Ibid. Pp. 178-80. 287 J. Niessen, Records of Empire, Monarchy, or Nation? Ab Imperio, 312007 The postwar years brought not only continued opennessof access for nH KaK oTpaxeme npe~e~3~fisnac~a~enefi Ha TeppmopHn, KOTOPbIe OHM research to the Viennese archives, butimproved funding and international CTPeMHJIMCb KOHCOJIkIAMPOBaTb M Ha KOTOPbIe IIO3AHee CTZUIH npeASRBJMTb collaboration. Archivists in the other successor states are also historians nPeTeH3HH HauMOHaJIbHbIeABMXeHEIII. CO~CTB~HHOHMIIePCKYIO apXHBHYF0 who have distinguished themselves with historical publications.It is true TpaAIIUHIO Axefi~cHEicce~ npocneXMBaeT c XVIII seKa (Archivum on the other hand lhat politically motivated limitations on archival access bellicum: I-Iofiriegsratliches Archiv, 1711 ; Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, marred the operations of many archives duringthe Communist period, but 1749; Hojkammemrchiv,OCHOBaH B 1578, HO CTm pa3BHBaTbCR C 1749). B this situation is fortunately now largely a thing of the past. The study of the CTaTbe aHaJIM3HpyeTCR MX cnerlki@H~aKaK MMnepCKMX nOJIHTHYeCKHX HH- Habsburg Monarchy becamea major field in the US, attracting many Amer- CTHTYTOB M JIOKYCOB HcToPHo~~@HH. ~~PEIOAAY~JIMCTEIY~CKO~~ MOHap- ican historians to the Viennese archives and prompting funding from the XMH (I~~YHH~Rc 1867-68 rr.) cTaMyuapoBan cneq~an~3aq~mH pacqBeT Austrian state for the Center for Austrian Studies at the University of Min- 2lPXEiBOB - HMnePCKkIX, KOPOJIeBCKEIX, MeCTHbIX. ~IM~IIHOB 3TOM KOHTeK- nesota that was the long-time publisherof the Austrian Studies Yearbook. cTe BearpH2 OCHOBa5a HaqHo~anb~bIfiapXMB (Magyar OrszrigosLevdtbv, This journal recently published as a special issue a detailed guide to the 1875). B CTaTbe Tame PaCCMaTpEiBaeTCXJIOrMKa OCHOBaHHR XOPB~TCKOTO, archives of the Habsburg Monarchy inthe successor statess2The European FO~~MCKO~OM npOYHX HaUHOHanbHbIX apXHBOB, He TOJIbKO 06cnyx~sa~- accession process has probablydone even more than the purported interna- UHX rOCyAapCTBeHHbIe HHTepeCbI, HO EI OTKPbITbIX AJIR HY~JIHKH.ABTOP tionalism of the preceding period to undermine the historiographical and Tame npocnexmaeTnpespaweme B TOT nepHoA EiMnepcmx apxaBoB B archival isolation of the countries of the region. Supranational states seem aBCTp0-BeHrepCKIIe,IIOCKOJIbKy IIO YCJIOBMXM "KOM~~OMHCC~"TPH OCHOB- less anomalous from the perspectiveof today. HbIX HMnepCKMX MMI-IMCTepCTBapa6o~an~ C O~OHMM IIapnaMeHTaMM H Be- AaJIM AeJIaMM ~~ZUIMCTM~~CKO~~MOHapXMM: MMHMCT~PCTBO MHOCTPaHHbIX Aen, BO~HHO~MMHMCTepCTBO M MHHHCT~PCTBO@HH~HCOB. noc~yna~u~kie 143 HEIX B HMnepcKne apxHsb1 MaTepaanbr ~OT~~~OB~IIMBKJrmreHm Bear- SUMMARY pos B wcno apxkiBHbIx COTPYAHIIKOB,a caMa apxmaax nonmma cTma UpeAMeTOM IIeperOBOpOB MeXAy HMnepCKMMH I4 KOpOJIeBCKHMM BJIaCTII- CT~T~RIIOCBRveHa MCTOPMM aBCTPO-BeHrepCKHXaPXHBOB Ha IIPOTXXe- MH,a Tame 060~~~napnaMeHTaMM. B mane a~an~3~pym~cnnonma- HMH BCWO Cy4eCTBOBaHMX MMIIePMH ki BnJIOTb A0 OKOHYaHMR B~opofiMII- qeCKHe M HayqHbIe nOCJIeACTBEIcI ~OAO~HO~OH3MeIIeHHR XaPaKTePa MMIIep- ~0~06~0fiHb1. HMII~~cKII~ apXHBbI B CO~CTB~HHOMCMbICJIe CJIOBa B03HHK- cKax apxkieos. napa~~nenb~oHHcce~ paccMaTpHsaeT npo@ecc~o~anasa- ~HIOapxnBHoro nena, BbIpaxaBmymcn B cnerlManbHoM 06pa30sa~~~ap- seiner Bedeutungfiir die Geschichte Osterreichsund Europas.'WienerBeitrage zur XHBHCTOB, C03AaMMM COBPeMeHHbIX apXHBHbIX 3~aHHfiH ~O~MH~OB~HHH Geschichte der Neuzeit, 20. Wien, 1993.S. 9-18; the quotations are from p. 16. As a young researcher inthe HHSA I had two characteristic experiences,one of them with a oco6oro 3TOCa, npOTMBOnOCTaBHBUer0ce6n ~OC~A~~CTB~HHO~~H HauMO- coauthor of this study and another withone of the contributors to Dze Protokolle des ~anb~ofinon~~~uec~ofi norme. nep~onnepeofi MIIPOBO~~BO~~H~I, np~- osterreichischen Ministerrates.When I inquired whether there were any Austrianintel- B~AUII~K IcpaXy ABCTPO-BeHrepc1<0fiMMnepHH, 03HaMeHOBZUICX MHTeH- l~gencereports on the Danubian Principalitiesin the 1860s, Dr. Springer not only told CMBH~IMnepeMeveHHeM apxMBHbIx rconne~rl~fi,YTO B mane a11an~3~py- me about the relevantrecord series but enthus~asticallyled me through the iron doors to eTC2 Ha pi13~006pa3HbI~HpHMepaX: HaYHHaX C OTnpaBKPi B Be~yB 1914 r. the HHSA stacks to show me the archival bundlesso I could judge for myself about the AOKYMeHTOB Cep6c~oroMMAa, HCnOJIb30BaHHbIX AJIR OnpaBAaHHR BbIA- extent of the material and its finding aids! My other memorableconsultation was with Dr. Horst Brettner-Messner,who advised me about Austrian~mper~al records including BHHyTOrO Cep6~~B 1914 rOAy YJIbTMMaTYMa, H 3aKaHYBBaR CTOJIKHOBCHM- those pertainingto min~sterof state Anton von Schmerling. The archivist had a certain RMII 3a apXMBHOe HaCneACTBO MeX

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