The Stadtarchiv Regensburg

The Stadtarchiv Regensburg (City Archive Ratisbon) as "memory" of the municipal administration of Regensburg is one of the large communal archives in Bavaria. Not least because of its historical importance, it disposes of notable archival material to an extent of c. 9,500 running meters from the thirteenth century to the present. Substantial parts of the Reichsstädtisches Archiv (the archive of the imperial city, the so-called "imperial-official" section) are located in the Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (Bavarian Main State Archive). Other parts were lost as the result of sales as waste paper during the nineteenth century or were acquired by the Historischer Verein für Oberpfalz und Regensburg (Historical Association for the Upper Palatinate and Ratisbon). The Stadtarchiv Regensburg now also holds the Association's archive and library holdings.

The holdings are ordered roughly chronologically and not without overlaps: the time as imperial city (up to 1803), Regensburg as part of the principality of the last arch chancellor Carl Theodor von Dalberg (1803–1810), Regensburg as Bavarian territorial city (nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) and as an independent city. In addition, there is also the section of "decedents’ estates and collections".

Holdings in chronological order

  • Regensburg as imperial city: for example certificates from the late thirteenth century, new citizens' register from 1419, register of deaths (1650–1806), written material of the imperial city’s consistory ("ecclesiastica": for instance the introduction of the reformation in Regensburg), records of councillors' elections (1500–1801), council minutes (1753–1811), albums and heraldic registers of diverse Regensburg city offices (1500–1800), seal registers (1508–1807), manual of the Regensburg merchant family Runtinger (the so-called "Runtingerbuch", 1383–1407), tribunal minutes (1455–1810), Wachtsachen (documents relating to the guards’ appointments etc.,16.–19. Jh.), records, invoices, books and manuals of the Hansgrafenamt (merchants' court, 1503–1811), diverse chronicles, including the "Bauamtschronik" (c.1600–c.1787)
  • The Dalberg period: Communal part of the Dalberg administration in the so-called "Magistratsregistratur" (magistrates' register)
  • Modern period: central registers I-III (substantial parts of the municipal documentation of the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries), archives of the surrounding communes absorbed into Regensburg, family registers from 1810 to c.1970, residence indexes, minutes of the city council and its committees, theatre records (c.1850–1996), office for building regulations – demolished houses (from c.1810)

Decedents' estates, collections and highlights

  • Decedents' estates and collections: including the estates of Christian Wilhelm von Dohm (contains a diary with the description of the French occupation of Straßburg in 1789) and Georg Heim ("Bauerndoktor", peasant doctor). Collection of plans and maps, collection of diverse (Regensburg) newspapers from the middle of the eighteenth century onwards, theatre
  • Deposita: library and archive of the Historischer Verein von Oberpfalz und Regensburg
  • Highlights: The so-called "Runtingerbuch" offers detailed insights into the organisation of a late mediaeval merchant's business. The section Ecclesiastica comprises notable written material concerning the reformation period in the imperial city (including letters from Philipp Melanchthon and Martin Luther) and the early school system ("Gymnasium poeticum"). The Stamm- and Wappenbücher contain portraits of probably the entire high-ranking city administration of the imperial city. For genealogical research concerning the late eighteenth to the late twentieth centuries, family registers and residence indexes are very informative.

Exhibitions under the participation of the Stadtarchiv Regensburg available on bavarikon

Contact

Stadtarchiv Regensburg
Keplerstraße 1
93047 Regensburg

Phone: +49 (0)941 / 507-1452
Fax: +49 (0)941 / 507-4458
Email: stadtarchiv@regensburg.de