Archive-related acts
Archival records – like museum collections and library holdings – are cultural property.
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Archival records that are entered in a register of cultural property of national significance, that are publicly owned and part of the collection of a public-law institution responsible for preserving cultural property, or that are owned by and part of the collection of an institution responsible for preserving cultural property which largely relies on public funding, qualify as national cultural property and are therefore assigned a special protection status [Section 6 (1) (1) to (3) of the German Act on the Protection of Cultural Property (Kulturgutschutzgesetz, KGSG)].
The archive-related acts of the Federal Government and the Länder therefore also contain provisions that are significant in terms of protecting cultural property. In particular, these acts offer protection for archival records as cultural property by:
- allowing the competent public archives to select analogue and digital documents (for example files, maps, plans and photographic, film or audio material) produced by public bodies at federal, Land and local authority level for permanent storage and conversion into archival records;
- authorizing the competent public archives to accept documents from private individuals as well (municipal archives may be granted corresponding authorizations by the relevant statutory provisions);
- obliging the competent public archives to take the measures necessary to protect their archival records against damage and destruction with a view to thus preserving the substance of these cultural objects.
In addition, the German Federal Archive Act (Bundesarchivgesetz, BArchG] and the archive-related acts of the Länder of Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia ensure that archival records – as cultural objects – remain in the ownership of the archive responsible for their safekeeping by stipulating that public archival records cannot be sold.
Scope of the archive-related acts of the Federal Government and the Länder
The scope of the archive-related acts of the Federal Government and the Länder encompasses documents which have been produced by the federal and Land authorities, courts and other public bodies and which are no longer required, regardless of the form in which these documents are stored. From this body of documents, the competent public archives select those that are worthy of archiving and that are of lasting value. Once these documents have been classified as archival records, the competent public archives are obliged to store them safely, preserve them and render them accessible and usable. The archive-related acts also regulate use of or access to archival records, with reference to retention periods and with particular reference to the protection of the personal data contained in the archival records.
In addition, the archive-related acts of the Federal Government and the Länder provide for the competent public archives to be involved in the securing of documents that are still being used for administrative purposes and, where necessary, for these documents to be placed in the care of the relevant archives as part of an interim archive, ensuring that prompt action can be taken to ensure the proper and long-term preservation of documents that will later be archived. This is particularly important as regards the long-term storage of digital documents, which are particularly vulnerable to loss as a result of technological change.
In certain cases, jurisdiction for matters relating to the protection of monuments that take the form of archival records is transferred to the records offices of the relevant Länder.
The archive-related acts of the Länder also authorize public archives to provide advice to the owners of private archives.
All of the current archive-related acts of the Federal Government and the Länder can be found on the website operated by the Marburg Archives School (only available in German).