Historical background
As an independent institution, the Königsberg Archive were
established in 1804. Initially, the Archive functioned as the
Secret Archive in Königsberg, later, in 1828, was changed
into the Provincial Archive, and in 1867 into the State Archive. This
was the only state archive working in the Province of East Prussia.
Thanks to this, it was possible to gather in one place the most
valuables historical and contemporary fonds of the East Prussia. The
most valuable and the oldest part of the fonds was the Archive of
the Teutonic Order which consisted of several thousands of parchments
and an extensive collection of letters of the authorities of the
Teutonic Order. Archival collections concerning the Duchy of Prussia
were equally important. Apart from historical fonds, the State
Archive in Königsberg also acquired documents of state and
local administration, churches, as well as economic, educational,
scientific and social institutions. During the Second World War, the
Königsberg Archive were evacuated. However, the authorities
of Nazi Germany did not manage to move all archives to
Germany. A great part of the - collections was hidden in East Prussia,
but the oldest and the most valuable collections, among others the
archives of the Teutonic Order and Etats Ministerium were moved to
Germany. Nowadays they are housed in the Secret State Archive in
Berlin. After the Second World War place in Poland took place an
operation of protecting cultural properties . As a consequence,
parts of the Königsberg Archive were found, among others, in
Górowo Iławeckie, Młynary, Miłaków, Giżycko, Mikołajki
and Olsztyn. Some archival materials from Königsberg were
found in the area of then Gdańsk and Szczecin Voivodships and in the
Lubuskie Region. As a result of the search, the State Archive in
Olsztyn received smaller or larger parts of collections
created by Regierungsbezirk, Landratsamt, Provincial Government,
notaries, Junker families, and many other German economic
administration bodies in the former East Prussia. Some of the archival
materials are the remnants of the collections of governmental and local
administration and church documents from the territory of today’s
Kaliningrad region.
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