Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)
1. Session / Séance. Experiences gained, current Situation, future Prospects / Expériences acquises, Situation actuelle, Perspectives futures - Csendes, Peter: Cooperation between the Successor States of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy / Coopération entre les Etats Successeurs de la Monarchie austro-hongroise (english 59 - français 66)
1. Session/Séance: Csendes, Cooperation between the Successor States We have to consider, however, that all these activities mainly concerned to historical research and not archival theory. But this is easily explained. The problems of modern archives - mass of material, techniques of records management - started in central Europe especially after World War II and at this time a common tradition in office work didn’t exist anymore within the territory of the former Monarchy, so that interest was mostly reduced to technical matters and standards. Beginning with the European Cultural Convention of 1954, which was joined by Austria in 195813, archival matters were mentioned in quite a number of bilateral conventions and agreements on cultural and scientific cooperation, but usually in a very general way'4. As far as traditional archives were considered, again we have to mention an initiative of the Provincial Archives of the Burgenland15. As much of the archival material - mainly deriving from manorial administration - is not only written in German and Latin, but also in Hungarian and Rumanian, archivists from Rumania and Hungary were invited to work during the summer in Eisenstadt with the help of scholarships granted by the Burgenland to classify such fonds - a project, which is still going on and could be an example for international cooperation to be imitated. And there are already such deliberations in Styria and also in the Austrian State Archives. What for years had been the exception - closer personal contacts between archivists in Austria and the other successor states of the Monarchy - has become a regular institution in recent years. Archivists in the successor states have no longer problems visiting Austrian Archives, the exchange of information is no longer restricted. We can observe regular visits and meetings of the national archivists’ organizations among the countries. During recent years members of the Austrian Archivists Association visited Gorizia, Budapest and Brno, the Provincial Archives of Styria have such contacts on a mutual basis with Trieste, Slovenia and Croatia, even Bosnia, and also those of Upper Austria with Southern Bohemia. Such contacts do not only provide better personal knowledge of the contents of archives and the working conditions of archivists, they also lead to various forms of cooperation. The publication of documents has quite a tradition in all the countries we have to deal with. So it was obvious to start multilateral projects in this field. An excellent example is the manual Handbücher und Karten zur Verwaltungs- Struktur in den Ländern Kärnten, Krain, Küstenland und Steiermark bis zum Jahr 1918 (Manuals and Maps concerning the Structure of Administration in Carinthia, Krain, Istria and Styria up to 1918) published by the Archives of the above mentioned regions16. 13 Bundesgesetzblatt 80/1958 (Ratification 13 February, 1958). 14 1985 with Czechoslovakia, 1986 with Hungary, 1990 with Poland. T o b 1 e r, Felix: Das Burgenländische Landesarchiv und seine Zusammenarbeit mit den Archiven in den Nachbarstaaten, Erfahrungen und Möglichkeiten, in: Scrinium 36/37 (1987) p. 273-287. 16 Red. by Joze Zontar, published in Veröffentlichungen des Steiermärkischen Landesarchivs. Vol. 15. Graz 1988. 62
