Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)

2. Session /Séance. Regional (trans-border) Cooperation / Coopération régionale (transfrontaliere) - Sturm, Joachim: Perspectives for trans-border regional Cooperation: The Case of the Upper Rhine Zone / L’entente Rhénane d’archivistes municipaux (Erasm) (english 123 - français 134)

2. Session/Séance: Sturm, Trans-border Cooperation: Upper Rhine Zone

rise to another favourable model. It is not without good reason that some of the founding members of ERASM were likewise also amongst the founders of the section of Municipal Archives of ICA, convinced as they were of the necessity of a firmly based increase in international cooperation.

It is clear that, in addition to the reasons already stated, on organisation such as ERASM ought to be looked on as a sign of the broad political trends, which form a backdrop, which cannot be disregarded. The process of European unification and in this context, above all, the European cultural convention of 9 Dezember 1954, article 2 of which specifies „the encouragement and the study of languages, history and civilisation“1. Also bilateral agreements, from the Franco-German Agreement of 23 October, 1954 to the creation of a Franco-German cultural council in 1988, have all prepared the ground for this union of archivists, who are mostly public officials, required to comply with the political choices of their governments1 2.

In actual fact, the situation is slightly more complex to the extent that cultural policy, which also covers archives is traditionally the responsibility of municipalities in Switzerland and West Germany. In this field, the policy of decentralisation implemented by the French government by a series of laws in 1982/833 has played a special role. The transfer of decision-making powers to local authorities has at the same time aroused the wish for affirmation of cultural identity by means of a study of the history of the locality.

It was in this way that the French Region of Alsace-Lorraine brought together its local organisations together with German and Swiss municipalities, whose cultural autonomy is a distinguishing feature.

The framework of this process, if not preceded or accompanied by close cooperation with the Regierungspräsidium of Freiburg, the neighbouring Swiss cantons and the French prefectures of Upper and Lower Rhine, has been erected since the mid 1970s. The organisation of meetings, joint visits of multi-national groups of experts, meetings with politicians and public figures from both sides of the Rhine, wove a closer and closer fabric of relations. In this context, mention should be made of the harmonious and productive working of various tripartite commissions and committees, which discuss and organise solutions to trans-border problems as well as those in the cultural field or carry out common cultural activities4.

For archives the most visible result here was, perhaps, the publication in 1982 of a tripartite cultural directory which provided, anongst other things, detailed information about archives in the Upper Rhine zone in France, Germany and Switzerland.

1 Published in English, French and German: Bundesgesetzblatt (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) 1955, Part II, p. 1128-1132.

2 Cf. also the paper by Lajos Körmendy.

3 Chenard, Alain: Modernisation de l’administration communale française, in: Die Stadt - La Commune, ed. by Peter Klein and Charles Depoorter. Bonn 1988, p. 119-129.

4 For a detailed description of the various bodies and their history cf. Köser, Helmut: Politik und Verwaltung, in: Südbaden, ed. by Alexander Schweickert. Stuttgart 1992, p. 112 seq.

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