Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)
4. Session / Séance. Strategies for Links with Historical Research / Stratégies de Communication envers la Recherche historique - Nebiker, Regula: Towards a New History of Europe (pre-integration period). The Archival Point of View / Pour une nouvelle Histoire européenne (avant l’intégration) (english 373 - français 382)
The term archives is defined in the following way in the French law relating to archives: Archives are the whole of the documents, whatever may be their date, their form and their physical medium, created or received by any individual person or corparate body, and by any public or private service or body in the exercise of their functions. The preservation of these documents is organised in the public interest as well as for the needs of the administration and as proof of the rights of individual persons and corporate bodies, public or private and as historical documentation for research purposes . Archives necessarily reflect the life of the institutions which created them. If the functions of „the service creating the files“ cease, the repository itself will cease to grow. If it continues in existence, it will, however, document the continuance and functions of the service having knowledge of the files for a time. The history of an archive service is itself a part of its documentary value. It is in this way that the history of Europe will naturally be reflected in the unfortunate fate of many archive repositories. The end of political periods has often marked a halt in the growth of certain archives, which have become „dead“. The advent of new political structures in its turn has given birth to new archives. This applies equally to new supra-national institutions relating to European integration. The complicated European archival scene is the outcome of the history of Europe and all its upheavals, territorial changes, wars and catastrophes. The diversity of European archives is also due to the different traditions of the various countries. It could also be said that archives document the unintegrated part of Europe. There are archives which are born in a time of occupation, others which are broken up and scattered by the occupying power: Thus today the French archives preserve valuable sources for the history of Europe, which were gathered together throughout Europe during the Napoleonic period. This turns out to be fortunate since these sources might not have survived otherwise. Amongst these are to be found brought together large quantities of sources for one period, which is obviously an advantage to researchers. In this case, the effect on historiography has been very real; but research might have been greatly hampered. Work on repositories thus split up and scattered throughout Europe can be very tedious and scarcely within the capacity of one individual. The question of dividing up archives is already cropping up as a result of the opening of the archives of countries of the former eastern bloc. The process of appraisal, however carefully it may be carried out can prejudice the transfer of historical records. It was, in effect, in order to limit the damage caused by the dispersal of archive repositories that files in post war Germany were repatriated7 8. Besides state archives, those of other public and private institutions should not be forgotten. Ecclesiastical and monastic archives contain extremely interesting sources. The archives of ecclesiastical establishments, which maintain relations with the 4. Session/Séance: Nebiker, Towards a new History of Europe 7 Law 79-18 of January 3, 1979 on behalf of archives, article 1. 8 Boberach, Heinz: Die schriftliche Überlieferung der Behörden des Deutschen Reiches 1870-1945. Sicherheit, Rückführung, Ersatzdokumentation, in: Aus der Arbeit des Bundesarchivs, ed. by Heinz Boberach and Hans Booms. Boppard am Rhein 1977 (Schriften des Bundesarchivs 25). 377
