Mueller, P; (2012) Using the Archive. Exclusive Clues about the Past and the Politics of the Archive in Nineteenth-Century Bavaria. Storia della Storiografia , 62 (2) 27 - 53.

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Abstract

In this article, I historicise a particular site of historical research that rose to prominence in the nineteenth century : state archives. In looking into the archive politics surrounding the historical studying of records and files, this examination explores the exchange between petitioners and the authorities, governmental administrative practices and measures of control, and the administrative communications of the Bavarian state relating to “the use of the archive” during the long nineteenth century. In contrast to the widespread assumption that the French Revolution and its European reverberations rendered superfluous the arcana imperii, I contend that the early-modern traditions and notions of the arcana imperii were key in the administering of access to archival material, and the availability of archival knowledge. According to the tradition of the arcana imperii, the purpose of state archives was first and foremost to safeguard the state and the welfare of the country. State archives were thus an integral part of the secret sphere of the state, and were kept deliberately separate from the public. As a result, historical interest in archival holdings necessitated the establishing of an administrative threshold, as well as the administrative supervision of the studying of records and files, measures aimed at reconciling the interests of the state with this secondary use of the archive. In this administrative context, the directors of state archives held a crucial position, for it was their responsibility to examine a petitioner’s integrity and discern their historical interests. What is more, a growth of interest in the archival holdings of the state created a dynamic that ultimately impacted on the institutional culture of state archives. The increasing political consideration and reflections upon “the use of the archive”, the spatial integration of historical research, as well as internal institutional changes of processes gave way to mellowing of the administration’s tight grip on archival research. Due to the continued interlinking of state archives and their governments throughout the nineteenth century, however, archives – a site of governmental rule – remained a site administered in accordance with the principles and notions of the arcana imperii.

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