The Stadtarchiv Wasserburg am Inn

The Stadtarchiv Wasserburg am Inn (Wasserburg am Inn municipal archive) preserves valuable municipal archival holdings and collections dating back to the late Middle Ages. Due to the scope of the old holdings and a very dense availability of records from 1339 onwards, it is considered one of the most important municipal archives in Old Bavaria.

The town’s "old archive"

As early as 1618, an archive vault was established in the late Gothic town hall, in which the town’s official records were housed until 1808, but were never fully indexed until 2018. According to a tradition note, a treasury archive is said to have been transferred to the then newly built town hall as early as 1263; the oldest archive inventory listing the holdings set up there dates from 1644. In the 19th century, the town’s so-called "old archive" was expanded by one room, arranged according to relevance, the archive was also opened for public use and the first analyses of the town’s history were carried out.

From 1818 onwards, the town stored its "modern" registry holdings separately from the old holdings, which have since been regarded as historical. Private archival records that were considered to be particularly important or worthy of protection were repeatedly added to the official old holdings until the second half of the 20th century. As the result of a fire in the town in 1874, many of the openly stored archival records suffered severe water damage. In the period from 2000 to 2018, the town’s "old archive" was conserved and restored, housed in a modern, purpose-built archive building and made accessible through a database.

The securing and indexing of the holdings was followed by the digitisation of the approximately 9,000 archival records between 2020 and 2022. Thanks to the conservation efforts and archival measures, the town of Wasserburg am Inn’s "old archive" can now be presented digitally in full on the bavarikon platform.

Remit

In addition to preserving and indexing the written history, the archive’s range of tasks includes making the cultural heritage accessible and communicating it in a modern way. The latter includes, among others, the municipal archive’s publication series and the Historisches Lexikon Wasserburg, an online encyclopaedia whose central source reference now also includes the "old archive", which is now digitally accessible. In addition to an extensive range of archival education programmes, the municipal archive also initiates or supports research projects on the history of the town as well as the town’s commemoration and remembrance work on National Socialism.

Other municipal archive holdings

- Historical libraries
- Specialist library on urban and regional history/collection of official gazettes/newspaper collection
- The town of Wasserburg’s official archives (19th/20th century)
- Picture archive
- Collection of maps and plans
- Private archive material/collection holdings
- The town’s chronicle

• The objects of the "Stadtarchiv Wasserburg am Inn" available on bavarikon

Collections of the "Stadtarchiv Wasserburg am Inn" available on bavarikon

• Holding I. Old archive’s “Kommunalarchiv” and “Stiftungsarchiv” (archives of the council or magistrate administration with church and foundation administration 14th-19th century)