The lost historical archives of the City of Szczecin

Abstract

The article is devoted to the historical archives of the city of Szczecin (Stettin), lost at the end of World War II. The authors try to recreate the circumstances of the disappearance of the Szczecin records, their internal structure, as well as indicate the limitations that the loss of these materials poses for contemporary historians. The paper also shows the process of shaping the municipal archives in Szczecin, as well as the reasons and conditions in which the municipal authorities transferred their historical records to the State Archives in Szczecin. The issue is considered against the background of changes taking place in Prussian archival science in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and taking into account the history of other selected municipal archives in Germany. The most important achievement of the presented material is the description of the lost historical archive of Szczecin.