Ustawowe podstawy działania archiwów niemieckich. Federalne i krajowe ustawy archiwalne

Abstract

Statutory grounds for the activity of German archives. Federal and national laws on archives Laws on archives lay down the purposes and tasks of archives. Modern archival legislation began to develop as early as at the time of the French Revolution. According to Elanie Goh, the development of archives and the enactment of archival law was either revolutionary or evolutionary. The federal political system of Germany is also reflected in its law on archives, in the organisation of archives, in record management and in its archival fonds. This results, for example, from the variety of archive traditions and from the past political systems in Germany, which is why the country archival legislation relies on both enactment trends. Up until the 1980s, the issue of archival fonds and archives in the Federal Republic of Germany, a democratic state, was not regulated by laws on archives (Archivgesetze) but by other regulations instead, usually administrative orders. This changed due to personal data protection and confidentiality legislation. The first domestic law on archives was adopted by Baden-Württemberg in 1987, and the federal act (Bundesarchivgesetz) was signed in January 1988. By 1997, all the states received archival legislation, which was either amended or re-enacted over the next two decades. A new federal law on archives was announced in 2017. German laws on archives are concise documents that address the main aspects of archival fonds, record management (also for electronic records) and archive organisation. Being so laconic, the legislation does not require vast modifications during the creation of other laws that influence archives (for example, personal data protection laws).