Erste Registratur
Item
Country
DE
Name of institution (English)
Emden Municipal Archive
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
deu
Contact information: postal address
Kirchstrasse 18, 26721 Emden
Contact information: phone number
0049 492187 - 1401
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
rolf.uphoff@emden.de (Dr. Uphoff - Director, Archivist)
mschneider@emden.de (Mr. Schneider - User support, genealogist, photo archive)
bubacz@emden.de (Mr, Bubacz - Press and Newspapers, filing and repositioning)
mschneider@emden.de (Mr. Schneider - User support, genealogist, photo archive)
bubacz@emden.de (Mr, Bubacz - Press and Newspapers, filing and repositioning)
Reference number
I
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (English)
First Registry
Title (official language of the state)
Erste Registratur
Language of title
deu
Creator / accumulator
Emden City Council
Date(s)
1424/1749
Date note
1424/1744(1749)
Language(s)
deu
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Good
Scope and content
The collection includes several items of interest to Jewish history, including some with particular interest to the Western Sephardic Diaspora. Some examples are the following: protection letters ("Geleitbriefe") for Jews of Emden, 1745 (no. 146); dispute between the city of Emden and the count and prince (Fürst) of East Frisia about the jurisdiction over Jews, April 1661 - September 1733 (no. 286); mandate of Prince (Fürst) Christian Eberhard on the ban of the entry of foreign Jews to East Frisia due to a plague in Poland and Silesia, 26 January 1708 (no. 292); prohibition of trade in soldier's clothing by Jews, December 1665 (no. 313); lawsuits against Jews for debt, 1599-1712 (no. 386a); expulsion of Jews from Emden, 1599-1615 (no. 395b); lists of Jews, Mennonites and Quakers as well as protection money paid by them, 1543-1749 (no. 415); various matters in the context of Jews, et al. protection letters and money, credit transactions, orders etc., 1572-1745 (no. 417); Jewish timber merchants, 1622-1741 (no. 430); agreement between Master van Gargel and the city of Emden on the installation of his bible printing house and permission for the hiring of the Jewish printer Joseph Athias for his knowledge of English as well as assurances of freedom of religion for Athias, around 1680 (no. 457); competition between the butcher guild master (Schlachteramtsmeister) and Jewish butchers, around 1655 (no. 458/32); lawsuit of the shoemakers’ guild against Jews, 1547-1749 (no. 458/38); complaints by Emden Jews against the confiscation of their canvas cargoes in Münster, 1689-1743 (no. 476); investigations against Jews for customs offences, 1745, 1749 (no. 481b); collection of fees for protection letters (Geleitbriefe) for Jews and the fee for the permission of temporary residence of foreign Jews in Emden, September 1748 (no. 498); request by the Portuguese Jewish merchant Jacobus del Monte at the East Frisian court for an arrest on Wasaburg's loan for claims against countess Wasaburg, July 1659 - August 1668 (no. 532); report of the magistrate Wallendorph about a visit of the Jewish house [Judenhaus = building of the Jewish congregation or the synagogue?], February 1726 (no. 672c); debt claims against and from Jews, 1704-07 (no. 750b); parliament file, including a demand of the expulsion of the Jews because of an increase of usury, 1571-1590 (no. 910a); the city of Emden prohibiting joint slaughter of Jewish butchers for alleviating the evasion of meat excise, July 1741 (no. 982i); claim for debt of the Jewish merchant Jacob del Monte, who lives in Amsterdam, from the Emden bond acquired by him of the countess of Wasaburg, January 1661 - February 1668 (no. 982j); directory of names including of Jews with the amount of their voluntary donation, figures detailed by “Compagnien“ (districts), 1676-1677 (no. 996a).
Archival history
At the beginning of his activity in the 1950s, Wolfgang Schöningh, museum director and city archivist, presented a first registry with the files of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries until the institution of the Prussian administration in 1744. The first registry therefore originated from the oldest documents of the city of Emden. The extant documents of the late Middle Ages, mostly written on parchment, were kept in chests or boxes. With the introduction of the paper as a writing material and the increasing differentiation of the city administration, the number of written documents increased. At the end of the 16th century, there was already a municipal writing room, which was in charge of writing documents and maintaining the registry. It tried to master the accumulating mass of written material by forming the documents into official books and correspondence series. Since the 16th century, the Emden registrars also applied the official principles of order to paper-based invoices, records and registers. Another form of organisation was the correspondence series file. A correspondence series arises either on the basis of an input of the individual citizen to the mayor and council ("supplication") or on the basis of a directive from the mayor and the council to solve a problem (mandate or resolution). The registrar merged all documents relating to a problem into one file. Since he did so according to the chronology, no self-contained processes emerged. The organisation of the registry in Emden was a problem for the administration early on. In the 16th and 17th centuries, complaints of clutter accumulate. Around 1785, the city of Emden commissioned the registrar Scipio Nellner with the order of their older registry. Through his work of order, Nellner created the basis of today's first registry in the Municipal Archive Emden. The most important aspect of his work was the title formation. He tried to capture as many contextual aspects as possible in the title. This resulted in very disjointed and nested titles that are difficult for most users to understand. The order followed the 18th-century common pertinence principle. However, Nellner followed his own theme codex, which was appropriate at his time. The first registry became part of a council archive that was only accessible for a specialist audience until the 1930s. In 1934, Dr Louis Hahn became a paid archivist. Under his aegis, a systematic catalogue of the first registry as part of a "council archive" (Ratsarchiv) was carried out. The outbreak of the Second World War endangered the Emden archive holdings, for Emden was already a strategic bomber target at the outbreak of the war. Its location in the extreme northwest of Germany made the city accessible to twin-engine English bombers. This situation forced the removal of valuable cultural assets, including the holdings of the municipal archives. After the first heavy air raids in January 1941, the inventory of the first registry was moved to what was then Prussian State Archives in Aurich. Here it survived the Second World War. Shortly after the end of the war, the remaining Emden archive holdings, which had been stored in a salt mine near Braunschweig, returned to Emden. At the insistence of the archive's administration in Aurich the first registry was also brought back. The city of Emden decided in 1947 to give its archival holdings into the care of the Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst und vaterländische Altertümer (Society of Fine Arts and Local Antiquities). In the 1950s, Wolfgang Schöningh reorganised the archive holdings. He had taken over the post of the first city archivist after the war. Under his supervision, a new finding aid was created for the inventory of the first registry, which still closely followed Nellner's principle of order. He took over his titles without compromise.
Administrative / Biographical history
From 1464 to 1806, the region East Frisia (Ostfriesland) formed the county of East Frisia, becoming the Principality of East Frisia in 1667. During this time, it was a part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1744, the area fell to Prussia, from 1806 to 1810, it was a part of the Napoleonic satellite state "Kingdom of Holland", from 1810 to 1813, a part of Napoleonic France, until finally, from 1815 to 1866, Prussia again became a part of the kingdom of Hannover. With the annexation of Hannover by Prussia, the area was again administered by Prussia and, in 1871, also became part of the Prussian-dominated German Empire. This remained the case beyond the time of the Weimar Republic. During National Socialism from 1939 to 1945, it formed part of the so-called “Gau Weser-Ems“. After the Second World War, it became in 1946 a part of the newly formed federal state of Lower Saxony in the administrative district Aurich. Since then it has been a part of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The city of Emden already existed as a harbour settlement in the early Middle Ages. Trade was the main factor in the growth and prosperity of the city, making the settlement the largest city in East Frisia. Since 1885, it is district-free. According to a legend, Jews are said to have settled in East Frisia as early as the 14th century, but evidence exists only from the middle of the 16th century for the port cities of the region. In Emden, it is attested for the year 1530. From 1842, Emden was the seat of a district rabbinate (“Landrabbinat“). From 1933, on a large part of the East Frisian Jews emigrated, those who remained were persecuted and murdered in the Holocaust. After the Second World War, only 13 Jews returned. They founded a new synagogue association in 1949, which lasted until 1984. Today only a few Jews live in East Frisia; they are part of the Jewish congregation of Oldenburg.
The city of Emden already existed as a harbour settlement in the early Middle Ages. Trade was the main factor in the growth and prosperity of the city, making the settlement the largest city in East Frisia. Since 1885, it is district-free. According to a legend, Jews are said to have settled in East Frisia as early as the 14th century, but evidence exists only from the middle of the 16th century for the port cities of the region. In Emden, it is attested for the year 1530. From 1842, Emden was the seat of a district rabbinate (“Landrabbinat“). From 1933, on a large part of the East Frisian Jews emigrated, those who remained were persecuted and murdered in the Holocaust. After the Second World War, only 13 Jews returned. They founded a new synagogue association in 1949, which lasted until 1984. Today only a few Jews live in East Frisia; they are part of the Jewish congregation of Oldenburg.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
The material is arranged in thematic order.
Finding aids
An online database (Arcinsys) is available.