According to § 3 paragraph 2 of the archive statutes of the state capital Wiesbaden i.V.m. §§ Sections 1, 2 and 8 of the Hessian Archives Act, departments, offices and municipal enterprises are obliged to immediately sort out all documents that are no longer required for the fulfillment of their current tasks and offer them to the City Archives for acceptance. Documents that are to be kept permanently must be offered to the City Archive no later than 30 years after their creation, unless other legal provisions stipulate that they must be kept for a longer period. The unauthorized destruction of documents without the permission of the City Archive is not permitted.

The legal entities under public law and associations subject to the supervision of the State Capital of Wiesbaden are also obliged to offer documents in accordance with § 4 of the archive statutes of the State Capital of Wiesbaden.

The Wiesbaden City Archives will be happy to advise the municipal authorities on the sorting and tendering of their archive material. If possible, please contact our organizational mailbox stadtarchivwiesbadende approximately one month before the planned separation. The colleague responsible for your area will contact you immediately. Please also refer to the handout on the disposal process below.

In addition to the official archive material, the city archive supplements its holdings with other documents that are suitable for documenting the history of the state capital of Wiesbaden, the cityscape, changes and events as well as the work of people in the city. Documents are always considered for transfer to the city archive if they have a strong connection to the present or past of Wiesbaden and fulfill certain unique characteristics. Documents of individual persons (so-called pre- or posthumous estates) are just as relevant as the written material of clubs, associations, parties and companies, provided they are or were active in Wiesbaden, regardless of the type of activity.

Thematically, the limits of archival value are very broad. Documents therefore do not necessarily have to originate exclusively from famous personalities, be assigned to certain "important" topics or have a "historical" age. The same applies to clubs, associations, parties or companies, which do not have to be of a certain minimum size etcetera.

The archival value of records is usually assessed by the staff of the municipal archive during an on-site visit. The entire collection of documents is not always taken over, but often only a selection of certain documents is made. The acquisition takes place after detailed consultation with the archivists of the city archive and after the conclusion of a contract, usually in the form of a donation. They are then used in accordance with the regulations of the Hessian Archive Act and the archive statutes of the City of Wiesbaden. This ensures that any personal rights or copyrights remain protected. In exceptional cases, documents can also be handed over in the form of a deposit.

If you have documents (deeds, official records, files, documents, official publications, card indexes, maps, plans, posters, seals, stamps, image, film and sound recordings as well as digital recordings) that you would like to offer to the city archive, please contact us, preferably by e-mail at stadtarchivwiesbadende

The Wiesbaden City Archive only purchases archival materials for its holdings in exceptional cases. The decision on a possible purchase is made under the aspects of historical relevance for the city of Wiesbaden and under the conditions of economical and sustainable budget management. Please refrain from sending unsolicited documents that are offered for purchase.