The Swiss Federal Archives (, , , ) are the

national archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

of Switzerland. Additionally, the

cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, th ...

have official archives of their own. The building and its collections are a Swiss heritage site of national significance. In 2018 the archives held over 66,000 linear meters of printed documents and 20.7 terabytes of digital documents. The archives have a permanent staff of 57.8

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...

and a budget of 19.2 million CHF. The archives are governed by the Federal Act on Archiving.Federal Act on Archiving
original version 1998-06-26. The Federal Archives were created in 1798 following the creation of the Helvetic Republic. Under the republic, the archives moved whenever the seat of government moved. With the creation of the

Federal State A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the c ...

in 1848 the archives became part of the Federal Chancellery and found a home in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

in the

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. The first federal archivist was Johann Jakob Meyer, who was appointed in 1849. In the second half of the 19th century, the archives moved to the western wing of the Parliament building. In 1868 the second chief archivist, Jakob Kaiser, was appointed. Over the following years he persuaded Parliament to purchase land across the Aare river in the Kirchenfeld district and build the current archive building. The building was built in 1896-99 by Theodor Gohl in the

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

style. In 1914 the archives are officially designated as the ''Bundesarchiv'' or Federal Archives. In the same year its first typewriter was installed. On 9 May 1944 the Federal Council approved the first regulations making all records in the archive which are at least 50 years old available to the public without restriction. In 1963 the first

microfilm reader A microfilm reader is a device that uses a lens and source of light to magnify miniaturized text and accompanying images that have been printed on a roll of 16 mm film (100 cm or 215 cm in length) or 135 film, 35 mm film (100 cm in length), which is ...

was installed, followed by a copier in 1965. On 15 July 1966, new regulations regarding the archives retained the 50 year limit, but made exceptions for academic research. In 1973 the 50 year limit was shortened to 35 years and in 1998 it was again reduced to 30 years.

References

External links

* {{Authority control

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Archives in Switzerland

See also

References

External links