The origins of the city archive date back to the 12th century. Its oldest document of municipal origin is a diploma from Emperor Frederick I dated 09.01.1166. The oldest document of non-municipal provenance is a document issued on 21.01.1018 by Emperor Henry II for Burtscheid Abbey.
The first lists of documents in the city's document archive probably already existed in the 14th century. In the 16th century, the document archive was set up in the Granus Tower of Aachen Town Hall. The administration of this archive was the responsibility of the town clerk, who was superior to the chancellery. In the 17th century, the registration of individual parts of the archive began, but this only progressed further in the 18th century. In 1760, a municipal archivist was appointed for the first time in the person of the licentiate Schwartz, but little is known about his work.
Until the end of the imperial city period, the distinction between document archive and file archive was maintained in Aachen. The files remained in a kind of old registry and were looked after by registrars for the first time in the 18th century.
This distinction between document and file archives and their separate storage meant that all but a few of the files and manuscripts were destroyed in the great town fire of 1656, while the documents stored in the Granus Tower escaped destruction.
In 1794, the holdings of the city archives were moved to the right bank of the Rhine to escape the advancing French. These documents returned in 1797. Some of the archives that the French considered valuable were then taken to Paris. The majority of these confiscated archives were returned in 1815.
Since the French period, the archive has been continuously staffed by an archivist who looked after the records and documents archive.
The archivists and archive directors were:
1803-1821 Karl Franz Meyer the Younger,
1821-1862 Friedrich Ludwig Kraemer, archivist, registrar and journalist,
1862-1867 Joseph Gerhard Laurent, librarian and archivist,
1867-1884 Peter Stephan Käntzeler,
1884-1911 Richard Pick,
1911-1945 Dr. Albert Huyskens,
1945-1948 Dr. Heinrich Schiffers, Director of the Diocesan Archives and Acting Director of the City Archives,
1948-1966 Dr. Bernhard Poll,
1966-1971 Dr. Erich Meuthen,
1972-1997 Dr. Herbert Lepper,
1997-2014 Dr. Thomas R. Kraus and
from Dec. 2014 Dr. René Rohrkamp.
Since the French period, the archives had been housed in various, mostly inadequate rooms in the town hall. It was not until 1886-1890 that separate rooms were built for the city archives on the Fischmarkt behind the façade of the old Grashaus.
During the Second World War, the archives were stored away, well packed in boxes, so that the city archive did not suffer any significant war losses.
As the additional archive rooms in the adjoining library building had been destroyed during the war and were not restored, but at the same time large quantities of files had to be transferred from the municipal administrations, the rooms of the city archive were soon no longer sufficient. Newer files often had to be stored in unsuitable cellars.
It was not until 1981 that the archive was given a suitable, functional outdoor storage facility. A restoration workshop was also set up there in 1987.
The era of the city archive in the Grashaus ended in 2012 with the move to the Nadelfabrik. For the first time, all of the archive holdings from the Grashaus and the various external storerooms could now be brought together in one place on a total area of around 5,000 square meters.
With its modern stacks and contemporary equipment in a modern reading room, offices and restoration workshop, the former headquarters of Rheinnadel provides a very good working environment for the public and archive staff. The city archive was reopened at its new location in 2013.
Further details on the history of the archive can be found in the following literature:
- Kaemmerer, Walter:
Das Aachener Stadtarchiv in reichsstädtischer Zeit. in: Zeitschrift
des Aachener Geschichtsvereins vol. 57 (1936), pp. 18-31. - Pick, Richard:
Das Aachener Stadtarchiv. in: Festschrift zur 72. Versammlung
deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte, Aachen 1900, pp. 214-225. - Lepper, Herbert:
Das Stadtarchiv Aachen. in: Der Archivar 44 (1991), pp. 397-403 - Lepper, Herbert:
Das Stadtarchiv Aachen und seine Archivare 1821-1945.
in: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsvereins Vol. 84/85 (1978),
pp. 579-680.