Archives present themselves - Sächsisches Staatsarchiv

The Saxon State Archives were established according to the "Act on the Modernisation of the Saxon Administration and the Simplification of Administrative Laws" on 1 January 2005. It comprises the departments Central Tasks/Principle (with Archive Centre Hubertusburg), Main State Archive Dresden (with State Branch Archive Bautzen), State Archive Leipzig, State Archive Chemnitz and Bergarchiv Freiberg. With the archive network of Bautzen and the locations Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig as well as the special archive for the mining tradition in Freiberg, an effective and efficient performance of tasks in close proximity to the customer is guaranteed.

Memory of the Free State of Saxony

Das Sächsische Staatsarchiv ist das Gedächtnis des Freistaates. Die älteste Urkunde stammt aus dem Jahr 948. Mit mehr als 100 000 m Akten, 60 000 Urkunden, 700 000 Karten und Plänen, über 1,8 Millionen Fotos, tausenden Filmen und Tonträgern sowie anderen Archivalien dokumentiert es in Schrift und Bild mehr als tausend Jahre sächsischer, deutscher und europäischer Geschichte, macht staatliches Handeln nachträglich transparent und dient so der Festigung des demokratischen Staatswesens.

Make a choice

This archive material is continuously supplemented by documents that originated in the authorities and courts of the Free State or were created in the predecessor institutions and from which the State Archives selects, according to professional criteria, those that are of lasting value for the administration and justice, for citizens and science. The State Archives also take over documents of non-state origin worthy of archiving, e.g. the estates of important personalities.

The files of the Free State of Saxony are generally archived regionally in the departments in Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig. The state tradition of Upper Lusatia until 1945/52 is kept by the Bautzen State Archive. The Main State Archive Dresden is responsible for most central authorities. The military records of Saxony are also archived here, which, along with those of Bavaria and Württemberg, represent the most important state tradition in Germany. With the genealogical collections of the former German Central Office for Genealogy, the State Archives in Leipzig have a special treasure for the research of persons. In the Bergarchiv Freiberg, the central Saxon mining archive, the corresponding holdings are brought together.

The Saxon State Archives are - like the other East German State Archives - also a large economic archive due to the nationalisation of the economy in the Soviet Union's Soviet Zone, the tradition of which goes back far into the period before 1945. In addition to the comprehensive industrial tradition from the traditionally highly industrialised Saxony, the land reform after 1945 brought manor and aristocratic traditions to the State Archives. And finally, the State Archives are responsible for the regional and local records of the state-bearing party of the GDR, the SED.

In addition to the archive portal-D, users can also find information on the website of the Saxon State Archives http://www.archiv.sachsen.de/ in the "holdings overview" on currently 1.5 million archive records. The metadata for a further 4.5 million archival records can so far only be researched on site in the departments of the State Archives.

Microfilm scanners and archive scanners are available for self-service in the reading rooms.