Family research – Archiv der Republik

Supreme bodies and all specialist ministries of the First and Second Republic (Education and Justice only as from 1945!) – Authorities and services during the NS regime.

Directly person-related records, e.g.: conferral of professional titles and decorations by the Federal President; Gaupersonalamt des Gaues Wien ("Gauakten", i.e. the files produced by the administrative unit of Vienna in the Third Reich; records on Jewish assets expropriated by the NS regime ("Vermögensverkehrsstelle") and on compensation paid as from 1955 ("Hilfsfonds"); information relating to personnel of universities and academies during the NS regime ("Kurator"); records concerning personnel of the Federal Theatre Administration and the Burgtheater and State Opera as from 1920; personnel files of the first Austrian Federal Army (1918–1938); person-related records concerning Austrians serving in the German Wehrmacht (personnel files, Wehrstammbücher, i.e. documents in book form which contained all personal particulars and details of the holder's military career, pay books of civilian employees of the Wehrmacht, documents from the Reich Labour Service, files of the Wehrmacht Court, documentation from sickbays); personnel files of the second Austrian Federal Army (from 1956 onwards); retirement pension files of federal employees and public servants (Central Pay Office and Federal Pensions Office).

Most of the person-related files of the German military (Wehrmacht), including those of Austrians, had to be consulted in the German Federal Archives (Federal Central Record Office at Aachen-Kornelimünster) until 2005. The Federal Archives have meanwhile transferred responisiblity for administration and information to the "Militärarchiv" department (Wiesentalstrasse 10, D-79115 Freiburg, militaerarchiv@barch.bund.de), which took the personnel files of ground troops and airforce officers as well as of civil servants working for the Wehrmacht and files of the Wehrmacht Court over from the Central Record Office. The holdings maintained in Freiburg also include units relevant to the general military history of World War II. A large part of the person-related records of the German military was destroyed during the war. However, important materials such as former records of the Central Record Office, such as petty officers and soldiers, can be found at several departments of the "Deutsches Bundesarchiv" (further information) and in the so-called Krankenbuchlager, which holds army-related medical records from the First and the Second World War. For details, also see Büttner, Edgar: Personenbezogene Unterlagen militärischer Provenienz im Bundesarchiv. In: Der Archivar 59 (2006), p. 143 to 146.

The Archiv der Republik does not keep any files originating from the Gestapo (Secret State Police) or SD (Security Service), files from NSDAP offices (with the exception of the "Gauakten") and no proofs of ancestry ("Ahnenpass") or evidence of "Aryan" origin ("Ariernachweis"), etc. unless they form part of a personnel file. The Archiv der Republik does not hold any denazification files (registration files) in the stricter sense of the word, documentation on concentration camps or records of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration ("Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung"). For complementary information about records in Germany, see Stach, Babett: Personenbezogene Unterlagen aus der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Das Bundesarchiv in Berlin und seine Bestände, insbesondere des ehemaligen amerikanischen Berlin Document Centre BDC. In: Herold Jahrbuch NF 5 (2000), p. 147 to 186.

Further literature:
Steiner, Hubert/Kucsera, Christian: "Recht als Unrecht". Quellen zur wirtschaftlichen Entrechtung der Wiener Juden durch die Vermögensverkehrsstelle. Wien 1993, als Datenbank www.avotaynu.com; Artl, Gerhard: Die Bestandsgruppen Landesverteidigung und Deutsche Wehrmacht im Archiv der Republik. In: Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 49 (2001) = Quellen zur Militärgeschichte 200 Jahre Kriegsarchiv, S. 221 bis 236; Jeřábek, Rudolf: Entnazifizierungsakten im Österreichischen Staatsarchiv. In: Walter Schuster, Wolfgang Weber (Hrsg.): Entnazifizierung im regionalen Vergleich. Linz 2004 (Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz 2002), S. 529 bis 550; Jeřábek, Rudolf: Personalakten. Was soll vom Individuum bleiben? Archivische Bewertung von personenbezogenen Unterlagen. In: Scrinium 59 (2005), S. 59 bis 68.