Requesting access

Most of State Archive’s holdings are accessible to the public. However, certain records are subject to closure periods, which means you have to follow a special procedure in order to inspect them. Here you will find out which records are affected, and what you must do in order to obtain them. Please allow sufficient time for this. The examination of your request for inspection may take several working days.

In principle, the holdings in the State Archive are publicly accessible. Access is governed by the provisions of the legislation on archiving (ArchG; BSG 108.1 and ArchV, BSG 108.111), data protection (KDSG; BSG 152.04 and DSV; BSG 152.040.1) and providing information to the public (Informationsgesetz, IG; BSG 107.1 and Informationsverordnung; IV; BSG 107.111).

• Documents that were already publicly accessible before being delivered to the State Archive remain accessible and can be freely inspected.
• Administrative documents are subject to a closure period of 30 years.
• Documents containing sensitive personal data are subject to a closure period of 110 years or a closure period of three years following the death of the person concerned.
• The inspection of medical records is only possible subject to strict conditions.
• Special arrangements apply in some cases to documents of private origin.

• If you want to view administrative documents that are less than 30 years old, you must obtain authorisation from the authority that produced the document. Please contact the relevant authority directly in order to obtain written authorisation.
• If the documents that you would like to see contain sensitive personal data requiring special protection under Article 3 of the KDSG, you need authorisation. Please submit a formal written request to inspect the files, stating your research question, your research topic and your postal address. Please send this to staatsarchiv@be.ch.
  
• If you would like to see medical records, you must send a written request to the State Archive explaining why; the request will be considered by the clinics that produced the records or their successor institutions.
• If you wish to inspect land registers, please contact the relevant land register office directly.