Important milestones in the history of the State Archive include moving to its own premises in 1939/1940 and the entry into force of the Bern Archiving Act in 2010.
Before moving to the Falkenplatz in 1939/40, the State Archive of the Canton of Bern was housed in the vaults of the Rathaus from the early 15th century.
It was Robert Grimm, Bern’s building director and a member of the Swiss parliament at the time, who proposed giving the archive a new home in a new building in the Länggasse district. The construction work was carried out by the renowned architect Walter von Gunten.
Around 45 years later, between 1984-1986, a four-storey underground cultural heritage shelter, designed by architect Magdalena Rausser, was constructed at the same location.
Until the late 19th century, the Cantonal Chancellor was responsible for supervising the holdings in the State Archive. In 1891 Prof. Heinrich Türler was appointed the first full-time state archivist, a post he held from 1892 to 1914. Subsequent heads of the State Archive have been: Gottlieb Kurz (1914-1936), Dr. Rudolf v. Fischer (1914-1962), Fritz Häusler (1962-1982), Dr. Karl F. Wälchli (1982-1999) and Prof. Dr. Peter Martig (1999-2012). Since March 2012, Dr. Barbara Studer Immenhauser has been in charge of the State Archive. Today, even though it is at a different location, the State Archive is still closely linked to the State Chancellery in administrative and organisational terms.
In recent years, various structural measures have been carried out to modernise the State Archive at its Falkenplatz location; these include a new photo archive room, a new air-conditioning system, the refurbishment of the reading room and conference rooms, and an extension to the cafeteria, installation of a photovoltaic system on the roof. In May 2014 the State Archive opened an external stockroom I (Liebefeld), adjacent to its main premises and in September 2022, an external stockroom II (Liebefeld).
In archiving terms, the first twenty years of this century has seen the State Archive make considerable advances. The introduction of an archive information system (2005), the publication of all the directory units in the online inventory and online access to specialist library holdings (2009) have made it possible to conduct research throughout the Archive’s holdings from anywhere in the world at any time. The Cantonal Parliament’s adoption of the Archiving Act (2009) and its entry into force along with the related ordinance on 1 January 2010 was a very important milestone for the State Archive. The new legislation codified archiving tasks for the first time in a cantonal act in line with the law on freedom of information and data protection and laid down principles for the more efficient organisation of archiving work. The law also gave electronic documents an equivalent status to documents on paper, thus defining digital archiving as a new task.
Based on these new legal principles, the Cantonal Parliament decided on 1 September 2014 to begin a comprehensive programme of digital records and process management and archiving (DGA), at the same time approving the funding required for the 2015–2022 period. You will find more information on this trendsetting project here:
For more information on the history of individual holdings, consult the online inventory at holdings level.
References
- Heinrich Türler: «Geschichte des Staatsarchivs zu Bern», in: Inventar des Staatsarchivs des Kantons Bern, Bern 1892. [StAB BB 121/12]
- Dietrich Braunschweig: Hintergrundarchitektur. Walter von Guntens Beitrag zur Moderne am Beispiel des Staatsarchivs Bern 1938-40, Zürich 2011. [StAB BC 2359]