The Frankenthal City Archives is the historical memory of the city of Frankenthal and a modern service and information center. On the basis of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Archive Act and the archival statutes of the city of Frankenthal it ...

• preserves around 1200 linear meters of unique cultural assets from the city administration and all areas of city life from 1562 to the present and secures them for the future through proper storage.
• actively participates in the evaluation of sources and the research and communication of Frankenthal's town history through publications, exhibitions and research projects and cooperates with historical and cultural associations, other archives, museums and educational institutions.
• is, as a modern information service provider and place of research, open to all interested citizens and seeks an active dialog with the public on topics relating to the town's history. 

The city archives thus enables ...

• the citizens of Frankenthal to identify with their town and its history, regardless of whether they were born there or have moved there, with their town and its history. 
• the sharpening of Frankenthal's profile and the enhancement of the city's image as an attractive place to live and as a tourist destination (keyword: “history marketing”). 
• a transparent insight into the city's administrative activities and the development of democratic competence.

The city archives faces up to the challenges posed by ...

• the changed working methods and the changed expectations of its users, which require a modern technical infrastructure. 
• the increasing digitization within the city administration, which requires the acquisition and long-term preservation of original digital data and documents by the city archive.
• the increasing amount of documents produced by the municipal document producers, which require precise and restrictive evaluation models tailored to individual areas in order to continue to provide citizens with a meaningful archival tradition as a basis for their research in the future.

Holdings

Frankenthal was founded in 1562 by Dutch religious refugees. Old holdings from the city's founding period are still preserved in the city archives today, such as the so-called “Kapitulation” of 1562, in which the rights and duties of the new settlers were regulated, or the city charter of 1577. The council minutes - the oldest of which are still in Flemish - form a special “centerpiece” of the records, which are almost completely preserved from 1572 onwards. Other valuable old holdings from the 16th to the early 18th century, as well as the council minutes up to 1900, are now available digitally on Archivportal-D: Privileges, guild regulations, stock books, treasury registers, civic records.

In addition, the Frankenthal town archives hold records of the town administration from the 19th century up to the present, collections (pictures, printed matter, posters, etc.), church records and civil registers as well as the estates and bequests of important Frankenthal residents. The archives of the former independent municipalities, Mörsch, Studernheim, Eppstein and Flomersheim, are also preserved in the town archive. 

 

Click here to access the holdings of Frankenthal (Pfalz) City Archives at Archivportal-D.

 

Contact information:

Stadtarchiv Frankenthal (Pfalz)

Rathausplatz 2-7-

67227 Frankenthal (Pfalz)

 

E-mail: stadtarchiv [at] frankenthal.de (stadtarchiv[at]frankenthal[dot]de)

Phone: 0049 6233 89 276 or 904

Website: https://www.frankenthal.de/stadt-frankenthal/de/kultur/stadtportraet/stadtgeschichte/stadtarchiv/

 

Opening hours: Visits by appointment only.

Advice at any time by phone, e-mail or by appointment in person.