Radosław Gaziński

Archives of the Griffins in modern times. In the modern period, six ducal archives were formed in Pomerania. The first two (Stettin and Wolgast) were created as a result of the division of the Pomeranian state in 1532. After 1557, the archives of prince-bishops were established in Koszalin. However, after the formation of ducal courts of justice as separate institutions (after 1575), three court archives were added to the three above-mentioned ones (the Wolgast, Stettin and bishopric). They were all under the authority of respective territorial chancellors. They were most often headed by an educated clerk in the rank of court counsellor or secretary of the office. Ducal archives were located in the capitals of particular jurisdictions in the main residences of the Griffins (castles in Wolgast, Stettin and Koszalin). They were closely guarded and access to them was limited. Ducal archives not only preserved the legacy of the Griffins, but also supported their domestic and foreign policy. Moreover, the dukes were aware of the importance of the archives as a treasury of knowledge about the dynasty, which could be used (through publications) to strengthen the prestige of the House of Griffin in Europe. Despite rather slim staffing, the archives were kept in good order, and the records of the stock were also taken care of. Evidence of this can be seen in fairly frequent inventory scans of individual archives recording their current holdings. It should also be added that besides the state and court archives, each of the Griffin dukes had a larger or smaller private archive (usually correspondence and bills), which after the death of each of the dukes was incorporated into the archives of the given jurisdiction. After the extinction of the Wolgast line of Griffins in 1626 and due to the danger of war in Pomerania, Boguslav XIV decided to centralize all the ducal archives in Szczecin. In fact, however, except for small portions of documents and files from Wolgost (1628) and Koszalin (1635) transferred to the Szczecin castle, the ducal archives remained scattered until Boguslav XIV’s death (1637). It was not until 1639 that the Swedes took them to Szczecin, and subsequently sorted and arranged them in 1642. After the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648), the Brandenburg side began to demand that the Swedes hand over the post-ducal records necessary to manage the captured part of Pomerania. The Swedes initially resisted. It was only the full normalisation of mutual relations and then the border recession (1653) that convinced the Swedish administration to separate a batch of archival records from those stored in Szczecin and to hand them over to the Brandenburgers in late 1653. Since then, there have been two archives in Pomerania preserving the post-ducal records: the Swedish one in Szczecin and the Brandenburg one in Kołobrzeg.

Between 2007 and 2017, the State Archive in Szczecin, managed by Dr Jan Macholak, was actively involved in performing archival work. Approximately 270 entities producing archival materials were supervised. Under the archive’s supervision, approx. 120 km of non-archival materials were analysed, and 3 km of files were added to the Archive’s collection. As a result, the resources of the Szczecin branch grew by 1/4 during that decade. At the same time, Szczecin archivists analysed the 3 km of files and additionally registered approx. 2 km of archival materials. Nearly 17,000 users visited the Archive’s research laboratory during that time, borrowing approx. 200,000 items. At the same time, the Archive became actively involved in popularising its activities and resources. Several dozen exhibitions and conferences were organised, and the Archive’s employees participated in the International Archives Day, the “Science Festival”, the “Museum Night” and the European Heritage Days. In addition, the archivists gave several hundred presentations on the most interesting documents and the history of Pomerania to secondary school students and those interested in history. In addition, they gave several hundred press, radio and television interviews. Certain employees also conducted research on broadly-defined archival science and the history of the region. Between 2007 and 2017, the employees of the Szczecin Archive spoke more than 200 times at various conferences and published in excess of 260 articles, reviews, monographs, source compilations and exhibition catalogues. Thus, an analysis of the activities of the State Archive in Szczecin between 2007 and 2017 demonstrates that the Szczecin branch was very productive during the aforementioned decade. 

The article deals with the publication titled “Z archiwistyką po Europie w XX wieku” [Archival guide to 20th-century Europe], published by Szczecin University as part of the “Historiografia Pomorska” [Pomeranian Historiography] series. It was published on the 75th birthday of Professor Zdzisław Chmielewski, archivist, (or archival theorist, to be precise) and member of the Toruń school of archival science. The publication was edited by Professor Adam Makowski and consists of Chmielewski’s both published and previously unseen articles. It comprises four chapters containing its author’s thoughts on the development of European and Global archival science in the 20th century. The publication sheds light on the main dilemmas which archivists were faced with in the previous century. Pointing towards the greatest archival challenges of the 20th century, Professor Zdzisław Chmielewski also poses important questions regarding the future of archival science in our rapidly-digitising world.