Inventory
Inventory of the University Archives
An extensive amount of the originally large inventory of archival documents of one of the oldest and most traditional Universities in Germany was destroyed through the fires that followed the bombing of Würzburg on the 16.03.1945. The losses concern the time before 1730 as well as the inventory documents of the Faculties and Institutes until 1945.
Please note: more recent patient files from the university hospitals can be found in the respective archives of the hospitals. For information, please contact the general archive of the hospital: +49 931 201 515 83. In case of doubt, you can also ask the secretary's office of the clinic concerned to connect you.
After new University statutes were introduced in 1923, the already enclosed records – which date back till the early 18th century – were excluded from the ongoing administrational work and filed as Archives of the Rectorate and Senate. The records survived the night of the 16.03.1945 and the following despoliation almost unharmed.
The inventory of the records of the Rectorate and Senate of the University of Würzburg emprise the years from 1730 until 1925. The collectively over 3800 fascicules are structured in the following scheme:
I. Organisation and Administration
II. Archives and registry; historical, Celebrations, Awards
III. Officials, also Professors
IV. Personnel records
V. Pay regulation
VI. Fund management
VII. Construction matters
VIII. Faculties
IX. Constitution of Studying, also Inscription and Matriculation matters, military circumstances of the students
X. Auditing, also certificates
XI. Social issues
XII. Disciplinary matters
XIII. Clubs and Societies
XIV. Attributes
XV. “Curatelakten”
The records of the “Rentamt” (former department for financial administration of the church) are not made accessible at the time and can not be used yet.
Records of the University administration that were not yet enclosed at the time of the british bombing of Würzburg in 1945 – with the exception of personnel records of professors and lecturers that were safely stored in a cellar vault as well as “classified documents” that were stored in the safe of the rectorate – were completely destroyed.
The personnel files of professors and lecturers are continuously indexed and are accessible from approx. 1797 (ARS holdings run from approx. 1797-1926) up to and including the birth cohorts 1932 if there is justified interest (PA holdings run from approx. 1876-today, the more recent files are subject to corresponding retention periods).
The “classified documents” contain eight file folders, that were not yet mad accessible. The folders contain i. a. documents about the preservation of the personnel requirement during the mobilization process, the exemption from military service of staff members, the “Reichsverteidigungsreferent”, the concealment of scientific works, military researches, defence-propaganda, aerial defence, foreign students and administrational matters.
Records about students of the University of Würzburg exist, apart from the documents of the ARS inventory until 1925, in form of the students card index (1920 – 1945), as well as Semester-records about lecture-announcements and tuition fees.
The inscription-lists from 1803 until 1923 are also completely preserved. They contain the registration-lists of every seminar and lecture each student has visited.
The inventory of the pedagogical academy as well as its previous institutions (educational Institution for teachers and “Präparandenschule”) are currently made accessible.
The University Archives collects and indexes the estates of former university members and makes them available for research projects after the corresponding protection periods have expired.
Currently listed are the estates of:
Friedrich Pfister (Prof. for Classical Philology).
Still in the process of cataloguing are, among others, the estates of:
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (partial estate; Rector of JMU, Prof. of Physics)
Werner Uhlmann (Rector of JMU, Prof. of Statistics)
Theodor Henner (partial estate; Prof. of Bavarian History)
Peter Baumgart (partial estate; Prof. of History)
Wurm, Adolf (Prof. for Geology and Mineralogy)
Other smaller partial estates of university members from the faculty and student body are being processed, including student IDs, letters, diaries, photos, and the like.
The files of the patients in the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Würzburg are available in the University Archives up to and including the cohorts 1949 (date of admission). The tradition begins with birth cohorts from the 1830s. The holdings are currently being recorded and can therefore only be used to a limited extent. In the case of justified interest, the files will be examined on a case-by-case basis and can usually be presented.
