Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
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Newsjunkie.net is a resource guide for journalists. We show who's behind the news, and provide tools to help navigate the modern business of information.
Use of Data
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The Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (MA 8), known in English as the Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna, is the official archive of Austria's federal capital and the Province of Vienna. It collects, preserves, and makes accessible the documentary heritage of the city and province from the medieval period to the present. Located in Gasometer D, one of four converted gas storage towers in Vienna's 11th district, the archive holds over 50,000 metres of shelf space and is among the most significant city archives in the German-speaking world.
The Vienna city archives have existed in some form since the fourteenth century; the oldest document in the collection dates to 1208. From the fifteenth century, the archive was housed in the Altes Rathaus. In 1863, at the initiative of archivist Karl Weiß, the archive was formally constituted as part of the city's municipal collections, alongside the city library and historical museum. It became an independent municipal department by resolution of the city council on 25 June 1889. When Vienna was elevated to a federal province (Bundesland) in 1920–1922, the archive assumed additional responsibilities as the provincial archive (Landesarchiv). During World War II, approximately 70% of holdings were evacuated to storage sites in Lower Austria, significantly limiting wartime losses. Its current legal framework is the Wiener Archivgesetz 2000.
Holdings encompass over 50,000 shelf metres, including city administration records, executive office files, provincial court and police records, political party records, private institutional records, maps, photographs, manuscripts, and publications. Notable individual items include the will of Ludwig van Beethoven, papers of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and urban design drawings by architect Otto Wagner. The Hauptarchiv series begins with a document from 1208 and extends to the twentieth century. Collections also include restitution files from the post-World War II period and documentation on Viennese political movements from 1977 to 2015. The archive operates the Wiener Archivinformationssystem (WAIS) online discovery tool.
The archive holds extensive collections of Viennese periodicals, newspapers, political posters, and election campaign materials. The library within the archive collects literature on archival science, Viennese history, and related disciplines, and holds deposit copies of publications. The archive contributes to Wien Geschichte Wiki, a collaborative online encyclopedia of Viennese history.
The reading room is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 15:30, with extended hours on Thursdays (9:00 to 19:00). Research may be conducted in person; written enquiries by post are also accepted. Online catalogue access is available through the WAIS system (wais.wien.at) and the city council documentation database (INFODAT Wien).