Characteristics: The collection 229 is the most important of the General State Archives in terms of size and fascicle number (118,938 numbers). As its name suggests, it contains "special files of the smaller offices, towns and rural communities", i.e. provenances from the numerous territories and dominions which, at the beginning of the 19th century, were wholly or partly absorbed in the then newly created Grand Duchy of Baden. It is a classic, topographically related pertinence stock. According to the Brauer archive regulations of 1801, in the 19th century the "special files" or "specialia" - local subjects - falling under the "special categories" of the individual places - were filed according to alphabetical categories borrowed from the legal terminology of that time and chronologically sorted within these categories. Inventory history: Initially, several special file collections existed side by side, such as Baden-Baden, Baden-Durlach, Pfalz, Breisgau, Bruchsal and a forest file archive. It was not until 1874/75, in the interest of easier handling, that these previously independent special departments were merged into a single collection comprising around 14,000 volumes, and in 1878, the indexing of these collections began. Although the principle of provenance had also been applied in the General State Archives since 1887, the monstrous collection of local records continued to be preserved and experienced numerous growths until the 1930s. The inventory number plan introduced in 1939 gave him the number 229, which is still valid today; before, however, the files of offices and cities (inventories 129 to 228) had been spun off. The individual fascicles were numbered consecutively in the middle of the 1950s. However, the indexing work was not completed until the mid-1970s. Provenances: At its core, the collection comprises documents that fell to Baden with the archives of previous territories or monasteries, but also files that, as far as they refer to places in Baden, were extracted from Bavaria or Württemberg to Baden. This tradition is more or less poor in the case of places which belonged to the former dominions of the nobility mediatized in 1806, because the nobility - both the princely and count's lords (Wertheim, Leiningen, Fürstenberg etc.) as well as the members of the former imperial knighthood (in Odenwald, Kraichgau, Ortenau, Hegau etc.) - were left with their archives; corresponding material is therefore to be found in the respective archives of the nobility. Contents: The temporal spectrum of the tradition preserved in fonds 229 essentially ranges from the 17th to the early 19th century. It is rare to find an original document from the 15th century in it, but much more frequently one comes across such documents from the 16th century. From old habit, however, files of the 19th century were often also sorted here. The whole range of village legal life is represented in terms of content. Indexing: The index presented below, compiled with great care by Reinhold Rupp in 1990 and only carefully revised for the Internet presence, cannot, of course, index the contents of the individual files kept at the various locations. Rather, it aims to give researchers interested in local history an impression of the amount of material available in each case, according to the number of fascicles, the amount in running metres and the duration of the tradition. The keyword-like mention of older political contexts is understood as an indication of which other holdings of the General State Archives might require further research. The description of the content highlights selected subjects, places and persons, stating the respective duration, as far as these can claim interest beyond the actual local history. In addition, the local rulers are mentioned, so that in many cases the relevant provenances are also mentioned; the main provenance is occasionally highlighted.The introductory information on the individual communes is structured according to a fixed structure: current administrative affiliation: commune/county district, in brackets: information on which district office the town belonged to in 1898Landesherchaft around 1800 / Ortsherrschaft, if different from the Landesherrschaft (Knight canton for knightly towns)associated places of residencescope according to number of fascicles (duration) Scope in running time. m Contents: e.g. subject, place and personal matters (in selection)PolicyholdersProvenience (in part)The information is identical with: The holdings of the General State Archive Karlsruhe. Part 7: Special files of the Baden villages (229), edited by Reinhold Rupp (Publications of the State Archive Administration Baden-Württemberg, vol. 39/7). Stuttgart 1992.
