Records of Government Organs between 1867 and 1945
Section K - Records of Government Organs between 1867 and 1945.
This department handles the records of government organs and central courts from the period 1867–1944. Section "K" and "L" – Archives of Government Organs between 1867 and 1945
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Archives of Government Organs operating between 1867-1944 – section K
Covering dates: 1770–1953 (1973)
The records of the central government organs of the Hungarian Soviet Republic previously made up a separate section, marked by „L”, but the section has been transferred to their original place in the documents of the Ministry of Agriculture, and in that of the Ministry of Finance, temporarily maintaining the former L section codes.
The fonds of the central authorities and those of the subordinate organs build an archive on the organisational principle within section K. For e.g. the Archives of the Ministry of Justice incorporates the records of the ministry as the central jurisdictional organ and the records of the subordinate government bodies, courts, prosecutions, and organs managing the legal representation of the Treasury. When a subordinate organ shifted supervisory organ over the time period of its function, its records passed to the archives of the supervisory authority valid in the last year of its functioning. A few fonds of the section can not be collocated to any of the archives, because the creator organ of the fond (for e.g. the Royal Hungarian Ministry at his Majesty’s Court, and the Hungarian Royal Office of Public Supply) were independently functioning organs. The section is made up of 16 archives and 2 independent fonds.
The Archives of the Head of State’s Cabinet Office
Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office
Archives of the Royal Hungarian Ministry at his Majesty’s Court
Archives of the Ministry of the Interior
Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Archives of the Ministry of Finance
Archives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade
Archives of the Ministry of Public Labour and Transport
Archives of the Ministry of Agriculture
Archives of the Ministry of Trade
Archives of the Ministry of Industry
Archives of the Ministry of Trade and Transport
Archives of the Ministry of National Food Supply
Hungarian Royal Office of Public Supply
Archives of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education
Archives of the Ministry of Justice
The Archives of the Head of State’s Cabinet Office
Covering dates: 1890–1948
The Archives of the Head of State’s Cabinet Office holds a variety of fragmentary fonds and subfonds. A few among the most researched items are some letters by King Charles IV. (K 606) on his attempt to reclaim the throne of Hungary in 1920/1921, or some records from the Royal Cabinet Office (K 699) on protocol affairs from the years 1911-1921.
The records of the Governor, Miklós Horthy’s Cabinet Office have been completely destroyed except for a few documents of the Finance Office from 1945-1946 related to loan applications, management of money assignments, the assessment of wartime damages, the rubble clearance, internal personnel, financial and pensioning issues, the so called B listings, the liquidation of the Office and that of the other government bureaus. The collection of Horthy’s semiofficial, personal and family records, fragmentary as they are, forms the most significant subfond (K 589), within the fond. Also the records of the Castle Captaincy (K 24) responsible for the management of the real estates and movable properties belonging to the royal castles and palaces, mainly the Buda Castle and the Gödöllő Palace, and the Committee for the Reconstruction of the Castle (K 518) are among the holdings of the Archives being subordinate organs to the Cabinet Office.
Finding Aids: repertories; an inventory is available for the research of the Governor’s semiofficial records.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian and less frequently German.
Covering dates: 1861–1944 (1949)
The Archives of the Parliament holds the records of the parliaments convoked in 1861 and operating with interruptions until 1944. Legislational competencies were fulfilled by the House of the Representatives (Képviselőház), and the House of the Lords (Főrendiház). During the I. Hungarian Republic the Parliament did not operate, its tasks were taken over by the National Council (Nemzeti Tanács). During the Hungarian Soviet Republic (Tanácsköztársaság) the National Assembly of the Workers’ Council (A Tanácsok Országos Gyűlése), in the subsequent time period from 1920 until 1927 the National Assembly (Nemzeti Gyűlés), whereas in 1927-1944 the House of Representatives and the Upper House (Felsőház) performed legislative power.
The fonds of the House of the Representatives and of the National Assembly contain records on the general elections, the inquiries on mandates, the convocation of the parliament and the delegation, interpellations, petition proposals, parliamentary immunity issues, codification, the work of committees, the readings of bills and on issues related to reports, decisions, applications, messages from the House of Representatives, ministerial written notes.
The most researched and significant subfond within the fond of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly includes the documents of the Presidential and General Records (K 2). The fragmentary documents of the National Council (K 440) form a separate fond. Moreover, the records of the National Committee delegated to negotiate the common issues in 1867-1917: the Delegation (K 8) and the records of two further administrational bodies functioning between the two world wars, the Committee of 33 (K 513) established to discuss economic issues, and the 36-member National Defense Committee (K 11) are considered archival units of particular interest.
Finding Aids: repertories, and contemporary registers.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian.
Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office
Covering dates: (1854) 1867–1950 (1973)
The Prime Minister’s Office operated from February 17, 1867 until 1949 with an interruption during the Hungarian Soviet Republic (Tanácsköztársaság), when its competencies were taken over by the Revolutionary Governing Council (Forradalmi Kormányzótanács). A major fond within the Archives includes the records of the Centrally Filed Documents (K 26), unfortunately surviving only from 1867 until the early 1930s.
The records contain information on issues related to the King’s and later to the Governor’s decisions, the issues concerning the King’s travels in Hungary, the convocation and dissolution of the Parliament, the summary agenda of the Parliament, on negotiations with the Common Ministers of the Monarchy, and – according to the Compromise of 1867–, on issues related to international conventions, just as on consular issues until 1918. The fond contains also documents related to the adjustment of frontiers, to the Hungarian Royal Cabinet meetings, the budget, the nomination of the high dignitaries of the realm, the granting of nobility, of honors or titles, the use of coats of arms, national feasts, and organization of congresses. Moreover, documents on economic and political issues within the main competencies of the ministries, such as tax issues, gendarmerie, canalizations, church, military organization, industrialization, education, foreign trade, greater constructions, memorials and statues, etc. submitted for approval to the Prime Minister’s Office figure in the subfond.
Finding Aids: repertories, and contemporary registers. The on-line database of the minutes of the Hungarian Royal Cabinet meetings are the major finding aids to the records of the Ministry. Mainly the issues on nationalities and minorities until 1918, the Press issues, from 1918 social welfare issues, and finally the propaganda issues particularly in 1938-1941 can be researched in the documents.
Thus, the most precious and researched fonds within the Archives involve the Minutes of the Hungarian Royal Cabinet Meetings (K 27), the rearranged records of the Department for Nationality and Minority Issues (K 28) from 1923-1944, and the fragmentary semi-official records of Prime Ministers.
Among the subordinate organs the fond of the Central Statistical Office (K 471) is of particular interest. The records related to the adjustment of the frontiers are dispersed in diverse archival units, however the fond of the Central Office for Adjustment of Frontiers (K 478) needs to be emphasized.
Finding Aids: repertories and contemporary registers. Both the registers to the records of the Centrally Filed Documents (K 26) for the time period 1867-1910, and the Minutes of the Hungarian Royal Cabinet Meetings are accessible in digitized form here.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian, less frequently German and French.
Archives of the Royal Hungarian Ministry at his Majesty’s Court
Covering dates: (1861) 1867-1918
The Royal Hungarian Ministry at his Majesty’s Court (Königlich Ungarisches Ministerium am Allerhöchsten Hoflager) operated from 1867 until 1918. The Ministry with its seat in Vienna was designed to play an intermediary role between the royal Hungarian Ministries and the King, the Austrian (Cisleithanian) Ministries, the Foreign Representatives and Embassies of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The archival fond includes the records arisen from the ministry’s limited competencies. In the framework of a selection carried out by the record office of the Ministry in 1883-1884, most of the files archived between 1867 and 1883 were destroyed. The material of the Ministry was damaged also during the Vienna revolt in 1918.
The surviving records mainly apply for research on granting of titles, honours and nobility, granting of Austrian nobility for Hungarian citizens until 1893, passport administration of Hungarian citizens living in Austria, financial aid for Hungarians in need living in Vienna, the public announcement of marriage of Hungarian citizens to be married abroad. Records arisen from passport and marriage administration were filed in a separate sub-fond. The documents included in these two subfonds were selected: in case of banns of marriage only one archival container of records has been preserved.
Finding Aids: the digitized volumes of the Libri Regii are accessible on-line from the home page of the National Archives. The repertory, the original registers of the Ministry and the on-line database of the minutes of the Hungarian Royal Cabinet meetings are the major finding aids to the records of the Ministry.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian and German.
Archives of the Ministry of the Interior
Covering dates: 1857–1953
The Ministry of the Interior operated from March 1867 until 2006. This fond of the Ministry holds the fragmentary records from 1867-March 1945.
Among the subfonds of the Records of the Ministry, the Presidential Documents (K 148), the Reserved Documents (K 149), kept secret and survived to a great extent compared to other contemporary ministries’ reserved records and finally the General Documents (K 150) belong to the most researched archival holdings of the National Archives.
The records contain information on the public administration, the counties’ and urban administration, public safety, the maintenance of law and order, the board guard system, police and gendarmerie, immigration, emigration, public health, ennoblement cases, change of names, refugee affaires, citizenship cases, internments, birth, marriage and death registration, press affaires, supervision of associations and foundations, issues of public law, theatres (until 1908), etc.
Among the subordinate organs, the fonds of the State Security Centre (Államvédelmi Központ), the Central Authority for the Control of Foreigners (A Küldöldieket Ellenőrző Országos Központi Hatóság) and that of the Joint Tenancy Council (K 155) are to be emphasized as the most precious and researched documents.
Finding Aids: the repertory published in 1973, and complementary repertories. Contemporary registers are available for the research of the Presidential and General Documents from 1867-1896. Moreover, for the research on associations, a database including the reports on the statutes and other documents related to the operation of associations is accessible both on-line: (http://old.mol.gov.hu/egyesulet/), and in the reading room.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian and less frequently German.
Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Covering dates: (1834) 1918–1945 (1953)
The establishment of the independent Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was enacted by People Act No. V. of 1918. The ministry has been operating ever since with the same competencies and organization. This fond of the Ministry holds the records from November 1918-March 1945.
The competencies of the ministry included the following fields: the organizational issues of the foreign embassies and consulates, the personnel issues of the diplomatic corps, the accommodation of diplomatic offices, the issues related to the purchase of suitable buildings, their maintenance and supply, the political reports of the Hungarian embassies abroad, the organization of the audiences, the credentials and decoration issues, personnel, protocol issues, affaires of economic policy, legal, press, cultural and passport issues. The records of the Department of Political Affaires (K 63), the Reserved Records of the Department of Political Affaires (K 64) are to be emphasized as most precious archival sources. Both the subfonds of the Department of Cultural and Press Affairs (K 66) and that of the Department of Economic Policy (K 69) hold a rich documentation.
The records of the diplomatic organs in the holdings of the Archives differ to great extent both concerning the quality and quantity of the documents. The fonds of the Hungarian Embassies in Vienna (K 81), in Bern (K 84), Washington (K 106) and the Hungarian Delegation to the League of Nations in Geneva (K 107) hold the richest material. Most of the archival material of the embassies have been rearranged, thus research can be facilitated by contemporary registers in case of a few foreign representations.
Finding Aids: repertories published in 2003 and 2007, and contemporary registers.
Language: Hungarian, French, English, German, less frequently Italian, Spanish and Latin.
Archives of the Ministry of Finance
Covering dates: 1867–1949
The Ministry of Finance operated from March 10, 1867 until May 29, 2010. This fond of the Ministry includes fragmentary records created from 1867 until 1944. Mainly research on the financial administration, the finances and salaries, the organizational, real and personal affairs of financial directions, tax offices, the treasuries, estate managements, the economic life of the country, the currency policy, banking and credit affairs, trade, customs- and Austro-Hungarian common affairs, Croatian-Slavonian affairs, matters regarding Fiume and the military frontiers, tax-, toll-, state monopoly (tobacco, lottery, alcohol) and internal customs affairs, affairs of the national land survey, the national wealth (treasury forests, salt-, metal- and coal- mines, state ironworks, royal and treasury estates, buildings), the management of state funds and foundations, the supervision of insurance companies, and the international economic relations is feasible based on the records of the fond.
Among the subordinate organs’ fonds, the fragmentary Records of the government commissary in charge for the solution of the affairs of property rights and financial issues of Jews are particularly researched.
Finding Aids: repertories, and contemporary registers.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian and German.
Archives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade
Covering dates: 1867–1888
The Ministry operated from March 1867 until June 1889 with the following competencies: control over agriculture, viticulture, horse-breeding, animal husbandry, animal welfare, craft-unions and craftsmen’s associations, exhibitions, banks, share companies, insurance companies, the chambers of commerce and industry, foreign trade, customs policy, maritime administration, forestry, forest custody (from 1881 also including the state forestry), until 1881 the affairs of the post and telegraph offices. (The most relevant subfonds’ reference codes are: K 167, K 168, K 169, K 170). The records of departments for mining, statistics and the written material of the patent office are missing, as the successors in the given competencies (mining: the Ministry of Finance, statistics: National Statistical Office, patents: Patent Office) took over also the archives of the relevant departments.
Finding Aids: repertories, and contemporary registers.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian, less frequently German and Croatian.
Archvies of the Ministry of Public Labour and Transport
Covering dates: 1866–1888
The ministry operated from March 1867 until June 1889. The records were damaged due to large scale selection of the files and war destruction. All the records of the Presidential Documents were destroyed. The most relevant competencies of the Ministry included the coordination and supervision of road constructions, bridges, and ports, flood protection, canalization, navigation, railway construction and railway maintenance, public labor, post and telegraph issues from 1881 (the most relevant subfonds’ reference codes are: K 172, K 173, K 174, K 175).
Finding Aids: repertories, and contemporary registers.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian, less frequently German and Croatian.
Archives of the Ministry of Agriculture
Covering dates: 1867–1951 (1952)
The Ministry of Agriculture operated from June 1889 until April 1967. The records of the Ministry preserved in Section K date back to the period 1889-1944/45. The records of the Ministry (preserved prevailingly in the subfonds of the Presidential Documents (K 178, and the General Documents (K 184)) is the best preserved among the material of the ministries operating 1867-1944, although there are considerable lacunae in some specific years and competencies.
The most relevant competencies of the ministry involved the supervision of branches of forestry, horse-breeding, stud-farms and herds, animal welfare, institutes of agricultural education, animal husbandry, management of water supplies, canalization of the Danube, the Tisza and other Hungarian rivers, water protection, wine growing viniculture, circulation of real property, the real estate policy, parceling, issues related to farm servants and farm workers, the settlement policy, issues of holiday and bath resorts, economic issues, producers’ co-operatives, issues related to agricultural experimental and scientific stations, pasture policy, horticulture, fructiculture and olericulture, foreign trade, plant hygiene, meteorology, hunting and fishing.
Archives of the Ministry of Trade
Covering dates: 1867–1942
The ministry operated from June 15, 1889 until August 1935. From the archives of the ministry only the filed records from 1889-1899 were preserved, the records originated in the period 1900-1935 and the Presidential Documents from 1889-1935 were destroyed in the building of the ministry in 1945.
The most relevant competencies of the ministry involved the management and supervision of road constructions, public constructions, the state building operations, bridge constructions and maintenance, public labor, maritime administration, navigation and hydro engineering, railway construction and maintenance, the supervision over the Hungarian Royal Railways, foreign trade, economic, commercial and sanitary reports of consulates, customs policy, industry and domestic trade, state support granted to the industry, industrial expansion, exhibitions, industrial and commercial education, the supervision over the Patent Office (the subfonds’ reference codes are: K 227, K 228, K 229, K 230, K 231, K 232).
Finding Aids: repertories, and contemporary registers.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian, less frequently German and Croatian.
Archives of the Ministry of Industry
Covering dates: 1907–1949 (1950)
The Ministry of Industry operated from August 1935 until June 1949, as one of the legal successors of the Ministry of Trade. Nearly the entire archives of the Ministry was destroyed in the Lánchíd-street building of the Ministry during the siege of Budapest. The competencies of the Ministry involved the industrial administration, mining administration, energy utilization, patent rights. The only coherent material preserved is the records of the Department for Mining Research (K 857) from 1936-1943, whereas the subfond of the General Documents (K 239) comprises the fragmentary documentation of some departments and other documents sorted thematically.
Finding Aids: repertories.
Language: Hungarian.
Archives of the Ministry of Trade and Transport
Covering dates: (1903) 1933–1945
The Ministry of Trade and Transport operated from August 1935 until December 15, 1945, as one of the legal successors of the Ministry of Trade. The archives of the Ministry was destroyed in the Lánchíd-street building in January 1945, during the siege of Budapest. The competencies of the Ministry involved the domestic and foreign trade, the regulation of traffic, the management and supervision of tasks related to traffic, and the management of the issues of branch administration organs. The archives of the Ministry comprises also the fond the Foreign Trade Office, which operated until June 1945.
Finding Aids: repertories.
Language: Hungarian.
Archives of the Ministry of National Food Supply
Covering dates: 1919–1933
The Ministry of National Food Supply was established on August 1, 1919, under the direction of a minister without portfolio to co-ordinate the public supply and national food supply of Hungary. The Ministry ceased to operate on June 30, 1924. The surviving records of the Ministry (K 428) contain information on deliveries, on the issues related to mills, the food supply, the flour supply, grain and other food supply.
Finding Aids: repertories.
Language: Hungarian.
Hungarian Royal Office of Public Supply
Covering dates: 1940–1945 (1949)
The government appointed a minister without portfolio on December 17, 1940, to supervise public supply. The government established also a National Office of Public Supply subordinate to the minister. Prevailingly the records of the Presidential Department (K 250) from 1940-1945, on theoretical and personnel issues has been preserved.
Finding Aids: repertories.
Language: Hungarian.
Archives of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education
Covering dates: (1771) 1838–1951 (1954)
The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education operated from March 10, 1867 until May 19, 1951. This fond of the Ministry preserves the fragmentary records originated 1867- March 1945. The documents contain information on the organizational, material and personnel issues of universities, colleges, secondary schools, higher elementary schools, training-colleges for kindergarten-, elementary-school, and secondary-school teachers, commercial schools, schools of economy and agriculture, the colleges of special needs education, secondary educational authorities, the Hungarian Institutes abroad, the scientific institutions, the inland and foreign research grants, the cultural and scientific relations with other countries, student welfare issues, school health, student and youth organizations and unions.
Among the fonds of subordinate organs the records of the self-governing body, the so called Hungarian National Museum (previously called National Hungarian University of Collections), which comprised the greater national public collections, the documents of the National Superintendence of Museums and Libraries, the National Superintendence of Public Collections, the Hungarian Institute in Paris, and the Government Commissary appointed to the accounting and preservation of the sequestered artworks of Jews are of outmost importance.
Finding Aids: contemporary registers and repertories.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian, less frequently German and French.
Archives of the Ministry of Justice
Covering dates: (1770) 1867–1944 (1951)
The Ministry of Justice operated from March 10, 1867 until June 9, 2006. The fond of the ministry preserved in Section K contains fragmentary records originated 1867-1945. The records provide information prevailingly on the personnel and pension issues of the judicial system, the supervision, organisational and personnel issues of law courts, prosecutions, the chambers of civil law notaries and bar associations, issues related to penitentiaries, issues related to youth, issues related to legal opinions and information, codification, matrimonial, cadastral affaires, issues related to adoptions, redistribution of landed property, fidei commissum, criminal legislation, and clemency, international legal affaires, and the financial and constructional issues of the buildings of juridical organs.
The fonds of the subordinate organs form four major groups: the organs performing the legal representation on behalf of government organs, law courts, the prosecutions and the treasury. Among them the fragmentary fonds of the Hungarian Royal Supreme Court, the highest juridical authority of the country and the Treasury Directory, the legal representative of the Treasury need to be particularly emphasized.
Finding Aids: the repertory published in 1993.
Language: Hungarian.
Covering dates: 1914–1950
The so called Press Archives comprises two major units, the records of the Hungarian Telegraph Office Co. and the companies in its sphere of interest and the collected fond holding mainly newspaper clippings.
The fragmentary records of the news service agencies (the Hungarian Telegraph Office founded in 1881, The Hungarian Radio and Telephonograph Co. founded in 1893, the Hungarian National Intelligencer Co. founded in 1921, and the Hungarian Film Office Co. founded in 1923) are divided in two major groups: the records related to the procedure and the documents called news material.
The fond of the clippings preserves clippings from Hungarian and foreign newspapers, collected by the Press Departments of the Prime Minister’s Office and of the Ministry of Foreign Affaires.
Finding Aids: repertories. Most of the mimeographed news-bulletins of the Hungarian Telegraph Office Co. and those of the Hungarian National Intelligencer Co. are accessible in digitized form with joint databases from our web page.
Language: prevailingly Hungarian, less frequently German, French, English and Romanian.
