State Archives in Gdańsk


State Archives in Gdańsk is one of Poland's regional state archives. The archive in the city of Gdańsk was founded under Prussian jurisdiction in 1901. The headquarters is located at Wałowa 5 Street in Gdańsk. The office in Gdynia is located at Handlowa 11 street.
From 1920 to 1939 it has been the National Archives of the Free City of Danzig.

History

The archive was created in the years 1899 to 1901. The archives of the city of Danzig had been taken over. Records concerning West Prussia had been transferred from the state archives in Königsberg, East Prussia. The archives opened on April 1, 1901 and on February 14, 1903 in an own building. In October 1901 Max Bär became director, who introduced "Bär's Principle". Adolf Warschauer took over the lead from Bär in 1912, he became the first jew who was director of a Prussian state archive.
A portion of 20 percent of the records was destroyed during World War II in 1945, 30 percent had been damaged. A larger portion of the remaining records had been transferred from Germany and Soviet Union in the years 1947 to 1965. A branch was opened in Gdynia in 1997.

Official names

The archive went through several name changes under different jurisdictions: