The National Archives in Vaduz is the centralised archive for all the Principality of Liechtenstein State Offices. It also holds private archive materials for safekeeping and augments its own documentation and collections. All Liechtenstein Law Gazettes can be downloaded from a database at the Liechtenstein National Public Administration website. A total of approximately 5,000 linear meters of archive materials, which represent a major part of the Liechtenstein cultural heritage were administered by the National Archives in 2020.
The Archives Act (LGBl. 1997 No. 215) of October 1997 defines the corresponding duties and goals: “The National Archives, the archives of the municipalities and the independent public-law institutions and foundations of the State shall preserve cultural heritage.” State archival records are subject to an embargo period of 30 years after creation; archival records relating to natural persons, to a period of 80 years. Since 2016, Liechtenstein has had an agreement with Switzerland to store around 5,000 microfilm copies of historically significant archive materials in the official Swiss microfilm archive. Back-up copies in the form of microfilms can contribute substantially to the restoration of damaged or destroyed cultural assets.
According to the Archives and Municipalities Acts, the municipalities of Liechtenstein are required to maintain their own archives. The municipal archives often also look after the archives of the Alpine cooperatives, estates of private individuals and archives of associations as well as individual collections.
In terms of church archives, the Catholic parish archives should be mentioned above all, whose document collections also date back to the late Middle Ages. The historical documents are for the most part stored in the National Archives or in the respective municipal archives. The archives of the former Liechtenstein Deanery are kept in the National Archives.
Family and company archives are usually not open to the public. But this is not true of the important private archives of the Rheinberger family in Vaduz. The musical estate of the Liechtenstein composer Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (see 1.1) is kept in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. The private estate, however, as well as the documentation of his creative work and his works are kept in the Josef Gabriel Rheinberger Archive (RhAV), which has been in the National Archives since 1998. In 2020/2021, the International Josef Gabriel Rheinberger Society (IRG) proposed to the Ministry of Culture that the approximately 40 objects in Rheinberger’s birthplace in Vaduz (today’s Music School) be made accessible.
The House Archives of the reigning Princes of Liechtenstein are of great cultural value. It contains records of the princely family and property history, but also important information on the State of Liechtenstein. In 2007, Prince Hans-Adam II arranged for the archived material to be transferred from Vaduz Castle to Vienna by the end of 1954. The more recent archive material is still at the Castle. While the National Archives document the administrative activities of the Principality, the House Archives contain the records of the Princely Family. The archive is one of the best-preserved archives of nobility in the German-speaking world. It contains valuable sources on the political, economic and cultural activities of important family members. There are also documents on the history of the princely possessions in Austria and the Czech Republic.
Given the poor records in Liechtenstein until the early 19th century, foreign archives are of particular importance for historical research, especially the national or state archives in Innsbruck, Bregenz, Vienna, Bern, St. Gallen and Glarus, as well as the archives of nobility in Hohenems (in Bregenz) and Sulz (in Český Krumlov, CZ) and the archives of the former Princely Abbey of Kempten (in Augsburg).
Libraries in Liechtenstein have no long-standing tradition. The Princely House had an extensive library in Vienna, the oldest holdings of which dated back to Hartmann II of Liechtenstein (1544–1585). Much was lost during the Second World War. In 1995, the Princely Library had only about 80,000 volumes, most of which were in Vienna and some at Vaduz Castle.
Parishes, municipalities and private individuals endeavoured to set up school, youth and lending libraries starting in the later 19th century. The Liechtenstein Library Network with a common library card was established in 2000. It includes the library of the Data Protection Office, the Historical Society, the Liechtenstein Art Museum, the Liechtenstein Institute, the Mühleholz and Lower Country school centres, the library of the University of Liechtenstein, the Mauren Municipal Library, the Balzers School and Municipal Library, the Ruggell School Library, the Schellenberg School Library, the Walser Library Triesenberg and, as the largest and most important public library in Liechtenstein, the Liechtenstein National Library, founded in 1961 as the National Library (see 1.3.1 and 1.3.3), which also manages the National Teachers’ Library. In 2019, the National Library recorded 233,984 check-outs and 49,600 visitors. The number of printed books checked out rose to 125,777, while at the same time the number of e-books checked out also increased sharply. The websites were visited 68,635 times, and the media increased by 5,614.
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