• Introduction
  • Address
  • Characteristics and Physical Size
  • Directorate
  • Practical Hints for Users and Clients
  • Opening-hours of the Research Room
• The Archival Holdings
  • 1st Group: Personnel Records
  • 2nd Group: House-Guards and Military-Schools
  • 3rd Group: Parish Registers and War Casualties
  • 4th Group: Judicial Archives
  • 5th Group: Old Campaign Files
  • 6th Group: New Campaign Files
  • 7th Group: Central Offices
  • 8th Group: Mid Offices and Territorial Authorities
  • 9th Group: Naval Archives
  • 10th Group: Air Force Archives
  • 11th Group: Collections of Maps and Plans
  • 11th Group: Collections of Pictures
  • Records' group "Personal - Funds and Collections"
  • Notes
• Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Address:

(You may reach the archive via subway line U 3, station Erdberg)

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CHARACTERISTICS AND PHYSICAL SIZE

The Archives holds about 40 linear kilometers (roughly 25 miles) of records including more than 240,000 archival units (boxes/facsimiles/books), more than 416,000 maps and plans, as well as about 300,000 pictures.

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Directorate

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PRACTICAL HINTS FOR USERS AND CLIENTS

Initial information will be given by the archives' directorate. If not too time-consuming, written inquiries will be answered without charge by the archive advisors. Photocopies, photographs, readerprints and microfilms can be ordered for a charge.

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OPENING-HOURS OF THE RESEARCH ROOM

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THE ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS

1st Group: Personnel Records

• Roll call records (personnel lists) 1740 - 1820
  
• Basic service sheets 1820 - 1918
  
• United Evidence-Offices for Military Service (*) 1938 - 1945
  
• Enlistment registers and enrollment lists 1862 - 1918
  
• Conduct-evaluations of officers 1823 - 1869
  
• Qualification-evaluations of officers. 1869 - 1918
  
• Rank and arrangements lists of officers 1914 - 1918
  
• Rank registers of officers 1860 - 1918
  
• Retirement and pension books 1749 - 1920
  
• Pay registers for persons on staff 1753 - 1819
  
• Trust fund evidence (marriages of officers) 1755 - 1918
  
• Records of soldiers' children 1770 - 1870
  
• Certificates for non-commissioned officers 1872 - 1918
  
• Retirement and pension records 1919 - 1986
  
• Medical reports 1914 - 1918
  
• Death notices, and press clippings 1918 - 1996
  
• Military Bandmasters' Pension Fund 1860 - 1918

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2nd Group: House-Guards and Military-Schools

• House-guards' records 1625 - 1918
  
• Basic service sheets of the house-guards 1767 - 1918
  
• Instructions for the house-guards
  
• Educational establishments of the army 18th - 20th century
  
• Schools for reserve officers 1914 - 1918

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3rd Group: Parish Registers and War Casualties

• Military parish registers
• Military units and institutions 17th century - 1920
  
• World War I 1914 - 1918
  
• Military hospitals (death registers ) 1779 - 1922
  
• First Federal Army 1923 - 1938
  
• Card index to military parish registers (*) 1914 - 1918
  
• Phonetic card index of war casualties (*) 1914 - 1918
  
• Lists of war casualties 1914 - 1918
  
• Prisoners of war (lists, and card indexes) (*) 1914 - 1918
  
• Military hospitals (patients' sheets) 1914 - 1918
  
• Burial records 1914 - 1918
  
• Soldiers' returns (*) 1918 - 1920

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4th Group: Judicial Archives

• Court-martial files(*) 1790 - 1918
  This huge record group needs to be completely reorganized!

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5th Group: Old Campaign Files

• Old campaign files 15th century - 1882
  
• Orders of Battle 1858 - 1878
  
• Chief of the general staff 1808 - 1918
  
• Austrian-Belgian Volunteers' Corps in Mexico 1864 - 1867
  
• Memoranda
  
• Manuscripts
  
• Directorate of the War Archives 1801 - 1996

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6th Group: New Campaign Files

• Staff of the commander-in-chief 1914 - 1918
  
• Bureau for public relations 1914 - 1918
  
• Reports concerning the overthrow of 1918 1918 - 1919
  
• Commission for investigating violations of duty 1919 - 1921
  
• Campaign files and reports 1914 - 1918
  
• Archives of military corps and units 1783 - 1918
  
• Decorations, and awards 1789 - 1958
  
• Archive of the Maria Theresien Military Order 1757 - 1939

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7th Group: Central Offices

• Military Chancellery of the Emperor 1848 - 1918
  
• General Adjutant's Office of the Emperor 1867 - 1918
  
• Chancellery of Archduke Francis Ferdinand 1898 - 1914
  
• Staff of the replacement's department 1917 - 1918
  
• Viennese Aulic War Council
  
• Main series 1557 - 1848
  
• Presidential series 1805 - 1848
  
• Chancellery's Archive 15th - 19th century
  
• Appointments 1466 - 1766
  
• Schemata (Officers' lists) 1583 - 1849
  
• Testaments and bequest 1639 - 1771
  
• Imprints and instructions 1570 - 1918
  
• Records of the Military Border 1761 - 1880
  
• Commercial records 1751 - 1776
  
• Inner-Austrian War Council 1578 - 1749
  
• Aulic War Council in Prague 1593 - 1611
  
• General War Commissariat 1733 - 1768
  
• General Imperial War Commissariat 1793 - 1805
  
• Archive of Minister Count Moritz Lacy 1771 - 1801
  
• Minister of War Archduke Charles 1801 - 1814
  
• Ministry of War, and
  
• Office for the liquidation of military matters 1849 - 1931
  
• Presidential series
  
• Main series
  
• Apostolic Field Vicariate 1735 - 1918
  
• Ministry for home defense 1868 - 1921

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8th Group: Mid Offices and Territorial Authorities

• Chief engineering office 1756 - 1918
  
• Chief ordnance department 1772 - 1857
  
• Supreme Directorate for medical officers 1779 - 1853
  
• Chief maintenance office 1780 - 1803
  
• Office for disabled persons 1723 - 1803
  
• Technical Military Committee 1862 - 1918
  
• Old ordnance archive
  
• Ordnance plans' (blueprints') collection
  
• Central Office for Transportation 1914 - 1918
  
• Central telegraphy-office 1914 - 1918
  
• War surveillance office 1914 - 1918
  
• General Command in Vienna 1749 - 1922
  
• General Command in Graz (*) 19th century - 1922
  
• General Command in Innsbruck 1859 - 1921
  
• Civil and Military Government in Vienna 1848 - 1855
  
• Tyrolian Military Command 1781 - 1801
  
• Vorder-Austrian General Command 1770 - 1800
  
• Netherlands General Command 1766 - 1794
  
• Mainzer Government 1796 - 1798
  
• Aulic Military Commissions 1703 - 1830

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9th Group: Naval Archives

• Old Naval Archive 1814 - 1863
  
• Department of the Navy 1801 - 1805
  
• Supreme Naval Command at Venice and Trieste 1813 - 1862
  
• Navy Ministry 1862 - 1864
  
• Ministry of War - Naval Section 1864 - 1923
  
• Economic and administrative records 1802 - 1918
  
• Naval forces and detachments 1858 - 1918
  
• Commands at sea and squadron formations 1851 - 1918
  
• Navigational logs and ship-journals 1820 - 1917
  
• Central Office for Transportation - Naval Section 1914 - 1918
  
• Conduct and qualification evaluations 1817 - 1918
  
• Basic service sheets and enrollment lists 1760 - 1918
  
• Naval court martial records (*) 1908 - 1918
  
• Naval educational establishments 1810 - 1918
  
• Central Naval Archives 1884 - 1930
  
• Collection of naval charts and technical drawings
  
• Collection of navigational charts
  
• Collection of naval photographs

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10th Group: Air Force Archives

• Personnel records and card indexes 1914 - 1918
  
• Technical files 1914 - 1918
  
• Air force units (”Fliegerkompanien”) 1914 - 1918
  
• Collection of technical drawings
  
• Collection of aviation photographs

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11th Group: Collections of Maps and Plans

• Sets of geographical maps
  
• Topographic maps (surveys)
  
• Physical maps
  
• Thematic maps
  
• Atlases, globes, and models (*)
  
• Maps of towns and cities and of their surroundings
  
• Views of towns and cities
  
• Plans (drawings, sketches, blueprints), and views of buildings
  
• War maps, and maps of military maneuvers
  
• Map Archive of the Army Engineering Branch
  
• Topographical descriptions

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11th Group: Collections of Pictures

• Portraits collection
  
• "War Photo Collection": World War I
  
• First Federal Army's photo collection
  
• Photo Collection - Zweiter Weltkrieg
  
• Pictures collection - World War II
  
• Air Photographs - World War I
  
• Air Photographs - First Federal Army
  
• ”New Pictures Collection ”: uniforms, weapons, equipment
  
• Picture postcards
  
• The ”Beer” collection (glass negatives)
  
• The ”Weiß-Starkenfels” collection (prints, and lithographs)

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Records' group "Personal - Funds and Collections"

• Manuscripts
  
• Pamphlets
  
• Press clippings
  
• Microfilms
  
• Family archives
  
• Personal funds (bequests, and deposits) 1618 - 1996

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Notes

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• English
  • EGGER, Rainer: "The Kriegsarchiv", In: Austrian History Yearbook 6/7, Wien 1970/71.
• French
  • BENARD, Anne-Gälle: Guide des Archives Nationales autrichiennes a l'usage du lecteur francophone (= Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs, Inventare 1), Wien 1995.
• German
  • ALLMAYER-BECK, Johann Christoph: "Die Kanzlei und das Archiv des Militär-Maria-Theresien-Ordens", In: Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 10, Wien 1957.
  • BROUCEK, Peter:
    • "Nachlässe und Donationen, eine Sammlung des Kriegsarchivs", In: Scrinium 7, Wien 1972.
    • "Die Handschriftensammlung des Kriegsarchivs, In: Scrinium 11, Wien 1974.
  • DE'AK, Istva'n, Der k.(u.)k. Offizier, Wien/ Köln/ Weimar 1991.
  • EGGER, Rainer:
    • "Das Kriegsarchiv und seine genealogischen Quellen", In: Scrinium 5, Wien 1971.
    • "Die Militärkanzlei des Erzherzog-Thronfolgers Franz Ferdinand und ihr Archiv im Kriegsarchiv Wien", In: Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 28, Wien 1975.
    • "Archivalien des Kriegsarchivs Wien über die Familie Papst Johannes Pauls II.", In: Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 32, Wien 1979.
  • FODOR, Livius: "Die österreichischen Militärgerichtsakten", In: Scrinium 7, Wien 1972.
  • HILLBRAND, Erich:
    • "Die Kartenbestände des Kriegsarchivs Wien für das Gebiet der ehemaligen Militärgrenze", In: Schriften des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums in Wien 6, Wien 1973.
    • "Die Kartensammlung des Kriegsarchivs Wien", In: Mitteilungen des österreichischen Staatsarchivs 28, Wien 1975.
  • REGELE, Oskar: Der österreichische Hofkriegsrat 1556-1848, Wien 1949.
  • ROSSA, Karl: "Die 'Marineakten' in der Präsidialreihe des Hofkriegsrates", In: Scrinium 38, Wien 1988.
  • TEPPERBERG, Christoph:
    • "Der k.u.k. Chef des Ersatzwesens und sein Archiv", In: Scrinium 28, Wien 1983.
    • "Die Musterungs- und Standesakten der k.k.Armee am Beispiel der Ersten Triester Marine 1786-1797", In: Scrinium 38, Wien 1988.
  • WAGNER, Walter:
    • Geschichte des k.k. Kriegsministeriums 1848-1888, 2 volumes, Wien/ Köln/ Graz 1966-1971.
    • "Quellen zur Geschichte der Militärgrenze im Kriegsarchiv Wien", In: Schriften des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums in Wien 6, Wien 1973.
    • "Das Archiv der k.u.k. Kriegsmarine im Kriegsarchiv Wien, In: Schriften des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums in Wien 8, Wien 1980.
    • Das Artilleriearchiv im Kriegsarchiv/ Wien", In: Scrinium 28, Wien 1983.
    • "Die k.(u.)k. Armee. Gliederung und Aufgabenstellung", In: Die bewaffnete Macht (= Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848-1918, 5), Wien 1987.
  • WREDE, Alphons Freiherr von: Geschichte der k. und k. Wehrmacht, 5 volumes, Wien 1898-1905.
  • Inventar des Kriegsarchivs, 2 volumes, Wien 1953.
  • Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914-1918, 22 volumes, Wien 1930-1938
  • Schematismus für das K.u.K. Heer, Wien 1790-1918.
• Hungarian
  • BROUCEK, Peter: "Abe'csi Hadileve'lta'r e's a magyar tö'rtenelemmel kapcsolatos forra'sai", In: Hadtörte'nelmi Közleme'nyek 1, Budapest 1990.

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