Jan Haugner (University of Bern)
The paper highlights the key role of archives for the political decision-making and state-representation of republics in the Old Swiss Confederacy. In the early modern age, the Swiss archives were under close control of the central aristocratic organs of the state. From the late 16th century onwards, these councils became throughout the centuries increasingly aware of the potential of their archival collections. Closely connected to a more and more offensive self-presentation as a republic, the visible connection of accumulated knowledge and power gained importance. In 1696 the small council of Lucerne even called the archive “des Standes Seel” (the soul of the state). Therefore, control of and access to the documents were of large interest for different actors who tried to instrumentalize them for their own agencies. The state organs which controlled the archive therefore had to constantly evaluate whether it would be more beneficial or risky to allow or deny interested parties access to or influence on the archive. Examining the role of the state archives therefore is an ideal case study for understanding how archives as a memory institution connected history with the understanding of the present as well as with the shaping of future politics.