Danish Foreign Ministry Archives
History
Danish Foreign Ministry Archives at the Danish National Archive
The records of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Udenrigsministeriet) are filed in groups and sub-groups. Groups have numbers, for instance, main group 1 is material on the Danish royal house and its international relations, 5 is foreign policy relations in general, 6 is war related issues, 104 is development assistance/'Danida', 119 is the UN. Higher numbers are on domestic issues in individual foreign countries (predominantly reporting from Danish missions), such as 131 for Portugal and 255 for Zambia.
Each of these main filing groups is divided to sub-groups marked with a letter. For instance, 5.Q is Danish foreign policy vis-a-vis Africa and 131.K is Portugal's policies in her colonies. Most of these sub-groups marked with a letter consist of sub-sub filings with a number, sometimes related to subject, sometimes as serial numbers.
All filing numbers (that were started before 1973) can be found in the Foreign Ministry Filing Record ('Udenrigsministeriets Journaliseringsreigstrant'). A copy of this is kept in a reference section of the National Archives (Rigsarkivet) in the public reading room. An inventory of 1945 - 1972 Foreign Ministry material is also kept here.
The Danish National Archives receives all the material from Danish ministries and state institutions, as standard procedure. In addition, many private organizations and individuals transfer and donate collections to the Archives.
According to Danish law public material is restricted for 20 years and private collections for 75 years. Access to material of this age, and older, is normally granted as routine. On application, privileged access can on special occasions be granted to material younger than these time limits (see: http://www.sa.dk/). All applications for access to material, both old and new, must be made to the Archive and the Archive may refer it to the Ministry through an internal procedure.
Foreign Ministry material has over time been transferred to the National Archives in chronological portions. All material older than and including 1972 has already been transferred, and files from the years 1973 to 1988 are due to be transferred within the next few years. Younger files are kept at the Ministry.
One major transfer includes material for the period 1945 to 1972. A second section of material from the years 1973 to 1978 was kept in the Foreign Ministry at the time of research (1996-98), and is in the process of being physically transferred to the Rigsarkivet. A third group of material from 1979 onwards is kept as microfiche in the Ministry.
Access
The list is originally based on the filing record covering records for the period 1945 to 1972 in the National Archive. This material was transferred from the Ministry to the Archive in one bulk with its index. It is supplemented with index lists for 1973 to 1988 and for 1989 onwards.
Names of filing groups are translated to English from the Danish Index list by Morgenstierne who has also added the notes in: {}.
(Note: italics = latest year found by NAI project, younger material is likely to exist).
Address
Danish National Archives
[Danish: 'Rigsarkivet']
Rigsdagsgården 9
DK-1218 Copenhagen K
DENMARK
Telephone: +45 33923310
Fax: +45 33 15 32 39
E-mail: mailbox@ra.sa.dk
http://www.sa.dk/
External link.
http://www.sa.dk/content/dk/temaer_til_inspiration/se_alle_temaer/find_sagen/udenrigsministeriets_arkivsystem (In Danish)
| Extent: | Unknown. |
|---|---|
| Country: | Denmark |
| Period: | 1945-0 |
| Keywords: | Danish Foreign Ministry Archives Denmark Angola Mozambique Namibia South Africa Zimbabwe International relations Danida |