ARCHIVAL AND LIBRARY COLLECTIONS IN THE

ARCHIVES OF REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA FROM THE

PERIOD OF WORLD WAR ONE (1914.-1918.)

Vladan Vukliš
Archives of Republic of Srpska
Banja Luka

Abstract: This paper serves as a guide through archival fonds and collections of
the Archives of Republic of Srpska which contain records created in the period
between 1914 and 1918. The text provides basic information on fonds and
collections, describes their state of arrangement, description and accessibility, and
gives a detailed information on textual contents in relation to their significance
for specific profiles of historical research. Next to detailed description of fond
Kreisbehörde Banjaluka (1878-1918), special attention is given to fonds of judicial
provenance – including the K. u. k. Gericht des Militärstationskommando in
Banjaluka (1914-1917) – which could be used as sources for histories of everyday
life during the Great War. This text also mentions our library items created until
the end of 1918.
Key words: World War One, Archives of the Republic of Srpska, Kreisbehörde
(Banjaluka), K. u. k. Gericht des Militärstationskommando (Banjaluka), District
Courts, Doboj archives

Few months before recent historians’ international conference in Sarajevo

(“The Great War: Regional Approaches and Global Contexts”), Ulf Brunnbauer,
professor from Regensburg, stated that even though this conference will probably
not bring any groundbreaking news, there’s a new trend in research in Southeast
Europe that’s directed towards uncovering histories of everyday life in the World
War. “Today”, he stated, “we know very little about it”.1 Without going into detailed
analysis of this statement in relation to the rest of Southeast Europe, as far as
Bosnia and Herzegovina is concerned, it can be said that this form of research has

1
“Die Serben wollen Princip zum Helden machen”, Die Welt , 18. 12. 2013. [www.welt.de, 7. 7.
2014.].

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Građa Arhiva Bosne i Hercegovine Грaђa Архива Босне и Херцеговине

barely scratched the surface. We’re leaving aside the fact that only few historians
in Bosnia-Herzegovina explore the 1914.-1918. period, and that the number of
those who endeavored in such inquiries would have been even smaller, if not for
the challenges posed by the Centennial.2 The reasons are twofold. On the one
hand, vast majority of historians in the West Balkans still cling on to positivist
issues and methods.3 On the other hand, it is up to the archivists to take the part of
the blame. If this domination of positivism is to be reduced to a healthy balance
between several research approaches, archivists, especially historians employed in
the archives as archivists, need to be able to recognize the new trends and to shift
the heuristic perspective towards archival sources that could be used in the research
of everyday, social and micro-histories, but which remain, for the most part, intact.
Without further introduction – and with the hope that the archivists in
other archives in Bosnia-Herzegovina which haven’t done the same, will use the
opportunity given by the Centennial and do so in the following year – I will present
our archival and library materials from the Austro-Hungarian years, focusing on
the period from 1914. to 1918.

Fond Kreisbehörde Banjaluka

The most important of all fonds in our custody that come from the Austro-
Hungarian era is the fond of Kreisbehörde Banjaluka (Banjaluka County Govern-
ment). The reason for its importance is the fact that this fond was created by one
of six county governments that operated during the Austro-Hungarian rule (there
were county governments in Bihać, Banjaluka, Travnik, Tuzla, Sarajevo and Mo-
star). It gains in value when we consider the fact that only 4 of these fonds were
saved, now all of them only partially, including Kreisbehörde Sarajevo, which was
significantly damaged during the February fire (it was made up of 27 meters of
records),4 Kreisbehörde Mostar (2 meters of records), as well as Kreisbehörde
2
Few papers presented at the before mentioned conference fit into this new trend, such as: Seka
Brkljača, “Orchestrated Social Life of the City in Total War – Sarajevo 1914-1918”, Jasmin
Branković, “Life in Mostar during the War”, Amila Kasumović, “The Health Situation in Bosnia
& Herzegovina during the First World War”, etc.
3
For general analysis of Serbia’s historiography, which can easily be applied to Bosnia-Herzegovina
as well, see: М. Јовановић, „Историографија и криза“, in M. Јовановић, Р. Радић, Криза
историје, Београд 2009.
4
On February 7th, 2014, at the high point of social unrest which spread throughout Bosnia-
Herzegovina, “Depot no. 1” of the Archives of Bosnia-Herzegovina was struck with the fate of

12
 Vladan Vukliš

Bihać (which contains only 3 boxes). The ones from Travnik and Tuzla do not
exist.5
Our fond consists of 27 boxes and 13 books, spanning from 1880 to 1918. One
can certainly say that it was decimated throughout its existence, given the fact that
it’s 10 times smaller than the one from Sarajevo, held by the Archives of Bosnia-
Herzegovina (ABiH). When the Archives of the City of Banjaluka (Arhiv grada
Banjaluke) were established in 1953 in the basement of local government building,
employees took under its wing piles of archival material that were accumulated
there throughout half the century.6 Among them were materials dating from
the Austro-Hungarian period that were mixed with other records, in a complete
disorder. And not only were these records mixed, but they also overlapped, as
records created by Kreisbehörde Banjaluka were used as a source of office paper in
the entire post-Habsburg era.7 In fact, re-use of old records and their destruction
by boiler room workers and cellulose factories was stopped “in the last moment”
when the city’s Archives were finally established.8
As a consequence, the whole body of Kreisbehörde Banjaluka fond – or what
was left of it – had to be identified, gathered and reconstructed. It was, of course,
arranged and made available for use. Peculiar feature of its arrangement, though,
is that it was done in the early 1960s, when archivists, probably due to their lack of
knowledge, decided not to reconstruct the original order and connect the items into
files, but to arrange every single piece of paper chronologically. The good side of
their work is that they transcribed all the records and left us a detailed handwritten
inventory. We believe that several meters of additional records of this provenance
are still “trapped” in other fonds in our custody (such as Okružna oblast Banjaluka,
Veliki župan Vrbaske oblasti, Kraljevska banska uprava Vrbaske banovine, Narodni
odbor Grada Banjaluke, etc.), which requires a new process of revision.

collateral damage when the mass of protesters attacked the building shared with the Presidency
of Bosnia-Herzegovina. As a result, archival material kept at the front side of the ground floor
caught fire and suffered heavy damages.
5
Arhivski fondovi i zbirke u arhivima i arhivskim odeljednjima u SFRJ: SR Bosna i Hercegovina,
Beograd 1981.
6
I. Ibrišagić, „Osnivanje i rad Sreskog arhiva u Banjoj Luci“, Glasnik arhiva i društva arhivskih
radnika Bosne i Hercegovine (Sarajevo), III (1963), 45.
7 Archives of the Republic of Srpska (ARSBL), fond dossier 1.
8
I. Ibrišagić, „Osnivanje i rad Sreskog arhiva u Banjoj Luci“, Glasnik [...], 45-46.

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Građa Arhiva Bosne i Hercegovine Грaђa Архива Босне и Херцеговине

Unfortunately, only 4 boxes contain materials from the war years, while 11
books have entries from this period. The textual contents itself is quite diverse: the
fond contains almost all types of corresponding material, including information
and orders issued by Landesregierung, several types of permits, various reports
by district and county authorities, correspondence with schools, petitions, criminal
charges and so on. The most important part of these records are those which are
most certainly unrepeatable (meaning they can not be found in Landesregierung
or Finanz-ministerium fonds in ABiH), primarily various correspondence
(including reports, especially handwritten ones) of district authorities with County
government in Banjaluka, concerning political and social issues in the context of
the Assassination, the July Crisis and the European war.9 Even though there’s not
a whole lot of material saved, what is preserved certainly has specific historical
value – the material from the war period is without a doubt a significant source for
both political and social history of this period in the region of Bosanska Krajina
and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Fond K. u. k. Gericht des Militärstationskommando in Banjaluka

The most interesting fond from this period, in my opinion, is the one that was
barely used in research. In October 1987, State Archives of Bosnia-Herzegovina
transferred nine fonds and one integrated fond to the archives in Banjaluka (then
the Archives of Bosanska Krajina), due to their geographic provenance. One
of those fonds was the Garrison Court of Banjaluka (K. u. k. Garnisonsgericht
in Banjaluka), which was then ascribed 64 bundles and 15 books, spanning
from 1869 to 1914.10 Those bundles, which are quite thick, contain about 1.600
criminal cases, usually against members of the army, for various offenses, such
as desertions, banditry and so on. The fond in question – which builds up on the
previous one – began its creation after July 26, 1914, day after Serbia declined
the July Ultimatum, when a law was enacted that gave military courts judicial
powers over civilians in matters of order and security, for crimes such as treason,
violence, offense of the crown and state, etc. As the war ensued, Garrison Court
Banjaluka was renamed Military Command Court Banjaluka (K. u. k. Gericht des

9
Some of this material was used in our latest exhibition, as well as in few other exhibitions
marking the Centennial throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina; see: Б. Стојнић, Млада Босна и
Сарајевски атентат: каталог изложбе, АРС – УАРРС, Бањалука 2014.
10
See ARSBL, fond dossier 504.

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 Vladan Vukliš

Militärstationskommando). Decades later, before it was transferred to the Archives

of Bosanska Krajina, archivists in Sarajevo treated its records as a separate fond
and formed 51 bundles spanning from 1914 to 1917.
Upon closer inspection I counted 42 technical units containing approximately
1.200 files labeled “K”, which represent criminal court proceedings. Each of these
items is perfectly ordered both externally and internally. Each file is in its original
casing and “Tagebuch” (item list), usually starts with criminal charges, contains
investigation and ruling procedures, and ends with a verdict and imprisonment data.
Most of the cases, more than half, are based on charges of insulting the crown and
state, with allot of cursing, as well as disturbing public order. There are also cases
of spreading false rumors, possession of firearms and breaking military oath and
discipline. Next to these, we have two additional units labeled “K 219/1917” that
contain some 30 files on Bosnian citizens, expatriates suspected of taking part in
the war on the side of the enemy. There are also 20 files of investigation procedures
(labeled “E”) that did not end with an indictment (for example, gendarme kills a
suspect, but the authorities conclude it was in self-defense). Fond also contains
6 units (around 70 cm) of praesidial correspondence, numerated and arranged,
labeled “a/a” (ad acta), almost completely in German. This basically means that we
have twice as much Command Court praesidial records than the whole body of
records in Kreisbehörde Banjaluka, for the same time period — but the former, as
I’ve said, was barely used in research. Finally, I found that 4 of the books identified
as a part of Garrison Court actually belong to this fond, while one of them is in
fact an empty book cover containing records: day-to-day reports on daily events
issued by the Command station in Banjaluka, for whole 6 months in 1915 and 1
month in 1917.11
I believe that this fond is ready description and indexation, and, in my opinion,
it can be easily digitalized, after it gets cleaned. Its research values are numerous.
First of all, it offers us a glimpse into records of military provenance which are
– beside the similar ones held by the Historical Archives of Sarajevo (HAS) –
quite rare.12 Secondly, hundreds of court procedures are not only a sample, but a
11
This mistake was immediately corrected and the records were tied into a new bundle.
12
HAS holds the richest collection of records created by military courts; they keep 12 fonds that
were created by military and gendarme courts in Sarajevo, Banjaluka, Tuzla, Dubrovnik and
Vienna. (See: Vodič kroz fondove i zbirke Istorijskog arhiva Sarajevo, Sarajevo 2003, 52-54).
Archives of Tuzla Canton, for their par, hold the Garrison Court of Tuzla fond (1909/1917,
16 meters). (See: I. Šabotić, N. Hodžić, S. Isić, Vodič kroz arhivske fondove i zbirke Arhiva
Tuzlanskog kantona, Tuzla 2012, 141.)

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Građa Arhiva Bosne i Hercegovine Грaђa Архива Босне и Херцеговине

complete set of records which testify to the relation of the state and the population.
They can be used to explore the structure of state repression against civilians, for
example through application of cliometrics (who was on trial for what, who were
the witnesses, what were the sentences and so on); they can also be used in other
profiles of research, and, of course, we can treat them as vast source of personal
information.13 I will also add that pieces of these two military fonds have somehow
found their way to the depots of HAS: they hold 1 box of Garrison Court from
1905 and 4 boxes of Militärkommando Banjaluka from 1915 and 1916.14

District courts of Doboj, Bosanski Brod and Maglaj

As far as civilian courts are concerned, on the one hand, in our County Court
Banjaluka fond (Okružni sud Banjaluka), we have saved only fragments of material
from the war period (vast part of this fond from the year 1915 of about 10 meters,
is still kept in ABiH); on the other hand, there’s about 13 meters of records from
the Austro-Hungarian period in the fonds of district courts of Doboj, Bosanski
Brod and Maglaj. They are kept in our offices and depots in Doboj, which have,
fortunately, survived the recent floods.15
All three of these fonds span from the period of Occupation all the way to
socialist era. They were taken in by the Archives of the City of Doboj not long
after it was established in 1954. Together, these fonds contain 66 boxes from
1914 to 1918 (plus books).16 All of them are, of course, quite similar, since all
of district courts applied unified record management. Thus they have the same

13
If 1.200 cases against individuals contain names of at least two witnesses, we can speculate there
are about 5.000 names of civilians involved in these processes, and, additionally, hundreds of
names of officials employed by the courts, local governments, gendarmerie and the military.
14
Vodič kroz fondove i zbirke Istorijskog arhiva Sarajevo, 54.
15
The city of Doboj was almost completely flooded in the middle of May 2014 by river Bosna, as
it rose to record heights and broke the dams. The Archives, luckily, sit at the first and second
floor of the building whose ground floor was flooded all the way to the ceiling. The records
remained intact. However, elevation of the Archives was not accidental: Doboj was already hit
by a major flood in 1965, when the Archives were completely submerged. Records had to be
washed and dried, while a significant amount had to be destroyed. Next year the Archives were
moved to its present location.
16
District Court Doboj contains 24 boxes from the war years (out of 33), the one from Bosanski
Brod has 13 (out of 28) while the one from Maglaj has 29 (out of 74 boxes from the Austro-
Hungarian era).

16
 Vladan Vukliš

labels for the same types of files. And various types are saved: we have praesidial
records (“Präs”), litigations (“P”), death certificates and inheritance (“smrtovnice”
or “Os”), foreclosures (“O” and “Ov”), land registry files (“R”), guardianships
(“Si”), criminal investigations (“A”) and persecutions (“B”). These fonds are not
divided into “socio-political time-frames” (i. e. 1918, 1941, 1945), but are kept as an
institutional whole, divided into uninterrupted series, like the ones we have already
mentioned. Files within these series are arranged by their original numbers. None
of these fonds have any form of inventory,17 apart from the manuscripts I found
authored by Vlado Babić, the late director of former Regional Archives of Doboj.
While military courts offer us a source for conflict between civilians and
the state, civilian courts give us an insight into conflicts among civilians, namely
through 17 boxes (from 1914 to 1918) of persecutions based on civilian arraigns
(“B”). Also, 6 boxes of criminal investigations (“A”) offer us a glimpse into margins
of everyday and social history. Preasidial records, for their part, testify to judicial
practices (including those of sharia courts) in times of war. I believe that fonds
such as these – including those of district and county courts in the archives in Tuzla,
Sarajevo and Mostar – will be crucial for the research of histories of everyday life
and all its complexities and dynamics not only in the period of the Great War but
also before and afterwards.18

Smaller Fonds, Record Collections and the Library

We also hold additional records from the Austro-Hungarian and the war
period scattered throughout several other fonds such as Hydro-technical Unit of
Banjaluka, Land Registry of District Court of Prnjavor, district governments of
Zvornik and Derventa, Cadaster of Banjaluka in the fond of District Assembly
of Banjaluka (1945–1966), Wood Distillery Teslić, Serb-Orthodox Municipality
of Bosanski Brod, Vakufsko-mearifsko povjereništvo Banjaluka and eight school
fonds.

17
Guide from 1981 inaccurately states otherwise, claiming that they have summary inventories;
Arhivski fondovi i zbirke u arhivima i arhivskim odeljednjima u SFRJ: SR Bosna i Hercegovina, 72.
18
Archives of HNK (former Archives of Herzegovina) in Mostar hold 31,7 meters of records
created by county and district courts; Historical Archives of Sarajevo holds 205,6 meters,
while Archives of the Tuzla Canton hold 11,5 meters of the same provenance from the Austro-
Hungarian period. Combined with personal and family fonds and collections, they could give
a new outlook into unexplored segments of everyday life.

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Građa Arhiva Bosne i Hercegovine Грaђa Архива Босне и Херцеговине

In our Memoirs Collection there are over 20 testimonies that cover the period
of Austro-Hungarian rule, including recollections of Veljko Čubrilović (I/1)
and Jakov Milović (I/2), participants in the Sarajevo Assassination, Stjepanović
Uroš (II/96), who talked about his war years and his military engagement on the
Salonika Front, Odić Franjo (III/21), who served in the Austro-Hungarian army
and later was one of key activists in rebuilding the Social-Democratic Party of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Čulić Bogdan (IV/136), youth activist who was arrested after
Sarajevo Assassination, Brković Milan (IV/145), union activist in the “Bosna-Bois”
sawmill who also talked about the war years and internment of citizens in the Arad
prison, Rakić Stevan (VI/219) with his testimony on the Grand Treason Process
in Banjaluka, and, finally, Branko Pajić (X/31), member of “Soko” in Banjaluka at
the time of the Assassination. All of the testimonies in the collection are described
in the handwitten entry inventory.
Our Map Collection contains, among 489 maps in total, Austro-Hungarian
military maps, including the one illustrating the Western Front in 1915 and the one
portraying Austro-Hungarian railway system from 1916 (ZKM 1). This collection
has its own analytical inventory.19
As far as Collection of Photographs and Collection of Posters go, they hold
over 15.000 and 60.000 items respectively. However, they do not have any form of
description other than their entry inventories, so detailed analysis for this purpose
remained to big of a task. Of course, we can say without a doubt that these two
collections contain significant number of items which are connected to the history
of the First World War.
In our Varia Collection, currently there are eight items from the Austro-
Hungarian period, with three dating from the war years: 1.) Banjaluka’s
recapitulation of expenditures in 1914 (VII/66), 2.) six telegrams of the Spanish
Embassy concerning the Grand Treason Process in Banjaluka (VII/85), and
3.) list of students belonging to a “Serbo-kroatische national-revolutionäre
Jugendorganisation – Jugoslavija” in Banjaluka, dated November 2nd 1914 (not yet
signed in).
Finally, our archival library could also serve as an important venue of research
when it comes to the Great War. However, the absence of a digital library system
poses a challenge. It was not possible, for this opportunity, to scan through fifteen
thousand cards in our classic catalog. Judging by a large sample, we can speculate
19
See ARSBL, collection dossier 213.

18
 Vladan Vukliš

that there are around 400 titles created until the end of 1918, including books,
journals, newspapers, reports etc. (oriental languages issues not included). We may
also guess that there could be over 50 titles that were printed between 1914 and
1918. The most important of these holdings are the ones which are used on a
regular basis, such as the newspaper Sarajevski list (complete set), annual Bosnischer
Bote (1915, 1916 and 1917) and Glasnik zakona i naredaba (complete set). Some time
in the future, we hope, our library catalog system will become digital, which would
make all of our holdings apparent, easily accessible and, of course, useful.

19