Governmental Economic Archives
Iron Sector and Forest Archives
From the authorities that had been installed within mining before the founding of the Innerberg Main Labour Union, only little material has been preserved with the main part in the holdings of the so-called main board of mines of Leoben, which had been collecting the archives of various mining authorities until 1699. In 1626, the sovereign introduced the Kammergrafenamt (department of the “Kammergraf”) as superordinate authority, which, in 1747, was followed by the Oberkammergrafenamt (main department of the Kammergraf) out of which the Berghauptmannschaft/Main Mining Authority emerged, after having undergone several changes in competences and names (Oberbergamt/Main Board of Mines and Berggericht/Mining Court, Revierbergamt/District Board of Mines etc.). As a consequence of a crisis, the wheel trades from the region of Innerberg, the owners of hammer mills and the ironmonger from Steyr allied in the Innerberg Main Labour Union. Rich material has been preserved from the administration departments of this association, which allow a precious insight into various aspects of the history of this region (management, wheel trade centre, accounting, Steyr publishing centre, Weyer hammer mills). Next to ore mining at Erzberg, these holdings include many archives concerning other mining sites (such as Donnersbach, St.Gallen, Hieflau, Groß- and Kleinreifling, Lassing, Mariazell, Neuberg, Radmer, Reichramig etc.). In autumn 2001 the Provincial Archives could take over the holdings of VOEST Alpine Eisenerz which mainly documents the iron sector in the 19th and 20th Century. One among many tasks of the archives is to administrate the Böhler factory archives.
Right from the start, forestry was closely linked to mining and, therefore, much material can be found in the montan archives (such as the Schladming Forest Department). Furthermore, the Provincial Archives also hosts the Wildalpen Forestry Archives or the archives of the forest departments of Aussee, Grundlsee and Hinterberg.
Saline Industry (Aussee)
The only material documenting saline industry consists of the archives of Aussee, which was the only important salt site, at least from the late Middle Ages onward. The archives is not as voluminous as the one documenting iron industry, yet, still provides important information on the economic and social structures of this region. The files of the different departments and authorities generally start with the 16th Century, but, next to it, there is a document collection reaching back into the second part of the 14th Century.