Vienna digitizes the home role: a treasure of 1.5 million documents

Vienna digitizes the home role: a treasure of 1.5 million documents

Wien, Österreich - In a significant step towards preserving the historical heritage, the city of Vienna has initiated the digitization of the "home role". This impressive archive includes over 1.5 million documents that go back to 1848. For more than a year, the authorities have been working on this project, which was originally set up for censuses and the review of citizenship in Austria. So far, around 320,000 index cards in the Vienna Scanzentrum have been successfully recorded electronically, with the aim of completely digitizing the files by the end of the year, such as OE24 reported.

valuable historical information

The "home role" served as the official register of Vienna Citizenship Evidence until 1966 and contains comprehensive data about the Viennese population, including personal information, professions and places of residence. The documented personalities include historical greats such as Sigmund Freud and Empress Sisi. Expert: inside emphasize how complex and precise the scanning of the ancient, sometimes sensitive documents must be carried out. Georg Hufgard-Leitner, department head, pointed out that the documents are phonetically sorted, which requires special knowledge to avoid renewed sorting.