• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.14
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• pp.359-388
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• 2006

This article shows how the tradition of German historicism and positive historical science contributed to the establishment of German archival system, especially the principle of provenance and original order. The theory of historicism focused on the recognition and realization of the individuality of the history as a whole unit which is made up of the mutually and organically organized cultural entities. The theory of historicism as this kind of world view got its academic basis from the methodology of the positive historical science, namely the critical reviews on the archival sources which exist in mutually and organically organized record entities. In this context, the scholars of the historicism saw the establishment of the efficient archival systems as necessary. To some great degree, the emergence of the principle of the provenance and original order was its logical result. The author of this paper tried to highlight this point of view historically, on the basis of the activities of Ranke, Sybel and Lehmann around and in the Prussia Privy State Archives throughout the 19th century.