Find aids: Findbuch von 1992 (online searchable) Registraturbildner: The Verein für den Halleschen Handel, which was originally founded in 1833 to build a packing yard, is to be regarded as the forerunner of the later Halle Chamber of Commerce. On the basis of proposals made by this association and its president Ludwig Wucherer, a chamber of commerce "for the city of Halle and the Saale-Örter" was established by edict of 18 October 1844. Its district initially comprised the cities of Halle, Wettin and Alsleben as well as the rural communities of Kröllwitz, Rothenburg (Saale) and Salzmünde. In 1856 Eilenburg was added, in 1873 the districts of Bitterfeld, Delitzsch (without the city of Delitzsch), Querfurt, Merseburg, Naumburg, Weißenfels, Zeitz, the Saalkreis, the Mansfelder See- und Gebirgskreis (without the former court commission Ermsleben) joined. In 1881 the city of Delitzsch followed, in 1894 the district Eckartsberga, in 1895 the districts Liebenwerda and Torgau, finally in 1920 the district Schweinitz. The Halle Chamber of Industry and Commerce thus comprised the entire administrative district of Merseburg without the district of Sangerhausen, which belonged to the Nordhausen chamber district, and the former Ermsleben court commission (Mansfelder Gebirgskreis) with the town of Ermsleben and the rural communities of Endorf, Meisdorf, Neuplatendorf, Pansfelde, Sinsleben and Wieserode, which were assigned to the Halberstadt chamber district. When it was founded, the Chamber of Commerce consisted of 9 members, and since 1897 it had 54 members elected in 7 constituencies in the Industry, Mining, Wholesale and Retailing sections. In 1936, the Mittelelbe Chamber of Commerce was created for the area of the Chambers of Industry and Commerce in Halle, Halberstadt, Magdeburg and Dessau, i.e. for the Free State of Anhalt, the administrative districts of Magdeburg and Merseburg, and the Braunschweig district of Calvörde. The Mittelelbe Chamber of Commerce was created, which combined the chambers mentioned for its district and corresponded to the middle level of the Reich Economic Chamber. After the order of 16 December 1942 had determined the establishment of the Gauwirtschaftskammer Halle-Merseburg, the Industrie- und Handelskammer Halle and the Wirtschaftskammer Mittelelbe were dissolved with effect from 31 December 1942. Also the rights and duties of the Wirtschaftskammer Mittelelbe were transferred to the Gauwirtschaftskammer Halle-Merseburg on January 1, 1943 - as far as they concerned the district of the former Industrie- und Handelskammer Halle. After the end of the war, the competence of the Halle Chamber of Industry and Commerce was extended to the newly founded province of Saxony, until the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of the province of Saxony (from 3 December 1946: Saxony-Anhalt) was formed by decree of the Presidium of the Province of Saxony of 20 April 1946. Inventory information: The files grown up at the Halle Chamber of Industry and Commerce were probably subjected to an extensive cassation at the end of the 19th century, from which only those volumes of files were spared that were still needed for the current management at that time. Between 1953 and 1958, this older part of the collection, together with the later files, was delivered in three deliveries to the Merseburg branch of the State Archives. In 1968, this part of the collection was transferred to Magdeburg and supplemented with regard to the index data; in 1969, the remainder of the collection was finally taken over by the Magdeburg State Archives, listed and integrated into the existing collection. During the processing of documents of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of the Halle district in the 1990s, further documents from the period before 1945 could be identified and assigned to the holdings. Additional information: A typewritten index is available for the examination documents of the individual trades (8.6.). Literature: The Chamber of Commerce building in Halle a. d. Saale. Memorandum on the inauguration on 12 May 1902 - W. Hoffmann, the Halle Chamber of Commerce. Memorandum on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce, Halle 1902 - The Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Halle, edited by the management, Leipzig 1937 - Dalchow, Irmtraud, Die Industrie- und Handelskammer Halle-Dessau: 150 Jahre Kammergeschichte in Mitteldeutschland 1844 - 1994 Festschrift der IHK Halle-Dessau zum 150jährigen Jubiläum, Halle 1995.
