History of the Archives Service

The organization of the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began in 1822 under the auspices of the first Minister of foreign Affairs Theodoros Negris. However, the record holdings of the 1821-1833 period are few, as the official diplomatic correspondence begins in 1833.

In April 1833, Otto, the first King of Greece, issued a Royal Decree by which the Secretariat of External Relations was established and an official archival department was created. The transition from Secretariat to Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1863, following a decision by the Second General National Assembly, led to the need for a reorganization of the Services provided by the Ministry including the archival department. The status of the archives department was again redefined in 1910, when a separate branch was created under the Director-General for Political Affairs that dealt exclusively with the diplomatic archive of the Ministry. During the 1910-1920 period a systematic arrangement of the archives was attempted, so that it would become available for historical use. It was at the same time that the collection began to increase significantly as a result of Greece's involvement in international organizations as an equal member state. The records were for the most part stored in the basement of 2 Zalokosta Street and the responsibility for cataloguing the information was assigned to Athanasios Politis. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs closed down during the occupation(1941-1944), prohibiting access to the records. When the Ministry became once again operational, it was discovered that the archival depository had been selectively looted, and partially destroyed. In 1945 reclassification and organization of the files began and was completed five years later. In 1959 the archival collection was opened for research following the Parliamentary decree 426/30.11.1.1959.

Although researchers have had access to the diplomatic records of the Ministry for some time, it is in the last five years that significant progress has been made in upgrading the storage facilities. The installation of climate control units for the preservation of the documents and specially build cabinets allow for immediate and easy access to the files and record groups. Furthermore, in an effort to complete the archival collection a campaign is underway to gather the archival holdings of embassies around the world that have a extensive document collections. Finally, in a coordinated effort with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Service of the Historical Archive in involved in the declassification process of records which will play a key role in recording the chronicles of the history of the alliance.