Keeping School Chronicles Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

School chronicles are a valuable source of information for the study of the history of education. They are particularly important for understanding events in areas where there is a lack of other sources at certain times in history. The keeping of chronicles in general can be traced back to the end of the 18th century. They were written by teachers and others who were somehow connected with individual schools or the places where they were located. The introduction of primary education at the national level in the Habsburg Monarchy under the leadership of Empress Maria Theresa had a decisive influence on related activities. The adoption of the Third Austrian Primary School Act in 1869 also required primary schools to keep a school chronicle. In the decades and centuries that followed, the form of school chronicles and the instructions for writing them varied, but their content always depended on the commitment of the writer and the historical context in which each chronicle was produced.