Opening times
Monday to Friday
8.00 - 17.30 Uhr
Magazine service:
Monday to Thursday
8.00 Uhr - 15.40 Uhr
Friday
8.00 Uhr - 14.10 Uhr
Contact
+49 6421 184-153
jan.lipinsky@herder-institut.de
The newspaper archive of the Herder Institute
The Institute has built up an extensive newspaper collection since its foundation. It includes titles from the countries of Poland, the Czech Republic and the Slovakian Republic (Czechoslovakia until 1992), Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Russia and/or the Soviet Union. It represents a unique collection of sources of East Central European contemporary history.
In particular, it is a large range of subscribed newspapers, as well as an archived holding of newspapers encompassing over 700 titles in around 12,500 volumes or bundles. These holdings are listed in the newspaper database (ZDB). A few important newspapers from the years after 1945 have also been put on microfilm. Regional newspapers include newspapers from towns and regions in the historical German eastern territories.
In one of the press-cutting collections assigned to an individual country, there are approximately 5 million cuttings or copies available in around 15,500 folders, as well as - since 1991 - microfiches with around 600,000 records. By the end of the 1st quarter of 1999, a selected section of subscribed newspapers was evaluated using a detailed subject classification system (pdf file) (see also the extensive index (pdf file), covering in around 450 key words a wide range of subject areas under the headings of geography, population, history, administration, law, foreign relations (subdivided into individual countries in different areas), domestic policy, trade and commerce (including various branches of industry as well as environmental problems), culture (also including science, education and the church) and military matters.
In particular, the following sub-areas exist in the press-cutting collection:
- The personal archive with biographical details on important personalities from the fields of politics, commerce and industry and culture (approx. 1.5 million cuttings) (see also biographical materials on contemporary history of Poland and Estonia) as well as
- The place archive, which brings together news and reports on the development of towns and regions (approx. 0.5 million cuttings).
The current national daily and weekly newspapers from the German-speaking area were also evaluated by the end of the 1st quarter of 1999.
As a special holding, the press archive has over 260 boxes of newspaper cuttings (totalling approx. 90,000 documents, mainly from the German-language press) from the Interwar Years: 163 files on Poland, 58 on the Baltic States, 39 on Czechoslovakia.