Hessian Archive Prize 2009 awarded to the "Document Collection of the Herder Institute" (DSHI) archive in Marburg
The Hessian Archive Prize 2009 was awarded this year to the document collection of the Herder Institute in Marburg. The document collection is the largest archive in Germany on the history of the Baltic States and is managed in the Herder Institute by Dorothee M. Goeze M.A. and Dr. Peter Wörster. The prize was awarded on 26 November in the Hessian State Archive in Marburg in the presence of State Secretary Gerd Krämer from the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts. The prize, endowed by the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung of Hesse-Thuringia and awarded together with the Landesverband Hesse in conjunction with German archivists, is aimed at smaller, private and particularly local archives, and the archives of academic facilities in Hesse under full-time management. This Archive Prize, awarded annually since 2005, aims at highlighting the importance of archives for local and regional historical research, as well as for the reappraisal of social-political questions. The award is associated with prize money of 5,000.00 Euros, which must be spent for archival purposes.
In his laudation, Dr. Thomas Wurzel, Managing Director of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hesse-Thuringia, particularly stressed its exceptional services in the protection of cultural assets through taking on and listing extensive archival holdings from private bequests. These include the Archive of the Baltic Knights, accepted in 2006, as well as the protection and listing of archive holdings filmed in Estonia and Latvia in 1940, which had been partially lost due to the events of war. These sources, which are invaluable for the history of the Baltic States, and particularly the Baltic Germans, were very challenging when it came to the preservation of the holdings, their listing, and making them available for research purposes.
(written using a press release by the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hesse-Thuringia)
Press comments
- Oberhessische Presse (27.11.2009)
- Marburger Neue Zeitung (27.11.2009)
- Archivnachrichten aus Hessen (02/2009)
- Newsletter 1 (März 2010) der Baltische Historische Kommission (03/2010)
- Baltische Briefe 2/3, Febr/März 2010
Image material on the awarding of the prize in the Hessian State Archive in Marburg

- v.l.n.r.: Ernst Bräunche (Karlsruhe, Vorsitzender der Bundeskonferenz der Kommunalarchivare beim Deutschen Städtetag), Jürgen Warmbrunn (Marburg, stellv. Direktor des Herder-Instituts), Thomas Wurzel (Frankfurt/Main, Geschäftsführer der Sparkassen Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen), Gerd Krämer (Wiesbaden, Staatssekretär im HMWK), Brigitte Streich (Wiesbaden, Vorsitzende des Landesverbands Hessen im VdA)
Photos: Wolfgang Schekanski



















