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29 March to 1 April 2024

The German National Library will be closed at both locations. The exhibitions of the German Museum of Books and Writing will open from 10:00 to 18:00.

The holdings in the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 are unique. Due to their exceptional properties, special procedures often have to be followed when acquiring, cataloguing and preserving them. Here we would like to give you some insight into these areas of work.

Acquisition

Flight and exile are global phenomena – this also applied to exile during the Nazi era. People forced into exile became scattered all over the world. The publications, unprinted testimonies and legacies left by those forced into exile are equally widespread. There is accordingly no specific channel through which these materials come to us at the German Exile Archive.
We frequently acquire publications and individual autographs at auctions or from antiquarian dealers. Legacies usually come to us directly from families with a history of exile. For exiled persons or their descendants, bequeathing a legacy to us is often an important step. The handover of such material is often preceded by a lengthy correspondence which in many cases forges lasting relationships between the parties and the Exile Archive.

You are welcome to contact us if you have any material on the subject of exile between 1933 and 1945.

Contact

Dr. Sylvia Asmus
s.asmus@dnb.de
Phone: +49 69 1525-1900

Cataloguing

Our holdings have to be catalogued if they are to be made available to users of the German Exile Archive. We catalogue our collections using RDA and RNAB (codes). Unprinted materials are archived in accordance with the principle “Organise and Catalogue”. The legacies, which frequently consist of a wide variety of materials and documents (letters, personal documents, official documents, objects) have to be organised before they can be catalogued.

Preserving the collection

The artefacts that come to us in the Archive bear traces of their history. Their condition varies widely. Some archival materials are severely damaged as a result of frequent use, frequent changes of location, moisture, light, unfavourable storage conditions and other adverse circumstances. Others are well preserved when they reach us. No matter how much their condition varies, the goal of our Archive is to preserve these historical testimonies for posterity.

For this reason, we store the archival materials in conditions that are not subject to fluctuation. The air temperature and humidity are kept constant, and the artefacts are stored in dark stacks using materials that are unobjectionable from a conservational perspective. These preservation measures are supervised by the German National Library’s preservation department.

We also ensured that strict conservational specifications were adhered to while developing our permanent exhibition “Exile. Experience and Testimony”, in which the exhibits are almost all originals. To this end, we worked in close cooperation with the preservation department, the exhibition architects and the lighting planners. The premises are air-conditioned, and a comprehensive lighting concept ensures that the exhibits are not damaged by artificial light or daylight. The condition of the exhibits is monitored on a regular basis.
One of the exhibits in the permanent exhibition is particularly interesting in terms of preservation: writer Walter Meckauer's suitcase, in which he kept his short stories.

More about the work carried out to preserve this suitcase

Long-term archiving

Along with the preservation of holdings, another way of protecting objects is digital long-term archiving. A digitized object can be viewed as often as desired while the original is stored in optimum conditions in the stacks. All of the publications and some of the unprinted holdings in the Exile Archive's collections have been digitalised and are kept in the German National Library's long-term archive. The long-term accessibility of these digitalised holdings is assured by permalinks.

Last changes: 10.02.2021
Short-URL: https://www.dnb.de/deaprofessional

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