Documentation of life history records

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The documentation of biographical records within the framework of the Institute for Economic and Social History of the University of Vienna is a collection point for popular autobiographies and today includes around 3000 largely unpublished testimonies from people from various historical epochs and social classes. In addition to the University of Vienna, the institution is run by the association of the same name “Documentation of Biographical Records”.

The institution founded by Michael Mitterauer in 1983 has set itself the task of making the collected autobiographical materials available for scientific processing and also opening up experts and interested laypeople for study purposes. As part of the scientific work on the series “So that it is not lost”, Böhlau has already published around 60 volumes that deal with topics as diverse as the life of farm maids in the interwar period, the phenomenon of mass motorization , but also, for example, confessional experiences or growing up as an illegitimate child in the country.

The results of calls to write on specific topics are also processed, some of which are created in cooperation with local authorities (especially municipalities). The “Documentation of Biographical Records” has its own, non-profit sponsoring association, but is still linked to the institute from which it was founded.

Most of the texts in the documentation that exist today shed light on the first half of the 20th century in retrospect; around 60 percent were written by women. It is of particular concern to the directors of the documentation to win texts from people from lower social classes, for whom autobiographical writing is rather unfamiliar, and to encourage such people to record their life experiences in writing.

literature

  • Christa Hämmerle: "I would like to put what I have already told you in writing ..." Development and research activities of the "Documentation of life history records" in Vienna . In: BIOS . No. 4, 1991. Budrich, Leverkusen, ISSN  0933-5315 , pp. 261-278.
  • Michael Mitterauer : "I in history, history in myself". For the "Documentation of life history records" at the Institute for Economic and Social History of the University of Vienna . In: Klaus Amann, Karl Wagner (ed.): Autobiographies in Austrian literature . Studien-Verlag, Innsbruck 1998, ISBN 3-7065-1229-7 , pp. 241-269.
  • Günter Müller: Documentation of life history records . In: Peter Eigner, Christa Hämmerle, Günter Müller (eds.): Letters - Diaries - Autobiographies . Studies and sources for teaching, Vienna 2006. ( online , PDF, 270 kB)
  • Single mothers tell. About love, war, poverty and other circumstances . Edited by the association "Documentation of life history records". Böhlau, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-77989-6 , ( abstract)
  • Born an unmarried child ... Autobiographical stories, 1865–1945 . Edited by the association "Documentation of life history records". Böhlau, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-77284-2 , ( abstract)

Web links

See also