Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin

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Exterior view of the Protestant Central Archives

The Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin (EZA) is the archive of the Evangelical Church in Germany and is jointly maintained by the EKD and the EKU / UEK . It stores the documents of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and the Union of Evangelical Churches (UEK) as well as their legal and functional predecessors. The EZA has been located in the Church Archive Center Berlin (KAB) in Berlin-Kreuzberg on the St. Thomas campus since 2000 .

Jurisdiction

In contrast to the regional church archives, the EZA stores the documents of the central church institutions and governing bodies, including the following institutions:

The EZA is also responsible for the archives and the church records from the former Protestant parishes in the Prussian church provinces east of Oder and Neisse as well as the parishes abroad.

In addition, the EZA also collects the bequests of important Protestant personalities as well as archival material from supraregional institutions and associations, such as:

use

User room

Interested parties can view the documents in the EZA upon request. The archive is used in accordance with the provisions of the “Church Law on the Safeguarding and Use of Archival Material of the Evangelical Church in Germany” (EKD Archive Law) and the regulations for the use of the Church Archive Center Berlin (Archive Usage Regulations). As can be read in the “Schedule of Fees for the Use of the Church Archives Center Berlin” (Archive Fee Schedule), fees for use may apply. The amount of the fees can be found in a fee table on the EZA website.

The holdings are indexed using analog finding aids. You can also search the Internet on the Query research portal. A large number of stocks have already been identified there.

Work areas / departments

structure

The employees are divided into the various work areas. These are the three main work areas of the archive, library and church register as well as the storage service, the technical services and the reading room supervision.

archive

The archivists are responsible for taking over the archival material, making it accessible and making it available for use, advising the submitting offices on the management of their documents, performing archival training and further education tasks, as well as participating in the evaluation of the archive material and making their own contributions to research and convey church history. All tasks are laid down in the EKD Archive Act.

Church registry

The church book office is responsible for the safekeeping and provision of the church books of the foreign and former German parishes of the Prussian regional church. The church book office issues substitute documents to people who come from the former eastern provinces, if church books are available. These serve as legally binding evidence for the creation of family registers as well as for pension and inheritance matters. To a limited extent, genealogical search queries can be processed by the church registry, but there is also the possibility of working in the archive's user room yourself.

The former eastern territories are divided into 6 church provinces, for each of which a clerk is responsible. The ecclesiastical province of Brandenburg is a special case: The central archive is only in possession of the church records east of the Oder, church records from the area of ​​today's state of Brandenburg are only in the state church archive in Berlin / ELAB. This is also located in the church archive center in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Overall, the church registry keeps:

  • Approx. 6,000 parish registers from Protestant parishes from the former eastern provinces of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union . These areas have belonged to Poland, Russia and Lithuania since 1945, German Protestant congregations no longer exist there.
  • 750 military church books of the former Prussian army and the German armed forces .
  • approx. 70 foreign church books from German-speaking Protestant congregations abroad.
  • Civil status records from Danish refugee camps.

For conservation reasons, viewing is only available in the form of microfiches . The Evangelical Central Archive has started to digitize the church registers and make the digital copies available online in the church register portal Archion .

Library

The library of the Evangelical Central Archives is a special library with a focus on the history of the Evangelical Church in Germany from the 19th century. It includes around 80,000 volumes and around 3,000 journal titles. These include monographs with current research results as well as rare, non-commercially published publications from the 19th and 20th centuries ("gray literature") on the following topics:

All publications can be researched online via an OPAC . Individual publications are digitized and can be accessed in the reading room.

Publications

The EZA has published various publications, the titles of which are listed on the archive's homepage.

history

The EKD Archives (1939–1979)

In 1939, the "Archive of the Evangelical Church" was set up at the DEK church chancellery in Berlin as the first archive for the joint institutions of the Evangelical Churches. The archived material survived the Second World War unscathed and was moved to Hanover in 1960 and from there to Soest in 1972. In 1974 the archive returned to Berlin in the building of the church chancellery of the Evangelical Church of the Union. Initially run as a separate institution, it was merged with the EKU archive in the EZA in 1979.

At the same time, along with the EKD archive, the ecumenical archive came to the EZA. Established in Soest in 1959 by Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze, it was taken over by the EKD in 1972. The archive was intended to be a documentation and research center on the history of the ecumenical movement and the Christian peace movement from its inception. In addition, the ecumenical archive includes bequests and collected material from other personalities of the ecumenical movement and the Christian peace movement, which Siegmund-Schultze has compiled over the years. Many of the provenances can no longer be determined. The archive also contained an extensive library.

The Archives of the Evangelical Church of the Union (1945–1979)

The first archival tasks for the Evangelical Church of the Union, the successor organization of the Church of the Old Prussian Union, were carried out by the consistory of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg. Ten years later, in 1964, a full-time archivist was appointed by the EKU and its own archive was founded.

This archive included the old registry of the Evangelical Upper Church Council and the EKU church chancellery as the successor authority of the EOK. In addition, the archive kept the archives of the former eastern church provinces as well as the parish registers of the same.

Finally, the EKU archive was given the “Archive for the History of the Church Struggle”, which was created by Prof. Dr. Günther Harder was put together by the Church University of Berlin in 1976.

Joint archive of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR - Evangelical Church of the Union - Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg

Storage area in the Evangelical Central Archive

In 1987 the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR (BEK), the Evangelical Church of the Union - GDR area (EKU), the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in the GDR (VELK DDR) and the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, East region (EKiBB) signed a contract for the establishment of a common archive, which was housed in the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Haus in Berlin-Mitte. This archive had the task of accepting, evaluating and indexing the records of the central church authorities in the GDR and making them accessible for research. As early as 1988, the VELK dissolved in the GDR area, and the BEK took over its interests. In June 1992 the contract for the common archive expired. The holdings that the BEK (excluding the holdings of the VELK GDR) and the EKU had brought in were transferred to the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin (EZA).

The documents of the VELK GDR were handed over to the archive responsible for the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VELKD).

A deposit agreement was concluded with the EKiBB for the safekeeping of the holdings in the EZA. This was ended with the establishment of the Evangelical Regional Church Archive in Berlin in 2000.

Foundation of the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin

The Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin was created in 1979 and consists of the former archives of the EKD and EKU. When the contract on the secret archives of the federal government, EKU and EKiBB expired on June 30, 1992, the holdings of the BEK and EKU were merged with those of the EZA. Until 2000, the EZA was located in the building of the Evangelical Higher Church Council at Jebensstrasse 3 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The archive has been housed in the Church Archives Center Berlin, a purpose-built archive building, since 2000. The building also houses the archives of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia, the Diocesan Archives Berlin and the Archives of the Berlin Mission.

literature

  • Christa Stache: The Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin and its holdings (=  publications of the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin . Volume 5 ). Alektor-Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-88425-055-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About the EZA. In: www.ezab.de. Retrieved November 5, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b Church law on the safeguarding and use of archive material of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD Archive Law). (PDF) The President of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany Schmude, November 9, 1995, accessed on November 5, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Fee table for the use of the Church Archive Center Berlin. (PDF) The Cooperation Council of the Church Archive Center Berlin, October 9, 2000, accessed on November 5, 2016 .
  4. ^ Schedule of fees for the use of the Church Archives Center in Berlin. (PDF) Retrieved January 10, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Fee table for the Church Archive Center Berlin. (PDF) Retrieved January 10, 2017 .
  6. ↑ EVANGELIC CENTRAL ARCHIVE IN BERLIN. (No longer available online.) Evangelisches Zentralarchiv, archived from the original on May 28, 2015 ; accessed on May 28, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Web OPAC. Evangelisches Zentralarchiv in Berlin, accessed on November 5, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Publications. (No longer available online.) Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin, August 3, 2016, archived from the original on August 3, 2016 ; Retrieved August 3, 2016 .