Hamm City Archives
| Hamm City Archives | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| place | Hamm |
| ISIL | DE-Hmm1 |
The Hamm City Archives are the central documentation center for Hamm's city history . It is located in the Technical Town Hall Hamm .
history
Until September 2004, the archive was located in the premises of the former administrative building in the Hamm-Pelkum district. In the course of the second municipal reorganization in 1975 , the former cities and communities of Bockum-Hövel , Hamm , Heessen , Pelkum , Rhynern and Uentrop were merged to form today's city of Hamm with around 180,000 inhabitants. The respective archive holdings were also transferred to a joint archive, which was set up in the now vacant former Pelkum office building.
This includes an interim archive and an extensive collection. Before the move of the city archive, its volume was a good 2,300 running meters of archive and collection items.
When moving into the listed Prussian office building, which dates from 1905, a fundamental renovation was dispensed with for cost reasons and instead individual rooms were gradually renovated. The premises of the city archive extended over four floors, from the basement to the attic, which were connected by two staircases; there was no elevator. The area for offices and the public was housed in the right wing of the first floor.
As early as the 1980s it became clear that the room capacities were far from being sufficient. Apart from a concrete ceiling between the basement and ground floor, all other ceilings consisted of a wooden structure. This, as well as the subsidence of the mountains and the regular vibrations as a result of the coal mining in Pelkum, led to insufficient statics, which severely restricted the use of the rooms as an archive storage facility. So no shelves were allowed to be placed in the middle of the room. The corridor had to be used for smaller exhibitions. Larger archive exhibitions were not possible; the city archive then had to switch to other city buildings.
So there were countless difficulties:
- Changes to the building fabric due to subsidence.
- Insufficient load-bearing capacity of the ceilings from the first floor.
- Considerable space problems. The recording capacity was long since exhausted.
- Lack of an exhibition space.
- Disadvantages due to the decentralized location for both the administration and the public.
- limited accessibility for the disabled.
For a long time, the city administration tried in vain to find other accommodation options in the inner city area. When the technical town hall was then built, it was imperative to also accommodate the city archive there. On January 21, 2002, the culture committee of the city of Hamm decided to also place the archive "on PAKUM". The then Head of the Department of Culture, Karl A. Faulenbach, emphasized that the decision made it possible to meet three criteria that had been required for a long time: centrality, functionality and publicity.
Archive since 2004
The archive was given space on the first and second basement floors of the main building, comparable to a granny flat over two floors. After entering the glass hall you will find the archive wing in the first basement on the right-hand side. A staircase and a passenger elevator outside the archive area connect the two archive floors.
During the construction of the technical town hall, it was not possible to implement all of the archive's requirements in terms of room layout, room fittings or operational processes. Difficulties arose from the given room floor plan, fire protection and escape route regulations and the planned budget. A total of 110,000 euros were invested in setting up the city archive. The magazine equipment accounted for around 90,000 euros. The Westphalian Archives Office , represented by Rickmer Kießling , provided technical advice and financial support.
After completion of the construction work and the establishment of the storage rooms, the city archive could be moved into in autumn 2004 in two stages. Delays resulted from the late completion of the construction work and the delayed functionality of the mobile shelving systems. The planning for the move had already begun in autumn 2003 by recording the volume of the move, which ultimately comprised 2,300 running meters of archive and collection goods, the Kleist archive, objects from the "Guest gifts" collection, the operating and magazine equipment, exhibition media and larger exhibits such as one defused 10-quintals bomb was determined. The move was carried out by a local moving company. The Kleist archive caused difficulties. The art objects contained therein caused insurance law requirements that had to be taken into account during transport by the city archive and the removal company.
The city archive has considerably larger room capacities available today than when the Pelkumer Amtshaus was in use. This means that the archive can also accept new entries in the coming years and store them in accordance with the archive standard.
Use today
The usable area of the city archive is approx. 2230 m², twice as much as the previous 1060 m² in the Pelkum office. It is the total area of the archive, which is distributed over two levels. Around 1370 m² (previously: 914 m²) are magazine space, 300 m² are available for office workplaces and the visitor room. The visitor area directly adjacent to the building's glass hall accounts for around 54 m². There is also a service office with a copier, repro system and a workstation for image archiving. Visitor supervision is also carried out from there. Opposite the visitors' room you will find the offices of the four archive employees, grouped around a newly inserted light shaft. Adjacent to this are a lecture and work room as well as the library room. Behind this there is again an exhibition room with an area of over 190 m². This can be reached via the library or via an entrance from the hallway. This enabled the city archive to hold events on its own premises in the future. To the left of the exhibition room are the storage rooms for frequently used collections. This also includes the deposits and bequests as well as the Kleist archive. There is basically no daylight in the exhibition rooms.
Most of the archive holdings are housed in the second basement. The seven storage rooms can be reached via two larger corridors. There is a total of around 1180 m² of storage space plus hall areas and technical room. Two of the three large magazine rooms, each with an area of around 200 m², were provided with mobile shelving. Due to temporal drying problems in the building, the areas between the rails of these mobile shelving were filled with concrete slabs in dry construction instead of the otherwise usual plywood panels or screed. This solution has proven to be practical. The city archive has a total of 4,545 lfs. Standard meters with capacity reserves for later access. In the city archive there are also various metal cabinets for special formats of archive material. The historical archive holdings of today's Hammer city districts can be found in one of the large storage rooms, as well as the post-war holdings of the city of Hamm. The other one contains the archives of municipal institutions. The third larger storage room serves as an intermediate archive, which has been stocked with standard shelves. A nearby direct access via the underground car park of the technical town hall enables a weather-independent delivery of duties from the administration.
Four smaller storage rooms of around 70 m² each are located on the same level. Here you can find reports on reports, the administration library, special collections and the newspaper archive. A work room for the technical processing of files in the access area and a storage room complete this picture. A larger room originally intended as a magazine room houses the pump system; but occasionally exhibitions take place here.
Storage rooms, library and exhibition room have a computer-controlled ventilation system. It is looked after and served by the in-house service of the Technical Town Hall. Since the second basement is below the water table, the building is built in a "tub" that is supposed to prevent water from entering. To do this, rising groundwater is pumped out. Nevertheless, this construction carries a certain risk for the files. Supply lines for water, sewage, heating, EDP cables and ventilation pipes were installed on this floor.
The office workplaces have now been fully equipped with EDP and connected to the municipal computer network. In addition, a microfilm scanner workstation and the visitor room were set up and a suitable lighting system was installed for the exhibition space.
Since the city archive has been located in the technical town hall, its frequency of use has increased significantly, not only by the citizens, but also by the employees of the city administration. Due to the proximity to other departments such as reprography at the surveying and land registry office, which is located in the first basement opposite the archive, services can be offered that were previously not possible due to the high expenditure of time and the lack of repro technology.
In accordance with the increased space volume, exhibitions, readings and guided tours are held in the city archive, which are offered to the public or interested groups. These opportunities are actively used. The event rooms are also increasingly in demand from third parties for events, which is also a consequence of the inner-city location with good transport connections and equally good parking space.
Archival material
Most of the archive material was created in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Hamm archive was largely lost in the town fires in the 18th century and the bombing in World War II . Documents from the Bockum-Hövel office have been available since 1908, the year it was founded.
In addition, the Hammer city archive keeps deposits and legacies of people, associations, companies, etc. The Kleist archive, which has been kept here since the summer of 1978 and is constantly being expanded, stands out. It concerns the family archive of the family association of those von Kleist e. V. His holdings include archive materials and numerous works of art, including paintings, graphics and objects.
literature
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 49 ″ N , 7 ° 48 ′ 34 ″ E
