University archive

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View of the university archive (old building)
University archive from the courtyard side, on the right the new warehouse building

The Unitätsarchiv in Herrnhut is the central archive of the worldwide Unitas Fratrum and its European-Continental Church Province .

history

Archive management period of service
Erich von Ranzau 1767-1775
David Nitschmann 1775-1779
Erich von Ranzau 1780-1796
Carl Bernhard Garve 1797-1799 / 1801
Christlieb Suter 1801-1811
Friedrich Ludwig Koelbing 1811-1830
Johannes Plitt 1831-1841
Ludwig von Schweinitz 1841-1859
Joseph Reinhold Römer 1859-1875
Alexander Glitsch 1875-1905
Joseph Theodor Müller 1905-1922
Gottfried Bechler 1922-1924
Wilhelm Bettermann 1925-1938
Hermann Steinberg 1939-1945
Richard Porter 1946-1972
Gudrun Hickel, married. Meyer 1973-1975
Ingeborg Baldauf 1975-1997
Paul M. Peucker 1997-2004
Rüdiger Kroeger since 2004

The Unity Archive was brought into being in 1764 at the first general synod that took place after the death of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf , and Zeist Castle (Netherlands) , which is centrally located for the Brethren in Europe, was designated as the location for its accommodation . There, holdings from various locations were first brought together and made accessible by an archive commission chaired by Abraham von Gersdorff . From among the members of this commission, Erich von Ranzau was appointed the first university archivist in 1764.

In 1801 the archive moved to Barby Castle , 1809 to Niesky and finally in 1820 to Herrnhut.

building

The old building on Zittauer Straße next to the Vogtshof, the administrative headquarters of the Evangelical Brothers Unity, is considered to be the oldest purpose-built archive building in Saxony. It was completed in 1890 and is a listed building. Today it only contains the user area with reading room (10 workstations) and reference library, as well as work rooms for the employees. The distinctive new magazine building behind the house was available for the existing building in 2002. It consists of a compact building block that accommodates the three air-conditioned magazine floors with the mobile shelving systems. The outer skin is effectively clad with a curtain wall made of rusting COR-TEN steel , which hides the inner structure of the building through its division into individual fields. In contrast to this, the upstream access building with stairs, elevator and access locks is made of a transparent steel-and-glass construction. The closed, glass connecting bridge enables a transition between the old and magazine building. There is a solar system on the roof of the magazine.

Stocks

The archive combines a large number of holdings under one roof in the form of archive material, library material and museum collections. In all areas the dates of origin of the documents go back far before the foundation of Herrnhut. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the holdings were classified according to pertinence. Gaps in the tradition arose from the middle of the 19th century due to neglect of the transfer or in the takeover and war losses at the selling offices.

Total inventory: approx. 3000 meters of shelf.

Archival material

Estate and family archive Gersdorff-Zinzendorf

  • Certificates
  • Records from the Zinzendorf and Gersdorff estates
  • Zinzendorf's diaries and correspondence

Archives of the Brothers Union

  • Documents from the governing bodies of the entire university and the European Continental Province
  • Documents of the (dissolved) municipalities
  • Documents of the educational institution
  • Ministries documents
  • Business enterprise documents
  • Music (mainly manuscripts)
  • Estates from employees and members of the Brethren
  • 25,000 resumes

Library

The older library holdings come mainly from the bequests of Zinzendorf and some of the members of the Brethren. Furthermore, parts of the libraries of the educational institutions (for example the Theological Seminary of the Brethren), the congregations or congregation groups have been included in the inventory. In the library the publications of the Brethren and its members as well as writings on the Brethren are collected.

Due to the missionary work of the Moravian Missionaries and the international expansion of the Brothers' Union, the library has a large number of printed and also unprinted foreign language publications. In addition to depictions, this includes above all ethnographic and linguistic works such as grammars, lexicons but also translations of the Bible, edification writings, hymn books and school books.

Special collections: Old Brethren Unity ( Bohemian Brothers ), Bibles and hymn books, slogans.

Holdings: approx. 100,000 volumes

Museum collections

  • Portraits and Views:
    • Painting collection (approx. 750)
    • Portraits of people, prints and drawings (approx. 2,500)
    • Paper cut silhouettes (approx. 2,300)
    • Topographic collection of maps, site plans, cracks, site views (approx.7,500)
    • Photo collection (approx. 100,000)
  • Memorabilia and objects of display from the congregation
  • Ethnographic collection
  • Geological collection

Web links

literature

  • Alexander Glitsch: Directory of the paintings in the painting collection of the Brothers Unity Archives in Herrnhut - written and provided with more than 300 biographical and other notes , Herrnhut 1893.
  • Alexander Glitsch: History and current holdings of the historical collections (archive, library, collection of paintings) of the Brothers Unity , Herrnhut 1899.
  • Ingeborg Baldauf: Archives of the Brothers Unity (Unitätsarchiv; UAH). In: Hans Otte (Ed.): Handbuch des kirchlichen Archivwesen , Volume 1, Degener & Co., Neustadt an der Aisch 1997, pp. 323–336.
  • Konrad von Rabenau: Library of the Archives of the Brothers Unity. In: Handbook of historical book stocks in Germany , Volume 17, Olms, Hildesheim 1997, pp. 308-312.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alf Furkert: The new Magazinbau - presented by the architect , in: Moravian messenger - news from the Moravian Church 05 (2002), pp 8-9.