Leipzig University Archives

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The Leipzig University Archive is a central facility of the Leipzig University . It is one of the largest European university archives and contains a tradition of approx. 7000 running meters of files and approx. 2000 documents from the foundation of the university in 1409. But there is also film and photo material on the history of the university. Accordingly, the number of requests from archive users is very high. The university archive is at the same time a modern administrative apparatus, in whose area of ​​responsibility, in addition to the preservation and preservation of the traditional holdings, it also functions as a service provider for science and academic self-administration.

history

Already in the first statutes of the university from 1410, the electoral mode and the areas of responsibility of the rector were laid down in a set of rules. The rector's area of ​​responsibility included the safekeeping of the university treasures. This was understood as the so-called iron box, in which the financial assets, the certificates of privileges and the seal were. The rector only had access in the presence of two other electors. The older statutes were published in 1861 by the Germanist Friedrich Zarncke . Bruno Stübel issued other older documents from the university . The rector had to personally hand over the university treasure to his successor.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the written form began to gain increasing importance in the administration, so that in the middle of the 16th century the rector of the university, Caspar Borner , was forced to reform the university in order to bring order to the rectorate documents but only hesitantly or no insight into the document collections of the university corporations. This, in turn, was essentially due to the corporations' lack of interest in disclosing their financial circumstances. It was only as a result of the university reform of 1830 that the university archive found the interest of the state government in 1834, because it was found in a "deplorable condition". In principle, the Ministry of Culture and Public Education in Dresden was concerned with documents that provided information about the university's assets in order to subject them to the control of the state administration, and only pretended to be about the archive itself and its condition.

Richard Walter Franke , appointed university archivist in 1934 , had already begun in 1937 to take precautions to protect the university's holdings against aircraft attacks. At the beginning of the war, he suggested that the particularly valuable items should be moved to the bomb-proof basement rooms of the Augusteum . This in turn shows the foresight of this archivist . As a precaution, the oldest archives were moved to the surrounding area. Some stocks were stored in Mutzschen Castle . While the holdings in the Augusteum survived the attack unscathed, the institute buildings of the Theological Faculty and the Faculty of Law did not survive the bombing of December 4th to 5th, 1943 and burned out completely. Only part of the institute's archives could be saved. These were initially taken over by the Soviet occupation forces and returned to the Leipzig University Archives in 1958.

The university was not spared the repression of Stalinist rule, as the demolition of the Pauline Church alone shows. The coming to terms with the Stalinist terror, as well as student resistance to it, are also aspects of its own history to which the Leipzig University Archives feel committed. This is also expressed in relevant publications on Herbert Belter and the so-called Belter group, among others . The archive directors Gerald Wiemers (* 1941) and Jens Blecher also excelled in this regard .

As one of the first special purpose-built archive buildings between the university church and the Augusteum, Arwed Roßbach built the reinforced concrete structure for the warehouse building according to his plans in the course of the redesign of the building complex by Albert Geutebrück in the years 1893–1897 , with the entrance for the visitors and the church, the archive itself was in the upper part. The rectorate archive was housed in it, while the institute and faculty archives were housed separately. As a result of the demolition of the university church in 1968, it was demolished along with the entire university area, without the effects of the war making this appear necessary. Initially, the university archive was housed in the university library, which had suffered badly even during the war. A certain improvement in the spatial conditions could only be achieved in 1992 with the move to Oststrasse. But even these spatial conditions did not do justice to the size of the existing building in the long run, so that in 2010 another move to Prager Straße 4–6 was necessary.

Directors

Stocks

The holdings document the more than 600-year history of this university. Among them are faculty files, doctoral and personal files, minutes of the academic senate, court files that also recorded prison sentences for students. The complete inventory of the nations and colleges into which the old university was divided up until the university reform of 1830 has also survived. There are still bequests from professors and other university members who established the reputation of the University of Leipzig, including Wilhelm Wundt , Moritz Wilhelm Drobisch and Franz Erkes .

One of the most important holdings is the register , the edition of which began under Richard Georg Erler . The edition continues to this day.

It was part of the tradition of Leipzig University to portray the professors. This is followed by a project on the occasion of the 2009 anniversary.

An essential part of the archive work in the university archive is to make holdings accessible online through digital copies. This also includes newspapers such as the university newspaper and the scientific journal and photographs.

literature

  • Renate Drucker: The archive of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig . In: Archive messages 2/1957.
  • Gerhild Schwendler: From the work of the archive of the Karl Marx University Leipzig . In: Archive Communications 4/1982.
  • Gerald Wiemers: Archives of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Leipzig University Archives - two archives of scientific institutions in Saxony . In: General Directorate of the Bavarian State Archives (Hrsg.): The archives in Bavaria and Saxony. Bavarian-Saxon archivists meeting 3.-5. April 1992 in Bamberg. Lectures . Munich 1993.
  • Jens Blecher, Gerald Wiemers: The Leipzig University Archives - From the iron box to the data treasure chamber . In: History of the University of Leipzig . Volume 4, Leipzig 2009 ( PDF ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jens Blecher: Student Resistance and Political Opposition. Leipzig University Archives, accessed on May 5, 2017 .
  2. ↑ The Belter Dialogues. Leipzig University Archives, accessed on May 5, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Stefan Weltzk: Leipzig 1968. Our protest against the church blast and its aftermath , Leipzig 2011th
  4. ↑ The archive building. Leipzig University Archives, accessed on May 5, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Matriculation Edition | historical-critical source publication. Leipzig University Archives, accessed on May 5, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Professor portraits . Leipzig University Archives, accessed on May 5, 2017 .
  7. ↑ University newspaper of the KMU. Leipzig University Archives, accessed on May 5, 2017 .
  8. ^ Scientific journal of the Karl Marx University Leipzig. Leipzig University Archives, accessed on May 5, 2017 .