Herder Institute

Founded in April, 1950, the Herder Institute has since then been one of the core institutions for historical research on East Central Europe in Germany. As an institute of the Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz it is jointly funded by the German federation and its sixteen states. According to its statutes, the Herder Institute supports "with its collections and as a forum for academic discussion the research on the countries and peoples of East Central Europe in their European context, with special regard to the history of the historical German territories and areas of settlement in East Central Europe. In order to fulfill these tasks, the institute conducts its own research." The core subject of its work is the area of the present-day states of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The institute´s work is based on its collections; these comprise a library of approximately 340,000 volumes dealing with the history and culture of East Central Europe (about 140,000 volumes are now retrievable on the internet), a Collection of Picture Materials preserving all kinds of visual material, especially on the topography, art and cultural history of East Central Europe (at present about 500,000 units), a Collection of Maps consisting of about 30,000 map sheets, 1,200 old maps and 6,300 vertical aerial photographs taken between 1942 and 1945, a Collection of Documents containing family archives, testamentary estates as well as single and microfilmed records from the archives of Riga, Reval/Tallinn and Dorpat/Tartu, and finally the Press Archive, which preserves daily and weekly newspapers from East Central Europe from 1945 onward, including a collection of newspaper clippings systematically filed by subjects.

With the material available in its collections the institute´s research staff members provide "research services" in various fields, such as basic research, academic forum, information and enquiry services.

The Herder Institute is supported by the "Herder-Institute Association", which at present consists of twelve corporate members. Its current affairs are managed by a board of directors. Nine trustees control the institute´s legal, functional and economical obligations. In academic and technical questions, both the board and the trustees are supported by an academic council.

Herder Institute
Gisonenweg 5-7
35037 Marburg
Tel: +49 (0)6421 / 184 - 0
Fax: +49 (0)421 / 184 - 139
E-Mail: herder@mailer.uni-marburg.de

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Further Information: www.uni-marburg.de/herder-institut