Bundesarchiv

The Federal Archives have been mandated to safeguard the archives of the federation permanently and to ensure they are accessible and can be used for scientific purposes. The following are archived: written records (approx. 300 kilometres of shelving to date) images, sound recordings and films created by central organs of the Holy Roman Empire (1495-1806), the German Confederation (1815-1866), the German Empire (1867/71-1945 ), the occupation zones (1945-1949), the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) and the Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949). In addition, the Federal Archives also preserve the estates of important persons, and documents from political parties, organisations and associations of national importance. Lately, they have also started to perform the tasks of a central German film archive.

Competences and priorities in the area of long-term preservation

In the area of long-term preservation, the Federal Archives can look back on many years of experience in the archiving of electronic documents. In the 1990s the acquisition of "machine-readable data" from official German Democratic Republic bodies made it necessary to explore in detail the long-term preservation and utilisation of such data. In 2006 the Federal Archives began to set up a digital archive. The current focus is on the introduction of a federal intermediate digital archive (long-term storage for legacy data of the federal administration) and the establishment of a digital secret archive.

Key areas of the Federal Archives include pre-archiving advisory services and the assessment and acquisition of electronic documents. Documents can currently be transferred from workflow management systems (e-files), and data from filing systems and databases. The preservation planning and monitoring of all processes in the digital archive and the maintenance of relevant information are carried out using a dedicated tool of the Federal Archives for this task.

Contact

Dr. Sebastian Gleixner
Bundesarchiv
Leiter des Referats AT 3 (Digitales Magazin, Digitales Zwischenarchiv)
Potsdamerstr. 1
56075 Koblenz
E-Mail: s.gleixner@bundesarchiv.de

Dr. Sina Westphal
Bundesarchiv
Projektleiterin BASYS 2 (B+E)
Referat AT 2
Potsdamer Str. 1
56075 Koblenz
E-Mail: s.westphal@bundesarchiv.de