Research
The world of archives is very diverse. The Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen is a state archive that basically takes over files from North Rhine-Westphalian state authorities. A large number of archives are municipal archives. These also take on official documents, but from municipal authorities in the respective local authority. There are also a number of other types of archives: church archives, business archives, archives of party-affiliated foundations, university archives, association archives, etc.
If you have a topic that you would like to research, consider the following before starting your research: Which documents could be relevant to my topic? Is it possible that the subject area has been reflected in the documents of public authorities? If so, which authorities were responsible? At what level is the authority located? Depending on whether it is a local, state or federal authority, you should contact the relevant archive as a first step.
The Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen provides several million items of indexing data online in order to make archive records accessible. Older indexes often use outdated, discriminatory or offensive terms that were accepted at the time but must be considered problematic today. The Landesarchiv refrains from modernization, but expressly distances itself from such formulations.
Researching archive material
An overview of the archival holdings of the Landesarchiv is provided by fonds overviews and finding aids. The entirety of the archive material is made up of fonds, which are usually formed according to origin (e.g. Court Council of the Archbishopric of Cologne, High Presidium of the Province of Westphalia, School Department of the Detmold District Government); accordingly, fonds overviews provide an overview of all the fonds of an archive. There is usually a finding aid for each fonds, which lists the files available for the so-called fonds creator, including the shelfmarks required for ordering (whereby in the archive portal “book” is only the traditional term for the related indexing units of a fonds).
The holdings overviews and finding aids of the Landesarchiv are integrated into the Archivportal NRW.
A search in archive holdings can differ significantly from Internet search engines or library catalogs. The titles of files are not standardized and are often interspersed with contemporary terminology and, of course, non-digitized handwritten texts cannot be searched using a full-text search. Initial searches are therefore often unsuccessful. In the research assistance section, we explain which search terms and strategies you can use to be successful and how you can avoid demotivating negative results.
Inventories
In the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen you will find the records of the three historical regions of Rhineland, Westphalia and Lippe. The records range from documents from the early Middle Ages to archival files and data from the recent past. The records in the Landesarchiv are state records, i.e. they generally originate from state authorities such as the North Rhine-Westphalian state administration and its historical predecessor institutions. It does not contain archival material from local authorities, churches, businesses, etc., most of which have their own archives.
Brief descriptions of the holdings can be found on the pages of the Rhineland, Westphalia or East Westphalia-Lippe departments. A detailed overview can be found in the publication “Das Gedächtnis des Landes NRW” or in the holdings overviews of the individual departments.
Responsibilities:
- East Westphalia-Lippe Department
State authorities in the area of the administrative districts of Detmold as well as duplicates of the civil status registers from the administrative districts of Arnsberg, Detmold and Münster.
owl[at]lav.nrw.de
- Rhineland Department
State authorities in the area of the administrative districts of Düsseldorf and Cologne as well as duplicates of the civil status registers from the area of these administrative districts. It also contains the records of the ministries and higher and supreme state authorities.
rheinland[at]lav.nrw.de
- Westphalia Department
State authorities in the administrative districts of Arnsberg and Münster. Records of the secular territories and secularized monasteries and convents of the former province of Westphalia until 1815.
westfalen[at]lav.nrw.de
Thematic inventories
Subject inventories compile archival records according to subject focus across holdings and archives. This distinguishes them from “normal” archival finding aids, which generally list archival records by holdings. They therefore allow convenient access to the relevant sources on a subject area.
The links below will take you to the inventories of the respective departments.
Would you like to make an inquiry? Below you will find the contact details of the respective department heads. If you are not sure which department or division is responsible, please contact the general mailbox poststelle[at]lav.nrw.de.
Please understand that it can take up to 4 weeks to respond to inquiries. The processing of reproduction orders usually takes 4 weeks. The processing time may be delayed if the workload is high.
East Westphalia-Lippe Department
Dr. Annette Hennigs annette.hennigs[at]lav.nrw.de
Rhineland Department
Dr. Matthias Meusch matthias.meusch[at]lav.nrw.de
Westphalia Department
Dr. Thomas Reich thomas.reich[at]lav.nrw.de
East Westphalia-Lippe Department
Julia Kathke julia.kathke[at]lav.nrw.de
Rhineland Department
Dr. Sabine Eibl sabine.eibl[at]lav.nrw.de
Westphalia Department
Dr. Valentin Kramer valentin.kramer[at]lav.nrw.de
Civil status archive Rhineland
Ulrich Bartels ulrich.bartels[at]lav.nrw.de
Civil status archive Westphalia-Lippe
Dr. Mathias Schafmeister mathias.schafmeister[at]lav.nrw.de
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