First initiatives for collecting and archiving
The ongoing history of the KIT-Archives begins with its establishment within the University of Karlsruhe in 1985. The history of the archive, however, begins even earlier and information can be of use when conducting research.
The first indication of a depository for collections of historical value before the Second World War points toward the University library, which, at that time, was located in the main building on the Kaiserstraße. [1] Assuming that this corresponds with the facts, there was certainly no regular archiving of administrative documents that took place at this time. The first step in this direction was taken in 1943, when the Rectorate transferred records that were no longer required to the Karlrsuhe General State Archives, where they were given the holding number 448. The legal nature of this archiving was noted in 1972 by an employee of the State Archive: “holding 448 is known as a depository of the University of Karlsruhe.” [2]
[1] KIT-Archives (KITA) 21001, 1250 (24.06.1953, Hermann Donandt to the Rector.
[2] General State Archives Karlsruhe (GLAK) 450, 2190 (15.12.1972), note.
Institutionalization
The Technical University of Karlsruhe discussed the establishment of its own archive in the mid-1950s. In a letter addressed to Rector Rudolf Scholder on 13 June 1955, Walther Peter Fuchs, the History Chair, said that he had "come across the strange fact that there is no university archive that collects university files, as is the case at other universities and colleges. Pointing out the needs of future "historians of the Fridericiana", Fuchs offered a remedy. The university senate subsequently declared its interest in building up an archive, and the rector asked Fuchs to draw up a concept.[3] The rector now recommended "leaving the university archive in its current location, the General State Archives, since, if the university itself were to administer the archive [...] there would be no guarantee of proper processing". At the same time, he reported on his commitment to the cataloguing of the still unlisted documents in the General State Archives.[4] This work was carried out in 1957 under Fuchs' supervision by the research assistant Wolfgang Ebert.[5] The Senate subsequently decided to continue the practice of submitting documents: "The documents worthy of preservation still stored at the university should also be examined and incorporated into the archives" [6] Shortly afterwards, Fuchs suggested that a volunteer "university archivist" be appointed. From time to time, this person should ask the university institutions to "hand in documents to the university archive" and answer enquiries. In cases of "larger file accesses, an assistant would be assigned to him". The storing of archival material in the General State Archives should be maintained.[7] At the end of November 1957, the Senate made Fuchs its "honorary university archivist".[8] In this capacity, Fuchs had further documents from the central university administration and the faculties submitted to the General State Archives in 1958 and recorded by Ebert.[9]
[3] KITA 21001, 1250 (15.07.1955 and 07.07.1956, Rector to Fuchs).
[4] Ibid. (26.07.1956, Fuchs to Rector).
[5] Ibid. (14.11.1957, Fuchs to Rector).
[6] KITA 21001, 598 (Minutes of the Senate meeting of 04.11.1957).
[7] KITA 21001, 1250 (14.11.1957, Fuchs to Rector).
[8] Ibid. (28.11.1957, Rector to Fuchs).
[9] See the finding aids completed in May 1958 for this submission. KITA, service registry, ref. 7511.1-10001.
Own safeguarding of archival materials
After Fuchs' move to the University of Erlangen in 1962, his successor Thomas Nipperdey was entrusted with the honorary office of university archivist in June 1964.[10] After Nipperdey's departure in 1967, the care of the "university archive" was again on the Senate's agenda in May 1968, when it set up a commission to deal with the issue.[11] Although nothing else is known about the work of this commission, it was probably responsible for making Joachim Hotz (*1934, +1983) [12], who had previously worked as an assistant at the university's Institute of Art History, to become the archivist on October 1, 1968.[13] On the occasion of an inquiry, Rector Heinz Draheim described the conditions of the archive at the beginning of 1970 with the words: "The University of Karlsruhe has a university archive; it is subordinate to the Rector and is staffed with a knowledgeable employee. It is to be housed in the main building of the university after completion of a reconstruction. The institutions of the university will hand over their files worthy of archiving to the university archive [...]" [14] In June 1970, Hotz took over the documents that are today under the holding number 27016 (David Müller). It is likely that photographs of university buildings taken by the photographer Ilse Laurson, née Schmidt, which are now in the General Photographic Collection under the holding number 28010, were also included in the historical records of the university during Hotz's tenure.[15]. A special inventory of the documents relating to the University of Karlsruhe in the General State Archives, which he completed in 1972, testifies to his interest in the history of university. For the 150th anniversary of the university in 1975, Hotz emerged as the author of “a short history of the university”. He also ran the chronicle of the university and organized the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1975. Hotz’s work for the university archive, however, ended before, in 1973.[16]
With the appointment of Hotz's successor Klaus-Dieter Neumaier on February 1, 1974, and the renaming of the University Archive as the Department of University History and Documentation, an idea of archival activity was cemented. The position was advertised as "a researcher [,] who will view, evaluate and archive the historically and scientifically significant holdings of the university and archive them in connection with the General State Archives." [17] In April 1974 Neumaier had a questionnaire sent to faculties, institutes and other departments with which he tried to get exact information about the existing old registries and “collection-worthy material". However, his activity ended after a few months on July 30, 1974.[18] The position left by Neumaier was filled by an administrator in 1978 with the title "Archive and Documentation Employee". It was no longer possible to acquire archival material. An ongoing task was the management of the university chronicle.[19] The administrator hired in 1978 ended her position, carried out from the office of the Rector, on March 31, 1984. Her position was then taken over and held until 1998 by Ms. Helga Freischmidt, whose responsibility was limited to 'documentation'.[20] The reason for this was the appointment on October 1st, 1985 of the Karlsruhe private lecturer Klaus-Peter Hoepke (* 1932, +2004) to the position of university archivist.[21]
[10] KITA 21001, 1250 (30.06.1964, Rector Schulz to Nipperdey; 16.07.1964, Nipperdey to Rector).
[11] KITA 21001, 596 (Minutes of the Senate session of 13.05.1968).
[12] Year of death according to telephone information from Bamberg city council.
[13] KITA 21011, 1010 (31.12.1973, certificate of the rector).
[14] KITA 21001, 1250 (29.01.1970, Rector to Prof. Hübinger/Bonn).
[15] In a conversation in 2003, Ms. Laursson told the author that she had handed in photographs of university buildings to the Rectorate at the end of her job as head of the Faculty of Architecture's central photo laboratory. Ms Laursson worked at the university until 1970.
[16] KITA 21011, 1010 (31.12.1973, certificate from the rector). The chronicle in KITA 21007, 45-70.
[17] KITA 21011, 1011 (05.10.1973, job advertisement in 'Zeit').
[18] KITA 21011, 1011. The results of the questionnaire were entered into the official registry of the KIT archive.
[19] Information on the beginning and contents of the activity after oral information by Mrs. Reiff on 09.10.2008.
[20] KITA 28014 Collection of Personnel and Course Directories.
[21] Biography of Hoepke by Günther Grünthal in: Klaus Peter-Hoepke, Geschichte der Fridericiana. Stationen in der Geschichte der Universität Karlsruhe (TH) von der Gründung 1825 bis zum Jahr 2000, 2007, p. 16-19.
Professionalization
With the exception of some documents taken over from the former Archive and Documentation Department, Hoepke built up the university archives from scratch. He took over material from university institutions, acquired relevant parts of the estates of professors and started collections. By organizing the archival materials according to the principle of provenance, he was guided by the most essential principle of archival organization. Finding aids were typewritten and partly created using a word processing program. An office and storeroom of the archive was initially located in the Institute of History in Building 2 of the Kollegium am Schloß (Schlossbezirk 12) and from 1995 in the east wing of the main building on the Kaiserstraße. Hoepke was active even after his retirement on 31.07.1997. During his term of office, the university archive is likely to have reached a size of about 200 meters of shelving. In organizational terms, it was initially attached to the Institute of History. For the academic year 1989/90, it appears in the university's personnel directories as a staff position in the Rector's Office, and from the academic year 1990/91 onwards as part of the central university administration and thus subordinate to the Chancellor. In 1999, the archive was integrated into the Press and Communications Department.[22]
After the official end of Hoepke's employment, Gerhard Neumeier was the first trained archivist to head the archive from May 1999 to the end of April 2001. His focus was primarily on the 175th anniversary of the university in 2000, but he also took over a number of holdings. In February 2002, the trained archivist Klaus Nippert took over the management of the archive. On October 1, 2005, the archive was separated from the Press and Communications Department and became a staff office of the Rector.
[22] Data according to KITA 21011, 652, as well as the service files of the KIT archive and the printed personnel directories of the Universität Karlsruhe (TH).
Development into the KIT Archives
With the merger of the University of Karlsruhe with the Karlsruhe Research Center to form the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on October 1, 2009, the university archive received the new name KIT Archives and took over the archiving of documents from the former research center, now the large-scale research branch of the KIT, as an additional task. This activity covered the documents of the Board of Directors created until 1993 and the files of major nuclear engineering projects (among others, the Fast Breeder Project) and has meanwhile been completed. The Karlsruhe General State Archives continue to keep these documents as a depository. On 27.06.2017 the KIT-Archives were recognized by the State Archives of Baden-Württemberg as professional archives in the sense of the State Archives Act. As a result, the documents of the Polytechnic School and the Technical University of Karlsruhe deposited in the 1950s and 1960s in the Karlsruhe General State Archives and kept there under the holding number 448, were returned to the KIT-Archives on July 5, 2018. In the organizational structure of the KIT, the KIT-Archives have been a department within the service unit General Services since January 1, 2017. The total volume of the holdings currently amounts to roughly 1,300 shelf meters.