Archives in East Germany

Abstract

I N MAY of 1956 I determined that in order to find the materials necessary to finish a historical project in the field of 18th-century Prussian administrative history, I should have to go to East Germany.Through correspondence with a number of municipal officials I was able to obtain the names of certain archives that might contain the documents I needed, and subsequent correspondence with these archives confirmed the existence of some of the needed documents.As the contents of two archives, those in Potsdam and Magdeburg, were especially important for my work, I wrote the Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Otto Grotewohl, towards the middle of the summer, and was gratified to receive shortly thereafter a letter from his secretary, Herr Tzschorn, telling me that the Prime Minister saw no objection to my admittance to the country and that he had forwarded my letter to the State Secretariat for Universities {Staatssekretariat filr Hochschulwesen), which would inform me of the formalities involved.The Secretariat responded almost at once, suggesting that I enter the eastern zone through Berlin, where I was to pick up my visa.Reenforced by a letter from the chancellor of the University of Kansas, stating my official position in the university, I arrived in Berlin by plane in the middle of September, immediately entered the Russian sector of the city, and went to the offices of the State Secretariat for Universities, where I was most cordially received, and where I was given certification for the visa.In Potsdam I had the opportunity of discussing various aspects of archival organization and administration with members of the State Archives Administration {Staatliche Archiwerwaltung)-1 Some points brought out in these discussions will be of interest to American archivists and historians.Archival activity in East Germany in the period 1945-49 was largely concerned with finding, rebuilding, or extending structures to replace the archives buildings that had been destroyed in World

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