Freiburg‘s Memory

Last Saturday, on the Germany-wide Day of Archives, which was themed around Food and Drink, the Freiburg City Archive offered guided tours of its new premises.

 
After moving to Freiburg, Red Baron enthusiastically visited the Freiburg City Archive. I spent many hours in the reading room of the historic Haus zum Herzog* studying publications on Freiburg's history.
*In the past, for easier identification, houses carried names: House to the Duke

The city archive's archival collection consists of documents on Freiburg's history and the city's and city administration's files.

The archive was bursting at the seams at its "old "central location on Salzstraße. The historical treasures kept in various rooms in the surrounding area were not always stored under ideal conditions.

The city archive is on the ground floor and in the basement

At the end of last year, the archive moved to its new premises far from the city center in a building on Freiburg's exhibition grounds.

 
After a long walk from the final streetcar stop on Madisonallee, I reached the building, where a large crowd had already gathered for the 2 p.m. tour.

Red Baron was lucky to be guided by the director of the city archive himself, Dr. Andreas Jobst.

In the new premises, the archive material is now kept in air-conditioned rooms in roller cabinets. The parchment or paper documents are stored in flame-retardant, acid-free cardboard boxes.

Nowadays, more and more archive material is delivered in digital form and stored in databases. Copying ensures that the archive material can still be read by future generations.

Visitors crowded the Lesesaal (reading room) ...

.. with the Handbibliothek (reference library) on new shelves.

The Stadtarchiv keeps historical films and, on occasion, shows them.

February 1933, Fasnet (carnival) parade on Bertoldstraße.
Note the snow on the roofs.

In the spring of 1933, Germany wake up!

Soon, the brown SA hordes marched on Bertoldstraße.

The Arbeitsdienst (labor service) ended unemployment, and men marched with shouldered spades.
Labor service is the will for peace, the greatest expression of the German people.
Six years later, these men will shoulder their rifles.

Baden's Gauleiter (Governor) Robert Wagner (left) meets
Freiburg's Oberbürgermeister (Lord Mayor) Franz Kerber

In front of Freiburg's town hall:
A welcome with children and flowers is always a crowd-pleaser

The new Stadtarchiv keeps Freiburg's Memory safe. It is a double milestone in quality, and it is far away from the city center. May there be many visitors, not only online.

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