Archive ‘German Memory’ – Research Data Centre of the Institute for History and Biography (ADG – FDZ des IGB)
The Archiv „Deutsches Gedächtnis (“German Memory”' archive) is the research data centre of the Institute for History and Biography at the FernUniversität in Hagen. It archives oral history interviews and narrative interviews from other disciplines. The interviews originate from projects that have been conducted at the Institute for History and Biography since the early 1980s, as well as from third-party research.
- Thematic Focus: Other
- Data type focus: Qualitative
- External Data Ingest: Yes
- Network affiliation: QualidataNet
- RDM Consultation: No
Data Offer
The Archiv “Deutsches Gedächtnis” (“German Memory” archive) currently (end of 2025) offers over 4,000 narrative interviews, mostly life stories, from around 150 projects. The earliest interviews were conducted in the 1970s, and the interviewees were born between the end of the 19th and the end of the 20th century.
According to the profile of the Institute for History and Biography, many collections are characterized by an experience-based perspective on contemporary history and a biographical research approach. In addition to oral history interviews, other disciplines are also represented with interviews, such as sociology, educational sciences, European ethnology, political science and psychology.
The collections represent a broad thematic spectrum. Some of the main areas of focus are National Socialism and the Second World War, as well as German-German history before and after reunification. Among the larger collections are the projects ”Lebensgeschichte und Sozialkultur im Ruhrgebiet 1930-1960” (Life History and Social Culture in the Ruhr Region 1930-1960, or LUSIR for short) and “Die Volkseigene Erfahrung” (The People’s Own Experience).
Due to the openness of the interviews and their biographical dimension, they offer great potential for secondary analysis beyond the topic of primary research and across disciplinary boundaries.
Services
Archiv “Deutsches Gedächtnis” (“German Memory” archive)
- advises on finding suitable interview collections.
- advises on the archiving of audiovisual interviews,
- assists with applications regarding the sustainable use of the interviews collected,
- supports ongoing projects with data processing using automatic transcription and a web-based working environment for indexing,
- takes over collections of interviews from previous projects.
Data Access Mode
Many collections from the Archiv “Deutsches Gedächtnis” (“German Memory” archive) are available online: https://deutsches-gedaechtnis.fernuni-hagen.de/en. Preliminary research is possible without registration. Access to audio or video files and transcripts requires registration on the oral-history.digital platform (https://portal.oral-history.digital/en) and an application for access to the Archiv “Deutsches Gedächtnis” (“German Memory” archive). Access is granted after individual review. Collections that are not yet available online can be used on site by appointment.
Due to the sensitive, non-anonymised data, access to the interviews, both online and in person, is restricted to research and teaching purposes and requires acceptance of the terms of use (https://deutsches-gedaechtnis.fernuni-hagen.de/en/conditions).
Contact
FernUniversität in Hagen
Institut für Geschichte und Biographie
Archiv „Deutsches Gedächtnis“
Universitätsstr. 47
58097 Hagen