Education
Every three years, the City Archive trains a specialist in the field of archives. At least a secondary school leaving certificate is required for the intermediate archive service - all further information can be found at https://karriere.bonn.de (opens in a new tab).
The job profiles in the archive
Instructions for use
Archive visit
You can generally visit the city archive during our opening hours without making an appointment (for deviations, see "News") (opens in a new tab). On your first visit, you will receive a personal user account after completing the user application form, which you can use to order archive materials for inspection as part of the electronic reading room search.
The ordered archive materials will be presented in our reading room. Staff members are always available as contact persons during your visit. They will provide the requested documents, instruct you on how to use the archive and library databases as well as other finding aids for independent research and advise you on your request.
Depending on the topic and source situation, it is advisable to send us a written inquiry before visiting the archive in person and/or to make use of a personal consultation on site. For a detailed consultation, please make an appointment at stadtarchivbonnde
In this way, we can provide information in advance about the holdings of the City Archives relevant to your topic and, if applicable, other archives and institutions. This saves unnecessary travel, costs and waiting times, especially if you have to travel a long distance.
Lending and magazine orders
A loan period of four weeks applies for borrowing media from the holdings of the City History Library. An extension is possible by telephone, e-mail or in person (telephone 0228 772410, lesesaal.stadtarchivbonnde. Media published before 1945 can only be borrowed in justified exceptions, but can be viewed in the reading room at any time during opening hours.
We carry outwithdrawals from the stacks every hour from 10.15 am. The last time items are withdrawn is
- Tuesdays and Wednesdays 3.15 p.m.
- Thursdays 4.30 p.m.
You canplace advance orders for archive and library materials in the reading room directly to lesesaal.stadtarchivbonnde, stating the desired titles and shelfmarks.
Digitization
Do you need a digitized copy of one or more objects from the holdings of the City Archive and the City History Library? Our digitization workshop will be happy to accept your digitization requests. Please use only our online digitization request (opens in a new tab) form for all digitization requests (signature required!).
Please note: Binding digitization orders incur costs in accordance with the City of Bonn's scale of fees. In addition to digitization fees, there are additional fees for usage rights for image orders. You can find all information on this under "Fees".
Your order can only be processed if all the necessary information has been clearly provided in the online form and no legal, conservation or technical reasons preclude processing. The digital copies are provided via the municipal cloud (as a download link by e-mail).
After consultation with the service staff of the city archive, it is also possible to produce digitized copies of archive and library materials yourself free of charge (by taking photographs or using an existing book scanner in the reading room of the city archive).
If you have general questions about the digitization of archive records (e.g. information on costs and fees), please contact our digitization workshop: digitalisierung.stadtarchivbonnde
If you have any questions about researching archive records and signatures, please contact: stadtarchivbonnde
Digitization has become a central task of the City Archive and the Bonn City History Library and, in addition to the digitization of archive material, also includes the creation of digital metadata (indexing data) for archive material through to the online publication of digital representations in archive portals. The development and expansion of digital user services is therefore a high priority and has been pursued in a targeted manner for several years as part of larger digitization projects and individual measures.
Fees
- Written information costs 11 euros per quarter of an hour or part thereof.
(No fee is charged for scientific work and for historical-political educational work). - Simple provision fee per digital copy of an image/object without rights of use/publication (the necessary rights/permissions for the use/publication of the images/objects must be obtained by the customers themselves from the rights holders):
for non-commercial use 3.00 Euro for commercial use and a circulation of up to 5,000 copies 15.00 Euro for commercial use and a circulation of more than 5,000 copies 30.00 Euro
- Increased provision fee per digital copy of an image/object with one-time usage/publication rights (The fee applies exclusively to images/objects for which the City Archive holds the necessary rights):
for non-commercial use 8.00 Euro for commercial use and a print run of up to 5,000 copies 40.00 euros for commercial use and a print run of more than 5,000 copies 80.00 Euro
Photocopies and certifications
| Self-made copy (book scanner and reader-printer) | 0,20 Euro |
| The use of a USB stick on the book scanner is free of charge | |
| Making a copy by employees (per page) | 1.00 Euro |
| Notarizations per page | 3,00 Euro |
Guided tours
During guided tours of the city archive, registered groups not only have the opportunity to visit the publicly accessible area, but can also take a look behind the scenes. An overview of the holdings stored in the city archive and an insight into the work and research possibilities are also included.
To arrange an appointment, please contact
Historical diary
Opening hours and contact
The City Archive and the City History Library are open Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 am to 4 pm and Thursday from 10 am to 6 pm.
The rules and conditions for a visit can be found here.
Telephone 0228 772410
Personal and family research
Internship
Are you interested in working in the archive, the library or the subject of documentation? The city archive offers internships to get to know the work better.
If you have any questions about the internship, please write to stadtarchivbonnde
Please use this page (opens in a new tab) to apply for an internship.
Internships in the archive last at least four weeks.
In the library, the internship lasts at least two weeks. We offer
- Student internship
- Internship as part of training to become an archive/library specialist
- Internship for professional orientation
- Internship as a prerequisite for admission to a degree course in information sciences
Are you interested in documentation? Then why not get a taste of these departments for four weeks - part-time is also possible. The offer is primarily aimed at students of the humanities and cultural sciences such as visual studies, history, geography, art history, museology, politics, sociology as well as law, archives and information sciences.
Pupils in the archive
What is an archive? What are the tasks of an archivist? And how do I work in the archive as a visitor? These and other questions will be answered on a guided tour of the Bonn City Archives for schoolchildren.
In addition to an insight into the history and daily work of the archive, the young people will have the opportunity to get to know the holdings, view original sources such as a medieval document from 1256, read the minutes of the council from 1689 or the Bonn daily newspaper from 1848.
It is also planned for the pupils to take a look behind the scenes and visit the non-public area of the stacks.
An introduction to the archive's holdings and working methods will help pupils to conduct their own research. The resources of the City History Library (encyclopedias, standard works on Bonn's city history, newspaper clippings collection, etc.) are presented, literature research procedures, the use of the subject catalog are explained and the use of finding aids and databases is taught.
- Contact
Contact
The city archive as a partner for school projects:
Street name information
The street network is a central reference point for many areas. Street names are an interesting aspect of this, especially their origin and the history of their naming. The database "Street names in Bonn" contains all currently valid street names with their naming history as well as former or historical street names.
Further information and search options for individual streets can be found on the pages of the city map.
Newspaper archive/digitized newspapers
The Stadthistorische Bibliothek Bonn is providing master films and original newspaper volumes for the project funded by the state of NRW to digitize local newspapers from NRW in the period 1801-1945. The following newspapers, which can be found here in the original and/or as microfilm, are available digitized and can be accessed via the NRW newspaper portal:
- Annalen. 1787
- Contributions to the spread of useful knowledge. 1784 - 1785
- Bonn Chronicle. 1890 - 1891
- Bonn Decade Writing. 1794 - 1795
- Bonn newspaper. Bonn. Thormann. 1824 - 1830
- Bonn newspaper. Associated with the Bonner Wochenblatt. 1850 - 1891
- Bonn newspaper. Ed. Gottfried Kinkel. 1848 - 1850
- New Bonn Newspaper. Later Bonn newspaper. 1892 - 1933
- Gnädigst privilegirtes Bönnisches Intelligenz-Blatt. 1772 - 1796
- Rheinische allgemeine Zeitung. 1869 - 1870
- Godesberger Volkszeitung. 1913 - 1941
Why digitize?
Historical newspapers have a high cultural and historical value as important sources of regional and local history. However, they are often difficult to access and are at great risk of decay due to the poor quality of the paper. On the initiative of the Bonn University and State Library, the concept for a state programme to digitize historical newspapers was therefore launched in close cooperation with the LVR-AFZ. The long-term goal is the digitization and free online publication of the entire spectrum of historical newspapers from archives and libraries in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The tried and tested procedure is based on a pilot project of the German Research Foundation. Now the infrastructure for cooperative digitization, processing and presentation is to be established. The project partners involved include the University and State Library of Münster, which is responsible for Westphalia, and the University Library Center.
The digitization of the Godesberger Volkszeitung
"Digitization is an incredible enrichment for our work," says Dr Yvonne Leiverkus, Deputy Director of the Bonn City Archive and City History Library. By reproducing the historical newspaper, school classes and researchers have better access to the data. Digitization will also ensure long-term archiving.
For the first project phase of the multi-year funding program, the Godesberger Volkszeitung was selected, among others, and microfilms from the years 1913 to 1941 were initially digitized.
One microfilm contains around 30 GB of data. The scanning process takes up to 20 minutes, after which post-processing takes place. Each microfilm takes around an hour to process. Annika Fiestelmann has already digitized over one million pages at the LVR-AFZ during the project. This includes material from the city archives of Hilden, Mettmann and Mönchengladbach.
The LVR-AFZ, which looks after around 580 archives in the Rhineland, is responsible for digitizing historical newspapers from Rhineland cultural institutions. The scanning work is carried out in the reprographics department of the LVR-AFZ in Brauweiler using state-of-the-art scanning technology.
- Contact
- opening hours
- Location
Contact
opening hours
Tuesday and Wednesday 10 am to 4 pm
Thursday 10 to 18 o'clock
Location
Information Stadtarchiv
Stadthaus
Berliner Platz 2
53111 Bonn