Gerlach Archive
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The Gerlach Archive is the family archive of the Prussian family von Gerlach, and it also serves as an intellectual history research center at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in Erlangen, Germany. It includes a sub-archive of the von Raumer family.
The archive primarily consists of the estate of Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach (1795–1877). It contains approximately 17,000 documents and has been located in Erlangen, Germany since 1954. Since the late 1970s, it has been housed at the university’s Institute of Political Science.
History
[edit]The Gerlach Archive, also known as the "Gerlach-Rohrbeck Family Archive" or the "Rohrbeck Archive," is the family archive of the Prussian family von Gerlach. Likely established in Berlin and at the family's original estate in Rohrbeck (now Rosnowo, formerly in eastern Brandenburg) in the early 19th century, the private archive was initially organized by Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach himself and later by his nephew Jakob. Over time, the archive was expanded with smaller collections and partial estates from his father, Carl Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach († 1813), the mayor of Berlin, and his brothers Wilhelm († 1834), Otto († 1849), and Leopold von Gerlach († 1861). After 1877, Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach's own extensive estate was added to the archive. In the following years and decades, the archive grew further through the addition of materials from later family members or other branches of the von Gerlach family.
Unlike comparable family archives from rural Prussia, the Gerlach Archive survived World War II intact, partly because the family relocated to Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, in the 1920s. However, a larger partial estate of Leopold von Gerlach, held in the Stettin State Archive, was lost in 1945.
In April 1954, Klaus von Gerlach transferred the archive to the University of Erlangen's Seminar for the History of Religion and Ideas, following the efforts of conservatism researcher Hans-Joachim Schoeps. This led to active research and publication activities related to the archive. The archive was further expanded by acquiring smaller collections of external provenance. Since the late 1970s, it has been part of the Political Science institute at the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) and was supplemented in 1980 by the Raumer Family Archive (Raumer Archive), a collection from the von Raumer family, who were related to the von Gerlachs and resided in Erlangen. From 2011 to 2015, the holdings of the Gerlach Archive were newly cataloged and classified under a third-party funded project by the German Research Foundation (DFG) led by Clemens Kauffmann. The Gerlach Archive has since been fully documented in the Kalliope database for autographs and estates.
Holdings
[edit]Overview
[edit]The Gerlach Archive mainly consists of the authentic and augmented estate of the judge, politician, and publicist Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach (1795–1877). Over time, it has also incorporated additional partial estates and estate fragments. The estate of Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach forms the core of the archive, which has been maintained as a family archive since its inception. However, boundaries within the overall collection have largely blurred over time, particularly between Ludwig's estate and those of his brothers Wilhelm, Leopold, and Otto. As a result, these later additions are no longer reconstructable in their original form as physical sub-collections.
The main contributors to the Gerlach Archive are:
- Carl Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach
- Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach (primary estate holder)
- Leopold von Gerlach (partial estate)
- Otto von Gerlach
- Wilhelm von Gerlach
- Johann Georg von Raumer
Additionally, there are two "extensions," estate fragments of Karl Witte and Franz von Lucadou (1783–1860), acquired through purchases and stored as separate collections.
Contents
[edit]The centerpiece is the so-called "Rohrbeck Archive" which contains the extensive correspondence of Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach (around 15,000 letters from nearly 9,000 correspondents), various official and political documents, and his diaries (1815–1877). It also includes significant portions of the estates of his older brother, General Leopold von Gerlach, and his father, the mayor of Berlin, Carl Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach. The latter includes correspondence and official documents.
Overall, the archive provides rich materials on the political history of Prussia, theology and church history (Neopietism), legal history, and – due to the Gerlach brothers' friendships with prominent scholars and artists of the Romantic period – the history of German science, art, and culture in the 19th century. Due to the political activities of the Gerlachs and their associates, the archive's holdings are particularly valuable for researching Prussian Old Conservatism.
Organization
[edit]Previous archivists divided the collection into 177 fascicles or volumes, primarily reflecting provenance or closed communication contexts (e.g., Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach's letters to his wife, Luise von Blankenburg, or Carl Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach's letters to his sons). Since the collection brings together materials from various sources, this structure is not entirely consistent and can be somewhat redundant. For example, letters from the same author may be found in different branches of the family and thus in different locations. Although these divisions likely reflect different historical phases of the collection's expansion, they have not yet been systematically studied. Detailed records of past processing steps are not available. However, the original structure has been largely preserved during recent cataloging and is still available to users as a physical part of the archive's history.
During the re-cataloging, the documents were also assigned to virtual, person-specific collections (organized by the original collection creators: "ER" for Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach, "FA" for Family Archive, "LE" for Leopold von Gerlach, "WI" for Wilhelm von Gerlach, "OT" for Otto von Gerlach, etc.), which together form an archival classification. This allows the archive to be searched both by person and by material type (correspondence, documents, etc.). The assignment of archival materials to specific person collections is reflected in the newly assigned signatures, e.g., "ER02117."
Re-cataloging
[edit]From 2011 to 2015, the entire collection was re-cataloged and digitized under the DFG-funded project "Cataloging and Digital Capture of the Gerlach Archive," following modern scientific standards. The project's goal was the first comprehensive cataloging of the archive, including all sub-archives, and the creation of an electronic inventory of the estate.
Over 3,300 catalog records were created during the project, covering more than 17,000 letters and documents by author, date, and location, and sometimes by physical condition and content. Since the completion of the cataloging project in the spring of 2015, the archive's holdings have been fully cataloged in the Kalliope online catalog for autographs and estates.
Access
[edit]The Gerlach Archive is accessible to the scholarly community for research purposes at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Erlangen, Germany. Usage of the archive is free of charge. Copies and electronic reproductions can be made upon request and are subject to a fee.
Literature
[edit]- Hellmut Diwald (Hrsg.): Von der Revolution zum Norddeutschen Bund. Politik und Ideengut der preußischen Hochkonservativen 1848 - 1866, zwei Bände. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970.
- Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach: Aufzeichnungen aus seinem Leben und Wirken 1795–1877. Herausgegeben von Jakob von Gerlach, zwei Bände. Bahn, Schwerin, 1903. (Band 1: 1795–1848, Band 2: 1848–1877)
- Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach: Gottesgnadentum und Freiheit. Ausgewählte politische Schriften aus den Jahren 1863 bis 1866. Herausgegeben und mit einem Nachwort versehen von Hans-Christof Kraus. Karolinger, Wien u. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-85418-141-5.
- Jürgen von Gerlach: Von Gerlach: Lebensbilder einer Familie in sechs Jahrhunderten. Insingen, Degener, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7686-5209-4.
- Hans-Christof Kraus: Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach. politisches Denken und Handeln eines preussischen Altkonservativen (= Schriftenreihe der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Bd. 53, 1–2). Zwei Bände. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1994, ISBN 3-525-36046-0 (Zugleich: Göttingen, Universität, Dissertation, 1992).
- Hans-Joachim Schoeps (Hrsg.): Aus den Jahren preußischer Not und Erneuerung. Tagebücher und Briefe der Gebrüder Gerlach und ihres Kreises 1805–1820. Berlin: Haude & Spenersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1966.